Posted on 09/24/2025 4:35:22 PM PDT by marcusmaximus
President Trump’s dramatic pronouncement Tuesday that Russia is a “paper tiger” is based on new US intelligence that shows the Kremlin is spiraling toward economic ruin and battlefield defeat as a result of its invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Trump’s insistence in the same statement that Ukraine can regain all the land currently occupied by Russia is the president’s latest “strategic move” to try and bring Russia to the negotiating table, sources inside and outside the White House told The Post Wednesday.
-snip-
“The president is making it very clear that Russia is in a very weak position,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News’ Jessie Watters Tuesday night.
“And he’s absolutely right. They are a massive country with a massive military. They are a war economy. But it’s been three-and-a-half years and look at how Ukraine has been able to defend itself,” she added.
“If the Russians refuse to negotiate in good faith, I think it’s going to be very, very bad for their country,” Vice President JD Vance agreed Wednesday.
“That’s what the President made clear. It’s not a shift in position. It’s an acknowledgement of the reality on the ground.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Only a few days left in the FReepathon to meet the quarterly goal. C’mon. Surely you can spare a few bucks to help this site?
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4342185/posts
Send in NATO to attack the Russian flank while they are tied up in Ukraine, send them reeling back to Moscow!
Lol, I just said that to upset certain people.
I have no idea how weak the Russian position may be. It’s good in theory, especially if Europe would stop using Russian oil.
I think Trump is mainly signaling Russia that if they want to keep fighting, NATO will oblige them.
We tried to give Ukraine new armored forces, which a retired tank commander told me could have turned the tide. It didn’t.
Some here said it can’t work without air supremacy.
Maybe Ukrainian drones can supply the air cover. No idea.
What’s the news from Ukraine, Marcus? We don’t hear much from that front anymore.
PS… Don’t forget the FREEPATHON!!
Vietnam
If Trump’s assessment of the economic malaise of the Russian Federation is reasonably correct, then that entity is poised on an economic collapse rivalling that of the former Soviet Union. Ukraine may then simply walk back in and reclaim all the lands the Russian Federation has carved out from them since the seizure of Donbas and the Crimea.
The Russians might not be Communist any more, but they are still Russians.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4342356/posts
“Hey, marcus, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.”
For a couple years it has been posted confidently here that all Rusdia has to do when it decides to get serious in Ukraine is to call up, equip, and pay a million more soldiers and then it will be different. It might indeed if Russia had the means to do so effectively, but do they? Now? Is Putin still so loved over there and given such confidence of the people? Or is he sailing close to the wind where somebody will risk death to kill him from within? I’m not so certain his replacement would be worse anymore either.
They were pretty strong in WWI.
Putin's army showed weaknesses earlier in this war before Tsar Nicholas II's in WWI.
Is your goal to gain contributions for Free Republic, or are you trying to shame members to leave FR?
Not all contributors publish their names.
I notice that you have a contribution listed for the first time ever.
In 28 years, I’ve never seen FR pressure individuals or viewpoints, or use contributions in argument threads as a tactic against members.
I think you want to drive people off. A new low.
Are you also encouraging pro Putin posters to contribute? Haven’t seen it.
I think you should knock it off.
There are about 600 contributors now, and far less that are listed publicly.
Is it your aim to limit FR to a place where only 600 people participate? 600 pro Russians?
Potrovsk not looking good for Russians, oil fields on fire, FSB and officers had a terrible dinner party, more Soviet non replaceable aircraft ended, oh and 2% rise in VAT to 22%
According to pitin all is going according to plan
Russians were never communists or socialist, simply a dictatorship with a different name, much like NK having democratic in its name😂
Trump just said bye. He knows the reality.
The usuals changing the subject
Interesting note the list of donors don’t match the numbers, some names are missing🤔
And yet Russia lost ww1, believe economics and politics played a large part, similar to Germany
As has been said history does not repeat but it does rhyme
A nation of 135 million can pay an army of 700,000 men.
Drone wars are cheap. Instead of $100 million airplanes, ~$3,000 to $80,000 drones are being used.
The Russians don’t need to buy expensive tanks, ships or airplanes.
Doing without is the normal way of life for most Russians, and about half of Americans.
Russians don’t live waiting on an Amazon shipment or by stuffing an SUV at Costco on the weekends.
The Russian with bread and meat to eat is a happy Russian.
A Russian that can afford to heat his little apartment above 55 degrees with the natural gas Europeans refuse to buy is a very happy Russian.
Russian forces are moving forward, not at the pace Putin would like, but they are moving in the direction Putin wants.
What a fascinating comment. Asking for donations is shaming members to leave? The doublethink therein is quite impressive. It was to you earlier today that I posted George Orwell's text. I post it again.
"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink."If a very active Freeper is asked whether or not he/she supports President Trump, there would be no question that an open and above-board response would be "yes." Not, "how dare you!"
The analogy holds. Asking a very active Freeper whether or not he/she supports the Robinsons and their site, there should be no question that an open and above-board response would be "yes." Not, "how dare you!"
I have had two Freepers over this last year who have fessed up to being "free riders" with no intention to support Free Republic. They are, in my view, brazen jackasses. But without a question, above-board in their response.
The problem is real and well-known. See: The Free Rider Problem Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Perhaps it is time to reconsider your umbrage, and what it serves?
There are a few pro-Putin types and many, many pro-Zelensky types on these forums, as well as many who don't care for either. There are Catholics, Protestants and Jews, and probably a few atheists. There are pro-Israel and those ambivalent about Israel on these pages. Want a say? Sponsor your part in a privately-operated forum in anyway you can. Seems a no-brainer.
Moar BS from Billyiams.
I've been here longer than you, and I recognize trolls and disruptors when I see them. I personally fought Eschoir and billypaul both. ash was a pushover.
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