Free Republic

After three and a half years, President Vladimir Putin is having to lean more and more on ordinary Russians to pay for his war in Ukraine. The Russian Finance Ministry on Wednesday said it intends to raise value added tax by two percentage points to 22 percent, part of a three-year plan that aims to plug a rapidly expanding hole in public finances. VAT accounted for more than 15 percent of total government revenue last year. After raising personal income taxes sharply at the start of the year, Putin had pledged there would be no more big changes to the...

Zelenskiy signs law allowing Ukraine debt payment suspension. I have been warned that our computer does NOT show that Ukraine will survive. You should NOT send anything to Ukraine, and you certainly should NOT invest in any nonsense to rebuild Ukraine. The nation with the MOST corrupt politicians, all with hidden offshore accounts, has always been Ukraine. As I have said, we had two employees in Ukraine – one in Kiev and the other in Donestk; the latter translated the move of the Forecaster into Russia so it could be shown in Russia. The two would never even talk to...

Ukrainian drones attacked the only large oil refinery on Russia's Black Sea coast on Friday morning, authorities said. The attack on the Rosneft-owned refinery in the southern Russian town of Tuapse was reported by local authorities, who said a fire had broken out at the facility and that emergency services were working to extinguish the blaze. -snip- The Russian Black Sea naval port of Novorossiysk and Crimea's Sevastopol were also targeted a the massive aerial assault, which Russia's defense ministry said involved at least 100 drones.