Free Republic

Synopsis: A panel of Russian commentators discusses the failure of democracy and representative government in Russia. The discussion immediately descends into angry invective and personal attacks. One member of the panel storms off. Quote of the Day is from the host Vladimir Solovyov: "German Nazism is the highest level of development in this line of German society"

The film features an artificial intelligence depiction of the Russian President in a series of compromising positions, like an affair in his office or the floor of a hospital after soiling his diaper. Russian spies tried to curtail the making of a wild movie that shows an artificial-intelligence created Vladimir Putin in diapers, its director has claimed. 'Putin' serves as an alternative biopic about the Kremlin leader by Polish box office director Patryck Vega, who now goes by the artistic name Besaleel. -snip- Ahead of being shown at Cannes, the depiction is reportedly attracting a great deal of attention from...

Vladimir Putin faces yet another military farce after Russian bomber planes mistakenly dropped four bombs on a Russian village near the Ukrainian border - and it is far from the first time this has happened. Vladimir Putin's military force dropped four glide bombs intended for attacks on Ukraine's Kharkiv region on the Russian village of Shebekino instead last week. Shebekino is a village in the border region of Belgorod region, which has often borne the burnt of Ukrainian drone strikes. The Belgorod region houses several Russian military bases and training grounds. It has recently been rocked by near-daily explosions as...

Russia is intensifying its efforts to seize Chasiv Yar, a crucial stronghold in eastern Ukraine, as exhausted and under-equipped Ukrainian brigades struggle to hold the line while waiting for US military aid. -snip- Chasiv Yar is seen as a key prize for Moscow, with senior Ukrainian commanders claiming the Russian general staff has ordered its forces to seize it by May 9 when Russia celebrates the end of the second world war. -snip- It took the Russian military nearly a year to advance six kilometres from the ravaged city of Bakhmut to the edge of Chasiv Yar.

Russia has no warships deployed in the Black Sea at present, Ukraine's Navy said on Wednesday, shortly after Moscow said Kyiv had attacked annexed Crimea with U.S.-supplied missiles—using Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS. Ukraine's military didn't detect Russian warships in the Black and Azov Seas on Wednesday morning. "In the Black and Azov Seas [the] enemy ships are missing," the press service of the Ukrainian Navy said. Kyiv has targeted Russia's Black Sea Fleet throughout President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of the country, which began in February 2022. Ukraine has vowed to reverse the Russian leader's 2014 annexation of...

"Military pay, ammunition, tanks, planes, and compensation for dead and wounded soldiers, all contribute to the GDP figures. Put simply, the war against Ukraine is now the main driver of Russia's economic growth" Foucart said... Other areas of Russia's economy are hurting as the war drags on. Moscow is slammed with a severe labor shortage, thanks to young professionals fleeing the country or being pulled into the conflict. The nation is now short around 5 million workers, according to one estimate, which is causing wages to soar. Inflation is high at 7.4% — nearly double the 4% target of its...

Locals handing out poison cakes... There's nothing Ukrainians behind enemy lines won't do to defeat their Russian occupiers Under the cover of darkness, however, Ukrainians sabotage infrastructure including railways, communications and factories, and some will kill the enemy if the opportunity arises. The direct action of those doughty fighters, armed with a secretly amassed arsenal of guns, car bombs and other explosives, has seen hundreds of Russians soldiers and collaborators shot or blown up. I have learned that women are also playing a key role in the resistance, including acting as honeytraps to lure Russian soldiers to their deaths. READ...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced that the main event in the relationship between Russia and China in 2024 will be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to China. The announcement came at a meeting of the Council of Heads of Subjects of the Russian Federation under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Lavrov emphasised that the visit coincides with the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as reported on the ministry’s official website, TV BRICS reported. “The main event of bilateral relations this year will be the state visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the...

VLADIMIR Putin has been forced to cancel Russia's triumphant annual Victory Day parades over fears of Ukrainian kamikaze drone attacks. The trembling tyrant, 71, has axed most of the May 9 celebrations - the most sacred day in the Russian calendar - because he couldn't guarantee the safety of his citizens. The patriotic military parades are held throughout Russia as a means of celebrating the country defeating Nazi Germany in World War 2. These events are usually used by Putin to showcase the might of the Russian military machine. and garner national pride - led by a giant parade in...

Vladimir Putin has had to cancel multiple Victory Day parades over ‘security risks’. -snip- Celebrated every year on May 9, the Victory Parade will take place online in some regions, Elena Tsunaeva, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Labour, Social Policy and Veterans’ Affairs, announced. Portraits of veterans will be placed on public transport instead of the procession. Heads of multiple Russian regions and occupied Crimea, for example, announced that events will be scaled back or not happening at all, despite it being the most solemn day in the Russian calendar. Victory parades and fireworks have...

Congress is facing the most significant and transformational opportunity to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) since the end of World War II. The heritage equipment that the United States has provided to Ukraine for its self-defense in the face of the brazen and illegal invasion by Russian forces in 2022 needs to be replenished to ensure the United States is postured to continue to deter its adversaries. The new hardware will be produced at factories across the nation. Of the $113 billion appropriated by Congress to date related to the conflict in Ukraine, as much as $68 billion...

A BRITISH traitor who fled the UK to fight for Vladimir Putin in Ukraine claims he has been given Russian citizenship. Aiden Minnis, 37, who "hates" the UK and was disowned by his family, boasted about his new Russian passport in a sickening video. Putin's Kremlin cronies rushed through his citizenship, grasping at the opportunity to have a western toy in their propaganda machine. A state TV outlet then splashed the video of the spineless former drug addict boasting about his citizenship and joining the frontline. Minnis, from Wiltshire, brandished his new passport around and bragged in the pathetic video...

Today, We Received a Decision – the U.S. Assistance, Which Will Be Felt by Both the Warriors on the Frontline, and the Cities and Villages Suffering from Russian Terror – Address by the President 20 April 2024 - 21:30 Dear Ukrainians! From early morning today, various regions of our country have been experiencing air alerts and Russian strikes. From the east to the south... Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk regions, Kherson and the region, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. Missiles, drone strikes, artillery. There is a lot of destruction — houses, port infrastructure, and energy facilities. There are casualties and,...

Ukraine's air force has previously said Russia has used the Tu-22M3 aircraft to fire Kh-22 cruise missiles at Ukrainian territory. The HUR said the bomber that was downed "carried out a missile attack against Ukraine on the night of April 19." The aircraft was shot down "as a result of a [HUR] special operation in cooperation with the Air Force," it said, adding that it was struck at a distance of about 300 kilometers from Ukraine. The HUR added: "It should be noted that this is the first successful destruction of a strategic bomber in the air during a combat...

Two senior Republican lawmakers, the chairs of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, say their colleagues are echoing Russian state propaganda against Ukraine. Researchers who study disinformation say Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, are merely acknowledging what has been clear for some time: Russian propaganda aimed at undermining U.S. and European support for Ukraine has steadily seeped into America’s political conversation over the past decade, taking on a life of its own. McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Puck News he thinks “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately,...

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — If the choice was death or a bullet to the leg, Yevgeny would take the bullet. A decorated hero of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Yevgeny told his friend and fellow soldier to please aim carefully and avoid bone. The tourniquets were ready. The pain that followed was the price Yevgeny paid for a new chance at life. Like thousands of other Russian soldiers, he deserted. “I joke that I gave birth to myself,” he said, declining to give his full name for fear of retribution. “When a woman gives birth to a child, she experiences very intense...

.....De Croo said that Belgian agencies are working closely with the Czech authorities after a pro-Russian influence operation was uncovered there. He said that probe showed that members of the European Parliament were approached and offered money to promote Russian propaganda.

Tens of thousands of residents in the Russian city of Orenburg and neighbouring Kazakhstan have been told to evacuate immediately as flood waters inundate homes. -snip- Orenburg is home to half a million people, and the city's mayor Sergei Salmin said the situation was extremely dangerous. "Over the last 10 hours, the water level in the Ural River has risen by 40cm … these levels are dangerous," he wrote on the Telegram messenger app. He called on residents to gather essential items and to abandon their homes. Emergency workers said water levels in the Ural River were more than two...

Russell Bentley, an American who fought against Ukrainian forces, is missing in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, police there said Friday, adding that a search was underway. Bentley went missing on April 8, according to police. The online news outlet Mash said he had disappeared after a district in the city of Donetsk was shelled by Ukrainian forces. Mash cited his wife as saying he had gone to see if anyone needed help but had not returned. She was quoted as saying she had found his car with his baseball cap in it along with his smashed mobile...

Watch footage of the bizarre tanks ploughing through the battlefield. PUTIN'S failing forces have resorted to using bizarre mobile sheds on the battlefield in an attempt to withstand Ukrainian kamikaze drones. Russian tanks have appeared underneath turtle shell-like cages after it was revealed that a humiliated Putin has lost almost all of the tanks he had when he began his brutal invasion of Ukraine. Strange footage shows a row of ageing Russian tanks trawling through fields under the steel covers. The odd-shaped metal blanket appears to be designed to shield Putin's dwindling fleet from Ukrainian onslaught. Up close clips show...