Free Republic

Recently within the American conservative and Christian zeitgeists I have noticed a growing positive view of Vladimir Putin and desire for a U.S.-Russia Christian military alliance against Islamic terrorism. As both a conservative Christian American and a policy specialist on Russia and Eastern Europe, this is a perilous line of thinking. The growing trend among conservatives to support Putin’s Russia is problematic because Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) engage in activities that run directly contrary to U.S. national security objectives, values of Western civilization writ large, and teaching of Christian scripture. Perceptions that Russia is...

The misreading of Russia’s geopolitical situation is especially sad because for the first time in many decades there is much to hope for in Moscow. Out of utopian misery has come the prospect of rebirth. It is as yet incipient. But I see great possibilities in it, in the many once-blighted churches now open and loved and full again, in the reappearance of symbols of pre-Bolshevik Russia, in the growth of a generation not stunted and pitted by poisoned air and food, nor twisted by Communist ethics. Many Russians will never recover from the cynicism they were taught, the mistrust,...

In the aftermath of the fallout from the DNC server hack, the Democrats have been scrambling how to redirect public anger (especially among Bernie Sanders supporters) from the revelations that not only did the Democratic party try everything in its power to sabotage Bernie Sanders presidential bid, but also colluded with various "impartial" media outlets as well as breach fundraising rules in the process. And, as of this morning, it appears that the solution they have decided upon is not to explain or even justify the scandalous actions, but to simply blame Russia for the hack. [SNIP] Except... there is...

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will grant President Barack Obama permission next week to ship U.S. weapons supplies across its territory, or through its airspace, en route to Afghanistan, sources on both sides told Reuters on Saturday. The transit deal will open up an important corridor for the United States as it steps up its Afghan war against Taliban insurgents by sending in more troops. Routes via Pakistan have come under attack by militants. It will be one of the main agreements signed during Obama's Moscow summit next week with Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev, the sources said. "The agreement will include...

Americans need to ask themselves whether we have had it coming. For consider how we have dealt with Russia's interests and sensitivities. Listening to U.S. advisers on how to privatize the wealth of the Soviet state, Russians saw their national assets looted by thieves, hustlers and ``oligarchs'' welcomed in the West, as their per capita income sank and their social security vanished. They saw the United States bomb into submission a Serb nation Russia had always seen as her Balkan god-child, for Serbia's crime of trying to hold on to her cradle province, Kosovo. They saw U.S. agents, under cover...

Posted on Tue, Mar. 07, 2006 Russia appears to remain united with U.S. on Iran nuclear issue By Jonathan S. Landay WASHINGTON - Russia appeared Tuesday to close ranks with the United States and Europe over Iran's nuclear program, after briefly promoting a plan that would have allowed Iran to conduct small-scale uranium enrichment research, which the Bush administration strongly opposes. The move indicated that Russia would join the United States and the European Union in sending the impasse over Iran's uranium enrichment program to the U.N. Security Council, which can impose economic and political sanctions. Russia had faced stiff...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2005 – President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged from a Sept. 16 meeting with a renewed commitment to working together in fighting terrorism and preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the two leaders told reporters at a White House news conference. Bush noted that both countries have felt the scourge of terrorism - the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and Russia in September 2004, when a school siege in Beslan left 331 people, 186 of them children, dead. "We've got a strong ally in Russia in fighting the war on terror," Bush said....

US President George W. Bush declared today "Russia is not an enemy, Russia is our friend", a day after returning from a sometimes tense visit over US calls for democratic reforms in the region of the former Soviet Union. Mr Bush returned yesterday from a trip to Russia, Latvia, Georgia and the Netherlands holding out the Baltic states as an example of democracy for Russia. "Sitting in Red Square honouring the veterans of World War II was an amazing event. I remember as a kid watching the missiles parade through Red Square - and here I sat as the president...

MOSCOW - Changing the tone from tough talk to friendship, President Bush and Vladimir Putin went out of their way to take a unified stand on Middle East peace and terrorism Sunday after sharp words in recent days about democratic backsliding and postwar Soviet domination. A smiling Putin even put Bush behind the wheel of his prized 1956 Volga, a pristine white sedan, and let him take it for a spin around the grounds of his private compound 25 miles west of Moscow. Putin also kidded the president about Laura Bush's recent comedy routine. The happy picture of the two...

US President George W Bush has reiterated his desire to develop a stronger relationship with Russia. He is expected to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Slovakia in February. Mr Bush said the two men had some disagreements but said it was a vital relationship and they were working together to defeat terrorism. Meawhile, the US democracy-monitoring group Freedom House said Russia had fallen to the status of "not free". Washington has previously expressed concerns about Russia's role in the Ukrainian election, the Yukos affair and Putin's political reforms. Russia's step backward into the Not Free category is...

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin had made several statements over the last six months, voicing his strong and unequivocal support for George W. Bush’s reelection bid. First, during his American visit last summer, Putin said that the Democrats had no moral right to criticize the incumbent for the Iraq invasion, after what they did to Serbia in 1999. Later in Astana Putin said that the Iraq invasion was indeed justified, because Saddam was planning terror attacks against U.S. targets, according to Russian intelligence. Finally, in October Putin said that Kerry’s candidacy was supported by international terrorists, waging a war on the...

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, siding with President Bush two weeks before the U.S. election, said Monday that armed attacks in Iraq were staged by "international terrorism" out to block his re-election. "The attacks of international terrorism in Iraq are directed not only at international coalition forces but at President Bush personally," said Putin, speaking in the Tajik capital. "International terrorism has given itself the goal of causing maximum damage to Bush in the election battle, the goal of blocking the re-election of Bush for a second presidential term," he told a news conference. Putin's comments, ahead...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia cast aside its doubts Monday to join a U.S.-led alliance of countries prepared to board ships and raid suspect factories in a crackdown against weapons of mass destruction. Moscow said it had become the 15th core member of President Bush (news - web sites)'s Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), designed to stop such arms ending up in states viewed with distrust by Washington, such as North Korea (news - web sites) and Iran. "The threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is global and accordingly requires a global response," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement....

KRAKOW, Poland (AFP) - Up to 80 nations gathered in southern Poland to mark the first anniversary of a Washington-sponsored pact aimed at stemming the spread of weapons of massive destruction, hailing Russia's decision to come aboard. John Bolton, US under secretary of state for arms control, described Russia's announcement earlier Monday that it would sign up to the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) as a "major development", which should close off valuable lanes to traffickers of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). "This is a major development, a very welcome decision," Bolton told a news conference, after Russia's foreign ministry announced...

NEW YORK: Russian President Vladimir Putin has assured his US counterpart George W Bush that Moscow would not veto a UN resolution on Iraq pushed by the US, Time magazine reported on Sunday. "The President had a conversation and got a different impression - not that Putin was with him, but that he's not going to veto," the news magazine quoted the unnamed White House official as saying. The US, Britain and Spain have sponsored a draft resolution that would give Iraq a March 17 deadline to comply with UN demands that it disarm. Russian deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov...