Free Republic

The buckets of cold water Turkey is pouring on Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO may be coming from the sea around the shore of Cyprus, the divided Mediterranean island that is a bargaining chip for the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan. There is mounting evidence that Turkey could be using its status as a member of NATO to wield its veto power over the anticipated accession to the alliance of the two Nordic countries as a lever to force the international community to confer legitimacy on its de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. London’s Sunday Express recently reported...

Russia’s president, calling the 2020s a period of “strengthening economic sovereignty” for his country, has said that this decade will see the formation of an independent and efficient financial system in Russia. In an advance greeting to the participants of the upcoming St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin also blamed “a wave of global inflation” and “a sharp increase in poverty and food shortages” on “long-term mistakes” made by Western countries as well as the imposition of “illegitimate sanctions.” ... “I am convinced that for Russia the 2020s will become a period of strengthening economic sovereignty, which provides for...