Free Republic

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...

Russell Bentley, a self-described “Donbass Cowboy,” joined Russian forces soon after they created a proxy state in eastern Ukraine in 2014. He quickly became one of Russian propaganda’s favorite Americans, receiving a Russian passport and a gig with state-run Sputnik TV. On April 8, the 64-year-old Austin native better known under his call sign “Texas” was detained by Russian soldiers in the city of Donetsk, occupied by Russia for the past decade, according to his wife. Eleven days later, he turned up dead. He is the latest in a string of figures involved in Russia’s 2014 takeover of parts of...

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...

Poland is ready to help Ukraine in getting military-age male citizens to return and help their home country in fighting in the war against Russia, Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Wednesday. The Ukrainian government announced rules on Wednesday under which passports for military-age men can be issued only inside the country instead of foreign diplomatic missions. As a result, men aged between 18 and 59 living abroad will be unable to renew expiring passports or obtain new ones. Poland has suggested in the past helping Ukraine so that those who are subject to military service go back to their...

Vladimir Putin's hopes of a swift victory in Ukraine have been dealt a major blow after a key weapon is proving to be a major flop -snip- Yet one area where Ukraine's military appears to hold the upper hand over their bitter foes is in drone warfare. In a recent Telegram post, a pro-Kremlin military blogger described the fighting round the eastern town of Chasiv Yar, where fierce battles are raging The blogger, whose moniker is "Two Majors", said Putin's army was handicapped by the poor performance of their first-person view (FPV) drones. He said that most of the Russian...

A Russian deputy defence minister has been accused of taking bribes and remanded in custody by a court in Moscow. Timur Ivanov, who denies the charges, is accused of accepting bribes "on a particularly large scale". Appointed to the defence ministry in 2016, Mr Ivanov, 47, has been responsible for Russia's military infrastructure projects. Mr Ivanov is considered an ally of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and has worked with him for many years. He was previously deputy prime minister of the Moscow region, where Mr Shoigu briefly served as governor. -snip- In 2022, the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), the group founded...

Fire broke out at energy facilities in Russia's Smolensk region after a Ukraine-launched drone attack and people were evacuated from parts of Lipetsk in Russia's southwest after a drone there fell on an industrial park, regional officials said. "Our region is again under attack by Ukrainian UAVs," Vasily Anokhin, the governor of the Smolensk region in Russia's west, said on the Telegram messaging app. "As a result of the enemy attack on civilian fuel and energy facilities, fires broke out in the Smolensk and Yartsevo districts," Anokhin said on the Telegram messaging app. It was not immediately known what facilities...

Polish director Besaleel’s film will feature an AI-rendered Russian president and footage shot by Ukrainian film-makers during the Russian invasion. The “world premiere” of a new biopic of Russian president Vladimir Putin featuring an AI-rendered central character, has been announced for 26 September. In a statement released via PR Leap, Polish studio AIO said the film, titled Putin, will be released in 35 countries, and describes itself as “up close and personal with the Kremlin leader’s story”. -snip- Originally titled The Vor in Law (a term used for elite organised crime figures), the film also incorporates footage shot by Ukrainian...

Vladimir Putin is no stranger to rumours about his own health – but now the health of one of his closest allies has been called into question. Exiled newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe claims that Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, 47, is suffering from pancreatic disease and has ‘no hope of recovery’. The news outlet says Kadyrov – a leading ally of the dictator’s war against Ukraine – has been living with ‘pancreatic necrosis’ for more than five years, which explains his frequent absences from the public stage. An extraordinary new picture shows the Chechen warlord looking unusually bloated. Novaya Gazeta Europe...

Ukraine has moved to restrict consular services at its diplomatic missions for men of conscription age (18-60) who live abroad as Kyiv tries to increase troop levels in its fight to repel invading Russian forces. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on April 23 that he ordered the restrictions because "staying abroad does not relieve a citizen of his or her duties to the Homeland." "As it looks like now, a man of conscription age goes abroad and shows his state that he does not care about its survival. He then comes back and wants to receive...

Tucker Carlson gave a wide-ranging interview with Joe Rogan, where the pair discussed UFOs being "spiritual beings," politicians being blackmailed by intelligence agencies over their "weird sex lives," blasting Joe Scarborough, and partaking in too many magic mushrooms. During the most recent episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience," Tucker and Rogan touched on a myriad of topics. Tucker said of unidentified anomalous phenomena, "If they are spiritual beings – which I believe they are – it's binary, they're either team good or team bad. And I think some of them are bad." Carlson also called the UAPs "supernatural" because they...

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...

A UKRAINIAN missile struck Putin's oldest naval vessel in a massive blow to Russia's forces in Crimea. Footage showed flames and smoke billowing out from the 112-year-old warship in the occupied port of Sevastopol this morning. Explosions hit the area as Russians were forced to issue a missile warning and close Putin's prized Crimea bridge. Fire engines reportedly rushed to the port to put out the blaze on the 315-ft long vessel. A caption under the dramatic video, shared by Astra on Telegram, said: "The rocket hit the ship. See, it's burning." The vessel hit by Ukraine is Kommuna, the...

Russian forces repelled an anti-ship missile attack on one of its vessels in the Crimean port of Sevastopol early on Sunday, the Russian-installed governor of the region said. The fallen fragments caused a small fire, which was promptly extinguished, Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said.

The missing American who’d traveled to Ukraine years ago to aid Russian separatists in Donbas was found dead in the country’s war-torn eastern region. The body of Russell Bentley, a 64-year-old U.S. Army vet, was recovered in the Russian-controlled region of Donetsk Oblast, Reuters reported. -snip- The former pothead, who used “Texas” as his military call-sign, left behind a yoga instructor girlfriend to travel to Ukraine. He utilized crowdfunding sites to finance his trip, and had since become a Russian citizen. He also got married after moving to Ukraine, where he began working as a reporter for the state-owned Sputnik...

UFOs and their pilots might not be 'extra-terrestrials' from a distant planet at all, but 'spiritual entities' who have inhabited Earth for as long as humanity itself. At least, that's the 'supernatural' theory Fox News vet and one-time MSNBC host Tucker Carlson put forward this week on comedian Joe Rogan's podcast 'There's a ton of evidence that they're under the ocean and under the ground,' Carlson told Rogan's listeners during the show's usual, sprawling, three-hour-long chat format, adding: 'They've been here for a long time.' -snip- 'They're from here and they've been here for thousands of years,' Carlson said, 'whatever...

China issued a stern rebuke to the U.S., after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) referred to the country's leader Xi Jinping, Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and Iran as an "axis of evil." -snip- The speaker told reporters on Wednesday: "I believe Xi [Jinping] and Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an axis of evil. I think they are in coordination on this." He added he believes Putin would "continue marching through Europe" and even "have a showdown" with NATO ally like Poland if permitted. Liu told Newsweek that rhetoric like Johnson's threatens the state of U.S.-China relations. "We urge the...

The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That's because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs. -snip- If about $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country gets the green light, “we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters Thursday. “We can move within days.”

"You can't go anywhere at all, not even to Uzbekistan or Belarus for the May holidays," said one source. -snip- Russia is making overseas travel harder for some officials due to fears that foreign powers may try to gain access to state secrets during the worst crisis in relations with the West for more than 60 years, nine sources told Reuters. The Federal Security Service (FSB) is putting pressure on employees across government ministries not to leave Russia at all, even to visit so-called 'friendly' countries that have not imposed sanctions against Moscow, the sources said. Foreign travel was highly...