Free Republic

Russia's New 'Conservative' Ideology To Counter Liberalism ...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has recently told the world that nations which separated themselves from the Soviet Union, specifically those of the Intermarium, the lands between the Black, Baltic, and Adriatic Seas, are not independent but, rather, “masterless” for the moment. He singled out Poland, Ukraine,” and the “Baltic provinces.” It is telling that Lavrov did not call Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — “Baltic States” [strani Baltii] but “Baltic provinces” [Pribaltika]... What Lavrov implied, of course, was that Russia would take care of the master part sooner or later, slowly but surely. But sometimes the Kremlin sees an opportunity...

China has called on families and local governments to stock up on daily necessities as the country enforces stringent restrictions intended to curb a number of Covid outbreaks. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued the guidance in a statement on Monday. The Economic Daily, a Communist Party-backed newspaper, said that the directives were an effort by the government to prepare the public for Covid lockdowns in the prelude to winter. China has enforced a “zero Covid” policy that includes widespread testing and lockdowns to stamp out any small resurgence of the coronavirus. The country is battling several Covid-19 outbreaks. Pan...

Fresh violence raged in Kazakhstan’s main city on Thursday after Russia rushed in paratroopers overnight to put down a countrywide uprising in the former Soviet state closely allied to Moscow....Nazarbayev’s hand-picked successor, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called in forces from ally Russia overnight as part of a Moscow-led military alliance of ex-Soviet states. He blamed the unrest on foreign-trained terrorists who he said had seized buildings and weapons.“It is an undermining of the integrity of the state and most importantly it is an attack on our citizens who are asking me… to help them urgently,” he said.

Russia’s lead negotiator for coming talks with the U.S. said that Moscow’s demands on Ukraine must be addressed urgently and warned the Biden administration against resorting to the economic pressure it has threatened to try to get the Kremlin to back down. In advance of Monday’s talks with the U.S. in Geneva, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov sketched out an unyielding stance. He said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military ties to Ukraine represent a threat to Russia even if the country isn’t formally admitted into the alliance. Mr. Ryabkov rebuffed the Biden administration’s calls for the Kremlin to reverse...

Schumer, Pelosi, Swalwell, Blumenthal...they all reportedly took the Nord Stream 2 lobbyist/Democrat party bundler's cash — and Schumer, curiously enough, blocked a vote on sanctions. Democrats for years have accused President Trump of being in bed with Vladimir Putin, but a new investigative report from Daniel Greenfield demonstrates pretty damningly that they're the ones who've been keeping Putin's bed warm. Greenfield singles out Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer as Exhibit A: Schumer, along with a number of other top Democrats, is a beneficiary of campaign contributions from top Democrat fundraiser Vincent Roberti whose lobbying firm was paid over $8.5 million...

President Joe Biden again spoke with President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, warning Russia not to further invade Ukraine. “President Biden urged Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine. He made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement after the call.

As was reported yesterday, resident Joe Biden took a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin where the two leaders discussed the situation on Russia’s border with Ukraine, among other matters. Despite the best efforts of the State Department to put some positive spin on the discussion, it doesn’t sound as if things went very well. Both sides wound up sticking to their previous positions and Putin sounded increasingly frustrated and belligerent over what he perceives as NATO’s stubborn refusal to comply with his demands. Biden reportedly didn’t offer any additional sweeteners in an effort to cut a deal and Putin...

The world is heading for a new Cuban missile crisis in Ukraine if the West fails to deal with Russia's security demands 'here and now', Moscow said today. This came amid a new round of major military exercises by Vladimir Putin's troops in an evident bid to warn NATO of the seriousness of the situation ahead of the New Year. Videos showed the latest Russian drills - some close to Ukraine - amid fears Putin will invade if the West fails to meet his demands. Hawkish deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov denied he was exaggerating in comparing the current crisis...

<p>In recent years, President Vladimir Putin has grown increasingly insistent that NATO is encroaching close to Russia's borders, and Moscow last week demanded "legal guarantees" that the U.S.-led alliance will halt its eastward expansion.</p><p>"How can one count on equal relations with the United States and the West in such a position?" Gorbachev told state news agency RIA Novosti on the eve of the anniversary of his resignation as the leader of the USSR.</p>

Vladimir Putin is big on symbols. He began his rule by installing a memorial plaque to a Soviet KGB chief and reinstating the Stalin-era national anthem. More recently, he used the anniversary of the assassination of political rival Boris Nemtsov to award a medal to a Chechen official reportedly involved in organizing it. And he used the birthday of another opponent, Alexei Navalny, to sign a law banning his movement as “extremist.” ... For all the importance of human rights work in authoritarian societies, Memorial is more than just another civil society organization — it is the keeper of the...

Ukraine is again looking warily over its eastern border as Russia threatens its territorial integrity. In recent weeks, a buildup of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border has rattled Western leaders fearful of an incursion similar to, or perhaps even more wide-ranging than, Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Then, on Dec. 17, 2021, Vladimir Putin demanded that no former Soviet states, such as Ukraine, be added to NATO – the Western alliance that Ukraine has long expressed a desire to join – and that NATO cease all military cooperation in Eastern Europe. Such rhetoric harks back to the Cold...

The rhetoric on Kremlin-funded state television is amping up the sense of urgency around Russian President Vladimir Putin’s NATO “ultimatum.” Olga Skabeeva, the host of state TV show 60 Minutes, said Tuesday: “The level of anxiety has reached its maximum. We’re 20 days away from the expiration of the ultimatum and the stakes are rising, even though it seems they couldn’t be any higher.” One day after Moscow submitted a draft of its Russia-U.S. security treaty, containing demands that NATO roll back its military deployments in Europe and deny membership to Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei...

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told his Russian counterpart Monday that Washington is ready to engage in diplomacy through multiple channels, including bilateral engagement, the White House said in a statement. Sullivan told Yuriy Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that "any dialogue must be based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia's actions," the White House said.

MOSCOW -- Russian authorities have published new regulations on the expedited mass burial of humans and animals who die as a result of military conflicts or noncombatant emergencies, stoking already heightened tensions that the country may be preparing to invade Ukraine. The document -- published on the Emergencies Ministry's website on December 20 -- appears as the United States, the European Union, and Ukraine have expressed alarm over Russia' buildup of tens of thousands of soldiers near Ukraine’s borders, interpreting it as a possible prelude to military action. Russia has denied it is planning to invade Ukraine and has issued...

Russia upped the ante Monday in its dangerous standoff with Ukraine, openly warning of military action if President Biden and America’s NATO allies ignore a list of demands Moscow announced late last week — a far-reaching list that some key U.S. lawmakers have dubbed a “pretext to war.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said his country is fully prepared to respond through “military-technical means” if Western powers fail to address those demands. He said NATO must not expand to include Ukraine or Georgia and the U.S. must not base additional military assets in former Soviet republics in Central Asia....

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia sent a pair of nuclear-capable long-range bombers to patrol the skies over Belarus on Saturday, a mission intended to underline close defense ties between the two allies amid tensions with the West. The Russian Defense Ministry said the two Tu-22M3 strategic strike bombers practiced “performing joint tasks with the Belarusian air force and air defense.” Su-30 fighter jets that Russia has supplied to Belarus escorted the bombers. Saturday’s four-hour patrol marked Russia’s third such mission in Belarus since last month... ...The Belarusian leader wouldn’t elaborate on what kind of Russian weapons Belarus would be willing to...

Russia on Friday published draft security demands that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back the alliance's military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe — bold ultimatums that are almost certain to be rejected by the U.S. and its allies. The proposals, which were submitted to the U.S. and its allies earlier this week, also call for a ban on sending U.S. and Russian warships and aircraft to areas from where they can strike each other's territory, along with a halt to NATO military drills near Russia. The demand for a written guarantee that...

he Kremlin has dismissed the feasibility of reviving the Soviet Union, even amid U.S. concerns and the growing nostalgia for some aspects of the former Communist system among Russians today. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin, repudiated remarks made days two days earlier by U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, who expressed "concern" to lawmakers that the Russian leader "is actually as a legacy project seeking to reconstitute the Soviet Union," especially in regard to Ukraine, which she argued Putin believed "is actually a part of Russia, belongs...

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center specializing in investigative reporting on the Left and Islamic terrorism. “A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: What could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States?” Senator Schumer insinuated in 2018. Why is Schumer putting Russia’s interests ahead of those of the United States by blocking Nord Stream 2 sanctions on Putin’s pet pipeline into Europe? Schumer, along with a number of other top Democrats, is a beneficiary of campaign contributions from top Democrat fundraiser...