Free Republic

Wagner Group mercenaries appeared ready to clash with Russian soldiers defending Moscow from a sudden armed rebellion over the weekend. Hail-mary negotiations, mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, stopped the potential bloodshed in the capital. Lukashenko, a second-rate dictator and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has since seized on the opportunity to boast about how he saved Moscow from the mutiny — "humiliating" the Russian leader for being unable to do this himself, war experts say. After Wagner fighters captured the southern city of Rostov-on-Don early Saturday, they continued north toward Moscow as the city prepared its defenses...

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed that nations who are willing “to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus” will be given nuclear weapons, days after confirming the transfer of some tactical nuclear weapons from Moscow to Minsk had begun. Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made the comments in an on-camera interview released Sunday on the state-run Russia 1 channel. During the interview, Lukashenko said, “no one minds Kazakhstan and other countries having the same close relations that we have with the Russian Federation.” “It’s very simple,” he added. “Join the Union State of Belarus...