Free Republic

Formulating its policy on the Ukraine crisis, Israel must take into account its coordination with Russia in Syria, its special relations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, its super important alliance with the United States and its large Russian-Ukraine-born population. At a Feb. 27 meeting of Israel’s foreign affairs and security Cabinet, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid turned to his colleagues with a strange request-cum-warning, asking them not to provide assistance to Jewish-Russian billionaires/oligarchs who have been hit by international sanctions. “You have to be very careful because those guys have connections and they can call you on the phone and ask...

Anti-Oligarchs... - propaganda war I just think that the Oligrach targeting, first by Biden, now by UK, is a political propaganda stunt to show something is done. It did not, does not have any affect on Putin who understands only force. No boots! Given all that, I was never 'for' any wars / boots on the ground.. I probably can dig out old emails before Iraq War which I was worried about... Mercy! I pray, prayed for peace and my heart goes out seeing innocent non combatant Ukranians hurt, killed, flee... Nazis? Are Ukrainians neo Nazis like Putin claims? Of...

Andrey Kozyrev laid out reasons why Putin may have misjudged his invasion of Ukraine. He says Putin overestimated Russia's military, not realizing its budget had been embezzled. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stalled amid tough Ukrainian resistance. A former Russian foreign minister claimed that widespread corruption is among the reasons for the Russian military's apparently poor performance in the invasion of Ukraine. Andrey Kozyrev, who served as foreign minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, put forward what he said were misjudgments made by President Vladimir Putin in ordering the invasion. In the thread, he claims Putin overestimated the...

talian authorities have seized a superyacht worth $578 million from a Russian billionaire who was sanctioned by the the European Union following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko's 470-foot Sailing Yacht A—believed to be the world's biggest—has been sequestered at the northern port of Trieste, the Italian prime minister's office said. Industrialist Melnichenko, who owns the fertilizer producer EuroChem Group and coal company SUEK, is among several prominent Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the EU since the start of the Ukraine War. He is worth around $11 billion according to Forbes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said it is a “black day” after Russia shelled a military base in the western part of his country. Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Sunday that Russia fired 30 rockets at the Yavoriv military base. He said the attack killed 35 people and injured 134 injured others. The base is less than 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Polish border. Zelenskyy said he had given Western leaders “clear warning” of the danger to the base. He asked NATO leaders again to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. He warned “it is only a...

A Russian oligarch has been charged with allegedly paying $1 million to Rudy Giuliani associates Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas as part of a scheme to influence the 2018 US elections through illegal straw donations, prosecutors announced Monday. Andrey Muraviev, 47, was charged with conspiring with Fruman, Parnas and Andrey Kukushkin to pay US politicians illegal donations in order to help them secure licenses to start a legal marijuana business.

Konstantyn Batozsky believes he is on a list of so-called “neo-Nazis” to be rounded up “Gestapo-style” and “exterminated” by Russian forces seeking to enter Kyiv. Batozsky, a Jew from eastern Ukraine, said he was informed about the “bounty on his head” by Ukrainian intelligence sources. But as a longtime and avowed Ukrainian nationalist who has collaborated with a paramilitary group that has a reputation for including extremists, he knows that it’s people like him that Russian President Vladimir Putin was talking about when he cited a need for “denazification” as a pretext for invading his country. “I have been staying...

@MaajidNawaz WATCH: “Allying with NAZIS in Ukraine to defeat Putin is as ABSURD as allying with ISIS in Syria to defeat Putin” My talk last night with @TuckerCarlson 2 Minute Clip ...

President responds to any criticism with reprisals, leaving business leaders with diminished influence. Vladimir Putin gathered the country’s top businessmen in the Kremlin’s ornate Hall of the Order of St Catherine to discuss their response to the economic shocks that would follow. The Russian president, seated about 20ft away in a conspicuous social-distancing measure, told them he had “no other choice” but to invade Ukraine — and, if they wanted to keep their businesses, neither did they, according to people briefed on the meeting. “It was a pointless meeting. The main idea was to explain himself. The explanation was: ‘I...