Free Republic

The Kremlin confirmed on Wednesday that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow, but disputed a claim he made that Western journalists hadn't attempted to interview the leader throughout the war. -snip- Peskov said Carlson is "wrong" by suggesting that Western journalists haven't attempted to interview Putin—an assertion the former Fox News host made in a lengthy video announcing his interview with the Russian leader. "He, in fact, cannot know this. We receive many requests for interviews with the president," Peskov said. -snip- Many Western journalists have interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr...

A top Russian air force general was killed in strikes on annexed Crimea on Wednesday, according to local reports. Multiple Russian Telegram channels, including Crimean Wind, reported that Russian Air Force Lieutenant General Alexander Tatarenko was killed during a Ukrainian strike on the Belbek military airfield in Crimea. Telegram channel Public Reserve Stugna, which has more than 73,000 subscribers, said 10 Russian military personnel were "liquidated" in the attack, including Tatarenko, the commander of the aviation unit at the Belbek air base.

A bird flu outbreak is ravaging California’s massive poultry industry, forcing businesses to kill more than one million chickens and causing egg prices to soar. Mike Weber, who owns Sunrise Farms in Sonoma County, learned last month that his chickens had become infected with the highly-contagious virus. Per government rules, he had to slaughter his entire flock of 550,000 egg-laying hens. “It’s a trauma. We’re all going through grief as a result of it,” Weber told the Associated Press inside an empty hen house. “Petaluma is known as the Egg Basket of the World. It’s devastating to see that egg...

Russian President Vladimir Putin castigated Europe on Saturday for "Russophobia" and criticized the Baltic States over human rights at the unveiling of a World War Two memorial. -snip- In his speech, Putin also lambasted the Baltic States over human rights. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - ruled from Moscow during the Cold War but now members of the European Union and NATO military alliance - have been among the strongest critics of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is allegedly putting out feelers to see if America is ready for talks on ending the war in Ukraine. The Russian president is also 'prepared to drop opposition to Kyiv joining Nato', according to a new Bloomberg report.

A video circulating on social media shows a huge fire that engulfed a large Rosneft-owned oil refinery in the southern Russian town of Tuapse on the Black Sea coast in the early hours of Thursday morning. The refinery's vacuum unit caught fire, said Sergei Boiko, the head of Tuapse district, adding in a post on his Telegram channel that there were no casualties. He warned local residents not to post videos from the scene "to avoid adverse consequences." Boiko didn't identify the cause of the fire, but numerous Telegram channels said it was the result of a drone strike. Russian...

New edict affects all of Moscow's historic holdings across three continents, including former imperial colonies in the US. Russia has laid the groundwork for expanding its soft power across North America and Asia with a new decree Vladimir Putin signed last week. The new order provides funds to search, register and provide legal protection to Russian properties abroad – including land and buildings located in former Russian Empire and Soviet Union territories. Among the areas affected by the new decree is Alaska, which was sold to the United States in 1867 and still hosts communities with close links to Russia....