Free Republic

After his historic guilty verdict in his hush money case, Donald Trump attacked the U.S. criminal justice system, making unfounded claims of a “rigged” trial that echoed remarks from the Kremlin. “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone,” Trump said Friday, speaking from his namesake tower in New York on Friday. Thousands of miles away, Russian President Vladimir Putin was probably “rubbing his hands with glee,” said Fiona Hill, a former senior White House national security adviser to three U.S. presidents, including Trump. Hill and other analysts say Trump’s attacks could be useful to...

Ukrainians living in regions illegally annexed by Russia are being coerced to vote in the presidential election of their wartime occupier, Vladimir Putin — an exercise denounced by Ukraine as an illegitimate effort by Moscow to tighten control over its neighbor. Polls don't open in Russia until Friday, but they are open in four annexed regions of Ukraine close to the front line, some of which are not fully in Putin’s control. *snip* In the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, said his city was a symbol of Russia’s “military nightmare” and of an “electoral process in...

Rifts within Ukraine’s top leadership have burst into the open following swirling rumors that the country’s top military chief will be dismissed amid reported tensions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The rumors that Valerii Zaluzhnyi would be sacked were denied by Zelenskyy’s office and the Defense Ministry this week and the immensely popular top commander still retains his post. But the reports have fueled expectations of his imminent resignation, which could be a boon for Russia as the war approaches its second anniversary. His departure would be the most severe shakeup of Ukraine’s top military brass since the Russian invasion as...

On Monday, Moore tweeted that the British foreign intelligence agency had been “puzzling over how to get my message to our target audience in Russia — we never thought Russian state TV would step in to help." “Thanks folks,” he added. Mark Galeotti, an expert in the Russian security services at University College London, told The Associated Press the translation and broadcast of Moore’s comments was “a pretty serious gaffe.” Butina’s viewers are “likely to be the kind of people that British intelligence would be interested in,” Galeotti said, adding that he would not discount the prospect of the message...