Free Republic

Mystery surrounds a secret trip by Squad members Ilhan Omar and Pramila Japayal to Communist Cuba that coincided with a visit by Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. The two leaders of the Democrats progressive caucus sparked fury when details of last week's trip emerged with top Republicans accusing them of a Communist 'pilgrimage.' -snip- 'No surprise that the Hamas Caucus made a pilgrimage to Cuba last week to get a refresher course on communism to bring back to DC,' tweeted Florida Congressman Mike Waltz.

Hamas and Fatah are expected to attend a meeting in Moscow to discuss the future governance of a Palestinian state. Representatives from Palestinian political factions, including Hamas and Fatah, are expected to meet in the Russian capital, Moscow, to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government amid Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 30,000 people. Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said on Thursday that while there was a lot of “uncertainty” about the meeting, it is expected to last three days for the factions to develop a “unified strategy”. “Russia has previously held similar...

Israel will provide Ukraine with an early warning system against missiles as part of an aid package for Kyiv, as it condemned aggression from Russia Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, told the General Assembly on Monday that his country had provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the start of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion because it was "the moral thing to do." Comparing Russia's actions in Ukraine to the militant Hamas group's attacks on Israel on October 7, Erdan said his country knows "exactly how it feels to be aggressively invaded, (and) to have our towns and cities...

The Ukrainian air force claimed it has shot down 10 Russian warplanes in 10 days: nine of the Russian air force’s best Sukhoi Su-34 and Sukhoi Su-35 fighter-bombers and also a rare Beriev A-50 radar plane. -snip- The Ukrainian defense ministry announced this month’s ninth and tenth shoot-downs—both involving Su-34s—on Tuesday. “Oops, we did it again!” the ministry quipped. “And now it's 10 destroyed Russian planes in 10 days!” How the Ukrainians are shooting down so many jets is unclear. It’s possible the Ukrainian air force has assigned some of its American-made Patriot missile launchers to mobile air-defense groups that...

Russia has approved a temporary ban on the export of gasoline, a representative for the country's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told local media on Tuesday. Beginning May 1, Russia will impose a six-month ban on gasoline exports to allow the country to "offset the booming demand for petroleum products," the official told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in an internal letter in January, publication RBC reported. Fuel shortages have been reported nationwide in Russia, which is one of the world's biggest producers of oil and gas. Wholesale fuel prices have soared across the country, and Ukraine has ramped up...

This is the terrifying moment 'drunk' Russian troops storm into a café in occupied Crimea before opening fire aiming at people's heads and hitting them with batons in a violent rampage. Vladimir Putin's mercenary troops were captured on CCTV beating men and women to the floor, leaving many injured with broken bones but fortunately there were no fatalities. Soldiers wielding Kalashnikov riffles ran into the drinking spot in the beach village of Chornomorske in the north of occupied Crimea on Friday after celebrating Russia's Defender of the Fatherland Day, also known as Men's Day. The shocking video was shared by...

This is the shocking moment a Ukrainian missile destroyed a £260mn Russian spy plane over Krasnodar on the second anniversary of Putin's bloody invasion. Video showed huge plumes of smoke billowing from the wreckage after the A-50U reconnaissance plane's wing was reportedly torn off by a hit from a revamped S-200 Soviet-era long-range air defence missile - a staggering blow to Russia's already diminishing collection. Ten crew were reported to have been found dead at the crash site in Russia's Krasnodar region, where the dictator's official Black Sea residence and private £1 billion place are located. The eventual toll is...

Ukrainian drones hit a major Russian steel factory overnight, causing a large fire, a Kyiv source said on Saturday, on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The governor of Russia’s Lipetsk region identified the plant as one in the city of Lipetsk, some 400 km (250 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, that is responsible for about 18 percent of Russian steel output. He said a fire apparently caused by a drone strike had been extinguished at the plant, operated by Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk (NLMK), and there had been no casualties. The Ukrainian source told Reuters the...

Tucker Carlson once again leaped to the defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin and claimed that anyone who thinks the brutal strongman was responsible for the untimely death of his main political opponent Alexie Navalny 'are idiots.' Carlson, 54, was speaking with fellow former Fox News host Glenn Beck on the latter's BlazeTV network when he made his remarks. 'Navalny’s death during the Munich Security Conference, in the midst of disputes about aid to Ukraine, is definitely not beneficial for Russia. People who say Putin killed him are idiots,' Carlson said. -snip- Speaking about having been asked to comment about...

Tens of Russian soldiers have died close to the front lines in eastern Ukraine after Kyiv attacked a training ground with U.S.-supplied HIMARS, according to a Ukrainian official and media reports. -snip- Around 65 Russian soldiers were killed at the training ground near the village of Trudivske, Bratchuk said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. The Ukrainian military used two missiles in the strike, the BBC's Russian service reported on Tuesday, citing several anonymous sources. Units of Russia's 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade were stationed near Trudivske, Bratchuk said. -snip- Bratchuk posted two videos he said showed...

Russia has invited Palestinian groups to Moscow, which could bring together Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and other terrorist groups. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said over the weekend that Russia invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow at some point in late February, the latest Russian move to increase its influence in a post-October 7 world. Moscow hosted a Hamas delegation already in October, as Hamas sought to do outreach to Moscow. -snip- According to Russian state media TASS, Moscow invited up to 14 Palestinian groups to attend, including those belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as...

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah, and the Palestine Liberation Organization, were all invited to the meeting in Russia. Russia has extended invitations to various Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, for discussions on the Israel-Hamas conflict and broader issues in the Middle East. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov announced the initiative on Friday, highlighting Moscow's desire to engage with all major players in the region amid heightened tensions. The invitation included a dozen Palestinian groups and is slated for "inter-Palestinian" talks scheduled to commence on February 29. Bogdanov, serving as President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for the Middle East,...

Tucker Carlson aired a video of him at a Russian grocery store, appearing to fawn over everything from the shopping cart mechanism to the price of groceries - skipping over the part where US dollars stretch a lot farther than the ruble. In the video, Carlson was amazed to see that the shopping carts in front of the supermarket required people to put in a ruble coin, which they'd then get back when the cart was returned. Carlson acted like he'd never seen this feature before - despite it being pretty common across the US and most of Europe. He...

The Russian prosecutor's office has warned Russians against participating in a mass protest in the centre of Moscow after the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. -snip- According to videos and photos on social networks, people in other Russian cities were paying their respects to Navalny after news of his death spread.

It’s horrific when a political opponent dies in jail. But it’s also never good to be caught on camera attempting a coup in your country with a foreign intel service. Navalny in this video is asking MI6 Officer James William Thomas Ford for $10-20 Million a year to start a color revolution in Russia. This is why he was arrested. And has major implications especially in light of the CIA and MI6 sabotaging the Trump administration. Russia and the U.S. are more alike than you think. Sadly. VIDEO at link

Tucker Carlson has been mocked over a fawning video praising Moscow's 'cheap and fresh' groceries - while overlooking the much lower wages in Russia. The former Fox News firebrand wheeled a grocery cart around a Russian superstore while marveling at the stock as he continued his Putin PR tour. -snip/ The video drew widespread ridicule from people online, as many pointed out the disparity between the average wage in Russia - which is the equivalent of $9072 - or 6.5 times less than the average US salary of $59,428. Many joked he was working for free as a one-man 'tourism...

Tucker Carlson has turned on Vladimir Putin in the wake of the shocking death of Alexei Navalny, just days after releasing a softball interview with the Russian president and a series of 'tourism board style' videos about the country's clean train stations and cheap groceries. In an exclusive statement to DailyMail.com, Carlson said: 'It's horrifying what happened to Navalny. 'The whole thing is barbaric and awful. No decent person would defend it.' It remains unclear whether the former Fox News host is still in Moscow.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison, the country's state media reported Friday, ending a yearslong fight against corruption and the Kremlin that saw him survive several poisoning attempts. He was 48.

From the very beginning, the Moscow Metro was designed as an instrument of propaganda as well as transportation. Its grandiose stations were not only a projection of the power of the regime but also designed as a promise of sorts, a glimpse for the Soviet people of the heaven on earth that communism would (one day) deliver. It was perhaps thus appropriate that some of its marble was said (probably accurately) to have come from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which had been blown up on Stalin’s orders just a year or two before work on the metro began...

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he was surprised by a lack of sharp questions from U.S. television host Tucker Carlson in an interview that made headlines around the world last week. Putin told a Russian TV interviewer, Pavel Zarubin, that he had wanted Carlson to behave more aggressively, which would have given him the right to reply just as pointedly. "To be honest, I thought that he would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions. I was not just prepared for this, I wanted it, because it would give me the opportunity to respond in the same way," Putin said...