Free Republic

While Moscow hails him for being an efficient mediator, Kyiv insists that Lukin sent the order to militiamen in Sloviansk from their Russian bosses. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) released a transcript of an intercepted telephone conversation between Lukin and Igor Strelkov, head of the pro-Russian self-defense of Sloviansk. According to the SBU, Strelkov’s real name is Igor Girkin, a Russian national and colonel of Russian Military Intelligence. “I’m in Donetsk right now, in good company… You do sort of have a general idea about the task that I’ve been given, don’t you?” Lukin said. “Yes, I know, I’ve been warned…...

Synopsis: The Crocus City Hall concert venue had the Pavshino Police Department located in the same facility. Video taken at the start of the terrorist attack shows a canine officer present. The commentator says the officer ran away from the scene when the shooting started. The commentator also says that none of the officers present confronted the terrorists which would concur with an absence of any such claim from Russian authorities. This is also consistent with the terrorists being captured well away from the crime scene. The commentator quotes a Ukrainian journalist who cites the failings of Russian authorities who...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Trial began Tuesday in Florida for four activists accused of illegally acting as Russian agents to help the Kremlin sow political discord and interfere in U.S. elections. All four are or were affiliated with the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement, which has locations in St. Petersburg, Florida, and St. Louis... In his opening statement, Justice Department attorney Menno Goedman said the group’s members acted under Russian direction to stage protests in 2016 claiming Black people have been victims of genocide in the U.S. and took other actions for the following six years that would...

After years of Russiagate conspiracy theories about how the Russians had somehow rigged the 2016 presidential election using Facebook ads, the Senate Intelligence report awkwardly revealed that the Russian operation had focused most of its attention on black nationalists. The Senate report revealed that "most of the videos" put out by the Russian IRA troll factory on YouTube "pertained to police brutality and the activist efforts of the Black Lives Matter organization" and found that "no single group of Americans was targeted... more than African-Americans" around "race and related issues". But that was an understatement. The Russians had created their...

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and Alsu Kurmasheva—the three prisoners recently freed by Russia—as they arrived at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Thursday. After greeting the freed prisoners, Biden and Harris addressed the media on the tarmac. Following the address, Biden was seen walking back onto the plane that had transported the prisoners, a moment that quickly went viral on social media. Critics seized on the footage, questioning Biden's awareness and fitness for the presidency. Comments flooded social media, with one user on X saying, "He definitely forgot where he was."...

President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the complex prisoner-swap deal with Russia that freed unjustly imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and two others in exchange for prisoners including Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov as a prodigious “feat of diplomacy.” Biden said all four of the recovered prisoners were “convicted in show trials” by Russia “for absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever.” In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the freed detainees included Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Muza, a U.S. green-card holder and Washington Post contributor who was sentenced to 25 years in prison...

The Harris-Biden administration is a boon to Putin. A Trump presidency will destroy all that. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelen, both of whom have been languishing in the Soviet, I mean, Russian prisons for years on trumped-up espionage charges, have been released. It appears that their release is part of a larger, multi-nation prisoner swap that includes the exchange of prisoners from Germany, Great Britain, the US, and Slovenia on the one side and Russia and Belarus on the other. The basis for the suspicion about the multi-national, multi-prisoner release is the sudden...

President Joe Biden celebrated the end of the 'brutal ordeal' for Americans 'imprisoned unjustly' inside Russia as he announced a complex prisoner swap and then led a rendition of 'happy birthday' to the teen daughter of a freed prisoner. Biden made a surprise appearance inside the State Dining Room at the White House hours after the historic deal that freed American ex-Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. All were held inside Russia, Whelan since 2018, for 'no legitimate reason whatsoever - none,' Biden said. 'And now they're brutal ordeal is over and they're free.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday that Dmitry Bulgakov, a former deputy defense minister, had been arrested and charged with corruption, the Interfax news agency reported. -snip- He served as deputy defense minister until he was replaced in 2022 and is the recipient of several top military and civilian awards, including the Hero of Russia award, the country’s highest honour. -snip- Bulgakov, who was in charge of military logistics until he was dismissed in September 2022, is the latest in a string of high-profile defense ministry figures to have been charged with corruption.

Russia strongly condemns Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of Syria's Aleppo; these aggressive actions grossly violate Syria's sovereignty and international law, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "Moscow strongly condemns these aggressive actions, which come in gross violation of Syria's sovereignty and basic rules of international law," the ministry stressed. "Such use of force, which in the current tense regional situation can lead to extremely dangerous consequences and trigger a large-scale armed escalation, are unacceptable," it added. The Russian Foreign Ministry "once again urges the Israeli leadership to abandon this vicious practice fraught with uncontrolled destabilization of the situation in the...

NOTICE: Video might be NSFW. Synopsis: Russia 1 (Russian state television) panel discusses the Crocus City Hall attack and shows video of the attack on Russian television. Much of this video has not been shown on any Western media that I've seen. Also, indications that the fire escape doors in the theatre were locked to prevent anyone from escaping the massacre. The anti-Ukraine narrative is a given here.

Synopsis of the key point: Russian FSB (KGB) agents were present at the Crocus City Hall during the terrorist attack. At least two would seem to be positively identified with one FSB agent also involved in the subsequent arrest of one of the terrorists. Possibly multiple FSB agents were present during the attack with some giving directions to civilians that possibly increased the death toll.

The United States, Britain and Ukraine are behind the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, the chief of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov has told the media. "We believe that this is true. In any case, we are now talking about the factual information we have. This is general information, but they have a long record of this sort," he said after participating in an enlarged meeting of the Prosecutor General's Office board, when asked whether the US, Britain and Ukraine were behind the terrorist attack. Bortnikov believes that Ukraine has been trying to prove it is capable...

... However, Russia experts and a Wagner defector who told the ICC that the Kremlin had ordered "atrocities" in Ukraine have noted several bizarre occurrences on the night of the terror attack. Former GRU Colonel Igor Salikov says that police units supposedly disappeared around the time of the attack, while Vlad's elite forces stationed nearby also failed to show. He claims it all points to a "botched inside job" by the FSB or a poorly executed response by Russian emergency services. Another key detail is the amateur way the four gunmen handled their Kalashnikov machine guns despite ISIS fighters undergoing...

Says a ‘window’ was prepared for them to cross the northern border of Ukraine

Russia has announced the arrest of eleven individuals, including four who are suspected of carrying out a deadly shooting at a concert hall near Moscow, marking the most lethal incident of its kind in the country in two decades. -snip- The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia has reported the apprehension of the “four terrorists” as they were allegedly attempting to cross into Ukraine, repeatedly mentioning that the suspects had connections within Ukraine. They are currently being transported to Moscow for further investigation. Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, expressed on Telegram that the suspects had intended...

Russian authorities detained 11 people, state media reported Saturday, after gunmen stormed a concert hall in Moscow in a grisly attack that left at least 115 people dead. Russia's Investigative Committee said four of those detained were directly involved in the attack that left the sprawling shopping mall and music venue smoldering with a collapsed roof. Russian agencies appeared to suggest the attack was linked to Ukraine even though the Islamic State group claimed responsibility in a statement. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. agencies had confirmed that that group was responsible for the attack. The...

Gunmen have attacked a concert hall on the fringes of Moscow, killing at least 115 people and wounding 100 more, Russian security services say. -snip- According to an unverified statement online, militant group Islamic State said it was behind the attack. -snip- Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet directly addressed the nation.

U.S. officials say American intelligence agencies had gathered information in recent weeks that ISIS was planning an attack in Moscow - but the warnings were dismissed by Russia's President Putin who described them as 'provocative'. A U.S. intelligence official described how American agencies learned how a cell of ISIS based in Afghanistan was planning an attack in Moscow and shared the information with Russian officials. Putin dismissed the alerts as an attempt to intimidate Russians. U.S. officials say that the information was privately shared as recently as three days before gunmen burst into a large concert hall on Friday night,...

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Friday that a shooting and blast targeting a concert hall in the Moscow region will further escalate the conflict in Ukraine. Vucic noted that on March 7, the American Embassy urged citizens not to go shopping in malls in Moscow. “Some other embassies did the same thing later. This means that their services intercepted certain conversations, and they knew this was going to happen. In any case, this is a tragic event that will have incalculable consequences. Some will say they are Islamists, some will say Kyiv. Some will even say that Moscow did it....