Free Republic

A RUSSIAN military plane crashed in a fireball after flames were seen spurting from one of its engines. It is the latest disaster from Vladimir Putin's creaking military as the IL-76 went down in Ivanovo, Russia. The large aircraft is widely used by the Russian military as a transport plane for the war in Ukraine. It is reported numerous bodies were recovered from the wreckage. Dramatic footage captured the plane plunging from the sky with flames spitting from one of its engines. Putin's military is wracked with corruption and its vehicles and aircraft are often poorly maintained.

James Olson, the spy agency's former chief of counterintelligence, said he believes the sharks are now circling for the tyrant back home in Russia. Olson said that Putin is now in a "no win" situation - with the war either devolving into a grinding statelemate, or ending with Vlad's death. He said if Putin stays in power he will never give up the war - and so the way to end it is for Vlad to be killed or ousted. Olson, who served for over 30 years in the CIA and won medals for his service, explained that things don't...

RUSSIA has hundreds of thousands of soldiers, thousands of tanks, and hundreds of warplanes preparing for a new assault, Ukraine has warned. Vladimir Putin is believed to be preparing for a massive new offensive in the coming weeks to coincide with the first anniversary of the war in February 24. Ukraine has been monitoring the military build up as they continue to plea for Western support - including during Volodymyr Zelensky's visit yesterday to London. Zelensky hailed the UK for its support - but warned it may not be enough, and called for modern fighter planes. The new assault is...

…. Putin's more than 22 years as a mob boss running a mafia state from Moscow have seen him descend from reformer and uneasy ally to tyrant and global pariah. Once upon a time he was pictured posing outside Downing Street with Tony Blair and riding in a golf cart with US President George W. Bush. But now paranoid and delusional Vlad remains holed up in the bubble-like environment of the Kremlin as he turns 70. Furiously ranting about the West in rambling speeches and wildly swinging his nuclear sabre, Putin's long cultivated image as a cold and calculating strongman...