Free Republic

Stanislav Orlov, the founder of the Russian reconnaissance and sabotage brigade “Espanola”, has been killed in Russia, Militarnyi reported on December 19, citing Russian war correspondents and statements from the unit itself. According to information published by pro-Russian military bloggers, Orlov, known by the callsign “Spaniard,” died from gunshot wounds sustained during his detention. He was reportedly accused of illegally misappropriating 1.5 billion rubles (approximately $18.5 million). The pro-Kremlin outlet Mash claimed that Orlov had been in a coma for several days prior to his death, though the exact cause of the coma was not disclosed. Orlov arrived in the...

Speaking in Crimea on August 14, Vladimir Putin recalled that the peninsula had been the last refuge of the anti-Bolshevik White Russian army in 1920 before it fled Russia, bringing the Russian Civil War to an end. Formerly a site of fratricidal conflict, the Crimea should become a site of “reconciliation between Reds and Whites,” said Putin, a call which paralleled his appeal for an end to the conflict in Ukraine. The Soviet Union collapsed only 22 years ago, so there are still some old Reds floating about, but there certainly aren’t any of the original Whites, the last of...