Free Republic

Top officials on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign rebuffed requests from a lower level volunteer seeking meetings between the then-real estate mogul and Russian government, according to email exchanges leaked to The Washington Post. According to The Post, George Papadopoulos, an energy consultant, sent a half-dozen emails to Trump campaign officials suggesting and requesting meetings between Trump and members of the Russian government, including Vladimir Putin. The campaign emails, which were read to The Post by an unidentified source, reveal a previously-undisclosed connection between a member of the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Papadopoulos indicated in some of the emails...

Did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan hightail it to Moscow to check in with his handpicked UN reform man Yevgeny Primakov within weeks of William Safire’s New York Times expose on alleged scandal in the Oil-For-Food Program? The first of Safire’s groundbreaking Oil-For-Food investigative stories ran in mid-March, 2004. Here’s Annan’s Moscow itinerary as documented by The Russian Federation: "Annan arrived in Moscow on Sunday, April 4, 2004 where he had an early working dinner with Evgeni (sic) Primakov, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation." On the following day, Annan visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where...

Did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan hightail it to Moscow to check in with his handpicked UN reform man Yevgeny Primakov within weeks of William Safire’s New York Times expose on alleged scandal in the Oil-For-Food Program? The first of Safire’s groundbreaking Oil-For-Food investigative stories ran in mid-March, 2004. Here’s Annan’s Moscow itinerary as documented by The Russian Federation: "Annan arrived in Moscow on Sunday, April 4, 2004 where he had an early working dinner with Evgeni (sic) Primakov, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation." On the following day, Annan visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where...

The head of Iran's nuclear program is in Moscow for talks with senior Russian officials, amid continuing international concern that Tehran is secretly trying to develop atomic weapons. Iranian nuclear energy chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov are expected to meet Monday to discuss bilateral cooperation. Russia is helping Iran build a nuclear power plant in the port city of Bushehr, despite pressure from the United States to end the effort. Moscow also has been urging Iran to cooperate more closely with U.N. nuclear inspectors, to ease concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Iran insists its nuclear program...

MADRID, Spain (Reuters) - Russia offered to support NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan Wednesday but ruled out sending troops to a country where Moscow pulled out of a disastrous occupation in the 1980s. Alliance Secretary-General George Robertson said after a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Madrid that the offer, made by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, highlighted the dramatic improvement in relations between the Cold War foes. "A few years ago ... it would have been inconceivable that a NATO presence in Afghanistan would have been welcomed by the Russian authorities," he told a news conference. Ivanov did not specify...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Details emerged on Friday of a tough U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution that would give Iraq less than six weeks to disclose any weapons of mass destruction and hold the threat of military action over its head. President Bush, facing resistance in Europe and at home to his avowed policy of forcing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power, repeated his willingness to act without U.N. approval if necessary. "Our last choice is to commit our troops to harm's way, but if we have to, to defend our freedoms, if we have to, the United States will lead a...