Free Republic

n the face of mounting tensions, Vladimir Putin’s overarching strategic objective is now clear: to dismantle NATO and expose the alliance’s vulnerabilities. With Russia experiencing setbacks in Ukraine, the immediate threat to NATO members like Poland and the Baltic States may be somewhat mitigated. However, it is in the Balkans where NATO ’s weakest flank lies, presenting an opportune target for Russia’s ambitions. *snip* This escalation is a dream come true for Moscow. Serbia and Russia have been preparing the Serbs for escalations in Kosovo for months, inflaming tensions in the Balkans to distract the West from its war in...

Pavel Gubarev, a Russian political figure in Donbass, openly and freely describes his point of view to Russian media. Highlights include saying it's okay to kill up to five million Ukrainians in order to conquer Ukraine, it's acceptable to kill all of the Ukrainians if that's what it takes and he freely calls this genocide, like many Russians he makes numerous references to engaging NATO in a nuclear war if Russia is not allowed to reassemble their empire, etc. All in his own words without editorial narrative.

The Russian nation is more dependent on an autocrat and security state than any other European nation, and it has been for centuries — even before the Soviet era — whether it was the streltsy, Preobrazhensky Guard, Okhrana, Cheka, KGB, or siloviki. The wealthy aristocrats, now called oligarchs (previously boyars) never made a serious bid to circumscribe the autocrats’ power, unlike in most European nations; the Russian Orthodox Church has been dependent on the state since at least 1700; and, as for the masses, they have always been viewed as an instrument of the state or a resource to be...

The word “imperialism” comes from the Latin word imperium. It refers to a nation or a state implanting its rule on other states, treating them as subordinates and in an inferior fashion. Some suggest today that America is behaving imperialistically—we do, after all, have some 600 military bases around the world. So it is worth recalling some historical examples of imperialism to understand what the idea entails. Looking at empires through history, we can identify several things that most of them have in common. One is that their leaders often say or seem to believe that their imperialist policies have...

It is one year since the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was largely destroyed by Russian forces and captured. It is now being transformed and presented as a showcase for rule from Moscow - and some Russians are even hoping to buy homes there. Russia claimed to have annexed Mariupol, along with all other occupied areas, following a series of referendums that have been widely condemned as sham exercises. About 90% of the city's buildings were damaged or destroyed by Russian shelling during a gruelling two-month siege. Thousands of civilians were killed and about 350,000 people left, out of the pre-war...

The essence of imperialism is, above all, to dominate, possess, own, appropriate, and thoroughly expropriate people considered inferior. One of the subjugated peoples within capitalist societies is the class of women. Dominant men, including leftists and liberals, have colluded with capitalism to carry out various forms of the colonisation of women

JOHANNESBURG, March 28 (Reuters) - China spent $240 billion bailing out 22 developing countries between 2008 and 2021, with the amount soaring in recent years as more have struggled to repay loans spent building "Belt & Road" infrastructure, according to a study published Tuesday. Almost 80% of the rescue lending was made between 2016 and 2021, mainly to middle-income countries including Argentina, Mongolia and Pakistan, according to the report by researchers from the World Bank, Harvard Kennedy School, AidData and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. China has lent hundreds of billions of dollars to build infrastructure in developing...

Every four years, the World Cup comes around and Americans become interested in soccer until the men’s team loses. Then it is back to football. There is women’s soccer, too, but it attracts little interest, in large part because it is woke.The rest of the world is soccer mad because it is three minutes of action packed into three hours of drinking beer. Americans have baseball for that.Soccer also has a political side, which Alain Destexhe of the Gatestone Institute explored in this year’s celebration in Belgium — the de facto capital of Europe. The cheering was raucous and illuminating.Destexhe...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that the Western response to his war in Ukraine is pushing Russia and Belarus towards unification. "Unprecedented political and sanctions pressure from the collective West is pushing Russia and Belarus to speed up the unification process," Putin told a bilateral forum in the Belarusian city of Grodno on Friday. "After all, it is easier to minimize the damage from illegal sanctions, it is easier to master the production of demanded products, develop new competencies and expand cooperation with friendly countries," the Russian leader added.

The position of Special Representative was first announced by the State Department in its April Equity Action Plan. The position’s holder has not been named, but the Special Representative will have wide-reaching powers, since he or she will be responsible for “institutionaliz[ing] an enterprise-wide approach to integrating racial and ethnic equity.” The email names “advancing equity, addressing systemic racism, and strengthening democracy worldwide” as “national security imperatives and core tenets of President Biden’s foreign policy.” Although the Special Representative will be responsible for “promoting systems of inclusion that mitigate bias, discrimination, and violence” and “fostering more inclusive societies,” previous U.S....

According to The Washington Post report, citing Western officials, China is constructing a naval base for its military in Cambodia, with both Beijing and Phnom Penh going to great lengths to conceal the operation. According to a Western official speaking on condition of anonymity, the facility, which will occupy a portion of Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, will be only China’s second foreign outpost after the opening of a base in the East African nation of Djibouti in 2017. The base is said to be located west of the South China Sea, where Beijing has territorial...

When will the guerilla war against Russian occupation start? Will the Ukrainian Govt retreat to Lviv? Will Russia invade western Ukraine too? Two weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, and still no ‘decapitation’ of the Ukrainian government, no city captured except Kherson (which no non-Ukrainian had ever heard of before the war), and maybe 2,000 military dead on each side. It’s not exactly a stalemate, since the Russians have more tanks, more artillery and more air power, and they have not yet used them as aggressively as they might. So, we can use this (relative) pause in the fighting to examine...

Russian President Vladimir Putin announces a "military operation" in Ukraine's Donbas region He urges Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Ukraine to lay down weapons and return to their homes Putin warns that Moscow's response will be "instant" if anyone tries to take on Russia Ukraine's foreign minister accuses Russia of starting a full-scale war, and urges the UN "to do everything possible" to stop it BBC Kyiv correspondent James Waterhouse says a Ukrainian government official has given an indication of the breadth of the Russian military action so far. The official says there have been cruise missile strikes launched this morning...

Failure to repay a loan taken from China in 2015 to improve the Entebbe Airport resulted in the Chinese government taking possession of the country and its entire population. Ugandan Finance Minister Matia Kasaija admitted he had not thoroughly examined the terms of the loan documentation and apologized "for the hardships that will befall our people. As I now read the terms, our people are now the chattel property of the Chinese government and will be shipped as replacement workers for Uyghurs who succumb to the harsh conditions in China's solar panel factories. Perhaps it is somewhat consoling that the...

ROME (AP) — Leaders of the world’s biggest economies on Saturday endorsed a global minimum tax on corporations as part of an agreement on new international tax rules, a step toward building more fairness amid skyrocketing revenues of some multinational businesses. The move by the Group of 20 summit in Rome was hailed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen as benefiting American businesses and workers. G-20 finance ministers in July had already agreed on a 15% minimum tax. Its formal endorsement at the summit Saturday in Rome of the world’s economic powerhouses was widely expected. Yellen predicted in a...

The US military, specifically its leadership, has not had a good year. While the bungled, deadly evacuation from Afghanistan was the clearest sign of incompetence yet, that disaster followed decades of failure and corruption. Instead of admitting there’s a problem and improving, the US military has been busy prosecuting soldiers for speaking out.By contrast, the Chinese communists are eating our lunch by building the world’s largest navy, advancing next-generation technologies, and promoting unity and strength among their rank and file. The latest example of their advancement has left US officials dumbfounded, after the Chinese military launched a nuclear-capable hypersonic glider...

China launched a new hypersonic nuclear-capable missile that circled the entire globe at low-orbit in August, the Financial Times reported. US Intelligence and US Military officials were left stunned. “We have no idea how they did this,” a source told the Financial Times. According to the report, the missile missed its target by about 24 miles and caught US intel by surprise. TRENDING: Subway Worker Films Himself Walking through Food, Drinking from Bottles for Sale, Putting Tomato Slices on Toilet Rim Before Making Sandwiches (VIDEO) Earlier this year, a satellite image showed China had expanded its nuclear missile silo field....

A South Korean court has issued an unprecedented order for assets seized from Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to be sold to compensate World War II forced labourers, prompting Tokyo to protest on Tuesday. ...On Monday, the Daejeon District Court ruled that two patents and two trademarks held by Mitsubishi Heavy should be sold to compensate two female Korean plaintiffs in their 90s, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency....

Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday warned that relations between Beijing and Taipei were “grim”, urging the island’s main opposition party to help seek “unification of the country.” China views Taiwan as part of its territory and vows to retake it one day, by force if necessary. Xi has become the most bellicose leader since Mao Zedong, describing the seizure of the island as “inevitable.” In a congratulatory letter to Eric Chu — the newly elected leader of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) party — Xi said the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT should collaborate under a “shared political basis.” “In...

Iwoke up this morning to video clips of Afghanis falling to their deaths from the undercarriage of US Air Force cargo planes taking off from Kabul airport. Home/Rod Dreher/The Fall Of Imperial America The Fall Of Imperial America AUGUST 16, 2021|2:36 PM ROD DREHER Iwoke up this morning to video clips of Afghanis falling to their deaths from the undercarriage of US Air Force cargo planes taking off from Kabul airport. A friend pointed out that this is a fitting, if horrific, bookend to the American adventure in Afghanistan. He wrote, of the Falling Man of 9/11, and the falling...