Free Republic

Iran’s Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan arrived in Moscow this week at the head of a large military delegation and laid before President Vladimir Putin and his Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu a $14 billion check. Now, make our Revolutionary Guards Corps and regular forces into an up-to-the-minute war machine, he said. The plan to make over and upgrade Iran’s military was first approved by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is to be paid for with funds released by newly lifted sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The ayatollah aspires to rebuild the two branches – the IRGC with...

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was a "true friend" to Russia and was admired both at home and abroad, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a message on Monday, after it was confirmed that Raisi died in a helicopter crash a day earlier. Raisi "was rightly highly respected by his compatriots and enjoyed great prestige abroad," Putin said in a condolence message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that was released by the Kremlin. "As a true friend of Russia, he made an invaluable personal contribution to the development of good neighbourly relations between our countries and made great efforts...

Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned Iran's new interim president on Monday as Moscow made clear its desire to preserve and build on its deepening relationship with Tehran despite the sudden death of President Ebrahim Raisi. The Kremlin said Putin expressed his condolences to interim president Mohammad Mokhber and to the whole Iranian people over Raisi's death in a helicopter crash, describing Raisi as a "reliable partner who made an invaluable personal contribution" to bilateral relations. "Both sides emphasised their mutual desire to further consistently strengthen comprehensive Russian-Iranian interaction for the benefit of the peoples of the two countries," the Kremlin...

In a conversation with the First Vice President, the special assistant to the Russian President stated that, by Putin's order, two advanced aircrafts with special helicopters and 50 professional mountain rescue personnel will be dispatched to Tabriz, Iranian media reported on Sunday overnight.

An Israeli missile attack that killed a senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force in Syria last week has sparked criticism of the military partnership between Russia and Iran. On 25 December, Seyyed Reza Mousavi, a key figure in shaping Iran's military presence in Syria, was killed in a missile strike on his residence in the Zainabiyah neighbourhood of Damascus. Although it wasn't the first time that Israel had targeted Iranian forces in Syria, this incident has drawn attention to Russia's failure to deploy its advanced S-300 anti-missile defence system in support of Iran, its primary...

Russia’s unprovoked brutalization of Ukraine includes the likelihood of additional war crimes involving attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, as Jim further detailed in today’s Jolt. (Jim notes, among other horribles, the deployment in urban areas of thermobaric multiple-rockets launchers, which Ukraine claims have been not merely deployed but used.)How hair-raising, then, that we must turn our attention to the fact that, even as Russia was marshaling its invasion forces, the Biden administration was relying on Russia as its principal intermediary in the negotiations with Iran. It’s doubly humiliating: The president and his envoy, appeasement aficionado Rob Malley, have turned...

That is what makes a real tragedy of then-FBI director Mueller's apparent willful blindness in allowing his FBI to be slow-rolled in making a case against Russian criminals who were moving yellow-cake uranium (U1) out of U.S. control and safeguards. The radioactive half-life of uranium products being processed into reactor rods is four million years. Breathe it in and die. So when Robert Mueller was selected as special counsel, he knew what he had done -- even if the yellowcake crimes had not yet been made public. An honorable man would have turned down the assignment. Furthermore, his connection to...

Under the terms of the Iranian nuclear sellout, the United Nations Security Council must approve the sale of certain conventional weapons to Iran. Since the United States has a veto in the Security Council, this means that the United States can veto such sales. It was recently announced that Iran intends to purchase the latest Sukhoi-30 warplanes from Russia. Those warplanes would need to be approved by the Security Council under the terms of the nuclear sellout. But under questioning before the House Foreign Affairs Committee by Representative Brad Sherman (D-Ca) on Thursday, Secretary of State Kerry refused to...

Confirmation of Iran’s intention to develop nuclear weapons comes in the form of the announcement that the sale of Russia’s sophisticated and state-of-the-art S300 air and missile defense missile system has now reached the delivery stage. One does not need such weaponry to defend reactors generating nothing but electricity. In touting his deal with Iran over its nuclear program, which at best merely kicks the can past the end of his presidency so others can be blamed when it fails, President Obama has said that if Iran breaks the agreement we will know it. That sale and delivery of the...

Russia and Iran have formally reached a deal for Moscow to deliver Tehran advanced S-300 missile systems, deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov told RIA Novosti on Wednesday afternoon. "As things stand now, this topic is closed," Bogdanov stated. "We have reached full understanding on the matter together with our Iranian partners." "The question has been fundamentally solved," he stressed. "The rest is just technical details."

Russia has given Iran its bear hug and warns Israel and the West that an attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. The threat heightens the prospect of World War III in the event of a military strike on Iran. “Iran is our neighbor,” Russia's outgoing ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters in Brussels. “And if Iran is involved in any military action, it’s a direct threat to our security.”

Five Russian scientists who died in a plane crash on Tuesday had been helping Iran with nuclear secrets, it has been revealed. They were among 45 killed when the plane's lights failed in heavy fog and careered into a motorway before bursting into flames - leading conspiracy theorists to believe it was a deliberate plot to kill the nuclear experts. Russian security sources confirmed that the dead scientists worked at the controversial Bushehr nuclear plant on the Iranian Persian Gulf.

A Game-Changing Weapon Ryan MauroThe Russian company Concern Morinformsystem-Agat is marketing a deadly new weapon, one that can allow a rogue state to overcome the technological superiority of Western militaries. The system can even be used to carry out devastating attacks on the U.S. homeland with little means of defense.The system, as seen in its promotional video, allows a weak nation to strike the land and sea targets of a superior force by placing cruise missiles into any type of 40 foot container. The video uses a ship, truck and train as examples of potential launching platforms. This means that...