Free Republic

Russia's under-pressure economy and Vladimir Putin have been dealt a devastating blow after state-controlled gas giant Gazprom recorded a huge net loss of $12.89B (£9.9bn) in 2024. The company's financial woes were compounded by plummeting share prices in its subsidiary Gazpro Neft and an increased income tax rate of 25%. This greatly raised tax liabilities for the company, leading to billions of pounds lost and follows a historic 2023 where Gazprom revealed a net loss for the first time in 25 years, recording a historic deficit of 629 billion rubles ($7.6 billion). The huge financial blow has had a knock...

The invasion of Ukraine is the deadliest conflict for Russia since the Second World War, the British government says, as it places the “likely” death toll for Russian Federation forces at a quarter of a million so far. Russia is “likely” to have taken 900,000 casualties in all since it renewed its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and between 200,000 and 250,000 of those are fatalities, an intelligence digest from Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said. The review of Russia’s combat casualties so far come as U.S. President Donald Trump places clear emphasises on ending what he calls the “killing...