Free Republic

Vladimir Putin's declining health was responsible for his pulling out of several planned events and appearances in December, it has been claimed. Telegram channel General SVR, which purports to have insider sources in the Kremlin, said Putin's doctors recently noted a 'significant deterioration in his health' and recommended that he step away from appearances to rest. 'In December, following medical recommendations, the president canceled several traditional events and several visits,' the channel alleged. Putin, who turned 70 this year, 'gets tired quickly', suffers 'frequent bouts of dizziness and headaches' and is also prone to 'clouding of consciousness', it added. The...

Remarks highlight Moscow’s growing acknowledgement that invasion is not going to plan. Vladimir Putin has made a rare admission of his country’s military challenges in the 10-month-old war in Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited a key city in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has failed to capture despite months of relentless shelling. In a video message to Russia’s security services, Putin said the situation in the four Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions was “extremely complicated”, and urged security agencies to intensify their efforts to identify “traitors, spies and diversionists”. The video was released on a special holiday dedicated to Russia’s powerful security services....

Vladimir Putin on Tuesday angrily gave marching orders to Russia’s security forces to redouble their efforts to root out traitors and spies working to undermine his regime. -snip- “Maximum composure, concentration of forces is now required from counterintelligence agencies, including military intelligence,” Putin said. “It is necessary to harshly crack down on the actions of foreign special services, promptly identify traitors, spies and saboteurs.” In an uncharacteristic break from the official line that the so-called “special military operation” is going according to plan, Putin admitted the situation was “difficult” in the four regions of Ukraine that were illegally annexed by...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to one of the most dangerous battlefronts in the war against Russia Tuesday when visiting with his troops on the front lines in Bakhmut. The small city in eastern Donetsk and its surrounding area has come to look like a scene out of World War II, as men fill muddy and freezing trenches that wind through destroyed landscapes, while the remnants of pummeled apartment blocks and scorched buildings show the effects of months of shelling in Bakhmut. -snip- Zelenskyy’s visit comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time conceded Tuesday that his 10-month-long...

Vladimir Putin's underfire defence minister Sergei Shoigu was seen limping through a palace hall in Belarus today, months after the Kremlin denied that he had suffered a heart attack. The Russian defence minister — notionally in charge of Russia's invasion of Ukraine — was seen limping in the Palace of Independence in Minsk, with his right hand in his pocket. No explanation was immediately given for his condition.

Basic services were being restored in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Saturday after the latest wave of Russian air strikes on critical infrastructure, as residents navigated a city gripped by fog and girded for a holiday season marked by uncertainty. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a quarter of Kyiv remained without heating but that the metro system was back in service and all residents had been reconnected to water supply by early morning. Only around one-third of the city remained without electricity, he said, but emergency outages would still be implemented to save power. "Because the deficit of electricity is significant," he...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold his annual year-end press conference for the first time in a decade, prompting speculation that the Russian leader is sick or running scared from answering questions about Ukraine as the war enters its 10th month. “As for the big press conference, yes, it won’t happen before the New Year,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday. “But we hope that the president will still find an opportunity to talk with [journalists], as he regularly does, including during foreign [visits],” Peskov added. While Peskov gave no reason behind the move, the war in Ukraine...

Vladimir Putin is reportedly set to have surgery following a fall and is also preparing to move his “loved ones” to a huge bunker facility to celebrate New Year's Eve. Russian President Vladimir Putin, 70, allegedly slipped coming down stairs at his Moscow home and bruised his tailbone, but his office has denied the claims. The Russian leader was seen overnight walking gingerly but unaided down the steps of his aircraft in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, for a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union. -snip- Putin, 70, was also seen awkwardly climbing steps in light snow to meet summit...

VLADIMIR Putin appeared swollen as he issued a warning about Russia’s potential use of nuclear weapons. The Russian tyrant, who is rumoured to be “critically ill”, also gave a chilling update on the war in Ukraine, which he said could last for a long time. Putin’s public appearances during the invasion of Ukraine have shown him out of breath, stumbling over his words, or looking exhausted. His alleged health issues hit a new low after it emerged that he apparently soiled himself during a fall at his official residence. Speaking at a meeting of his own Human Rights Council, Putin...

Vladimir Putin guzzled champagne as he blamed Ukraine for Russia's military strikes while admitting the Kremlin has struck key civilian infrastructure. "There's a lot of noise about our strikes on the energy infrastructure of a neighbouring country. Yes, we do that. But who started it?" the Russian president said at an awards ceremony. Russian President Vladimir Putin put on a grotesquely grand dinner for senior Kremlin members to award Gold Star medals to Heroes of Russia on the eve of Heroes of the Fatherland Day in Moscow. -snip- Also in attendance was Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Head of Chechnya, Ramzan...

A new video of an allegedly intoxicated Vladimir Putin discussing the Russia-Ukraine war has been viewed over 820,000 times on Twitter. -snip- Anna Nemtsova, a journalist based in Moscow, tweeted that Putin's alleged intoxication is a first during his time in office. "We've seen many staged photo&video shoots in 20 Years including half-naked Putin on a horse or diving for some Greek jugs,Putin flying w migratory birds or kissing a boy on the stomach but drunk speeches about Russian missiles striking neighbouring state must be Putin's own act," she tweeted. CBC journalist Evan Dyer called it "very strange to see...

A large explosion was reported to have taken place during the morning of December 5, 2022, at Engels-2, an air base used by Russia for deploying strategic bombers to perform cruise missile attacks on Ukraine. Around the same time, an explosion happened at Dyagilevo, another strategic bomber base in Ryazan region. Reports published to Russian social media channels claim the explosion at Engels was a drone attack and at least two aircraft were damaged. Telegram channel “Mobilizatsiya. Volgogradskaya Oblast,” which reports local news, posted a short video which appears to have been filmed by a CCTV camera. A large explosion...

Explosions have been reported at two airfields in central Russia, hundreds of kilometers to the east of the combat zone in Ukraine. The incidents came as Russia has carried out a massive campaign of air strikes inside Ukraine targeting the country’s power grid and other civilian infrastructure. At least one large explosion occurred at a Russian military air base in the Saratov region, about 600 kilometers east of Ukraine, while another blast was reported by Russian state media at an airfield outside Ryazan, southeast of Moscow. Social-media posts by residents in the cities of Engels and Saratov seemed to show...

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a very difficult day, which ended quite dramatically. Wednesday morning began for Putin with a depressing report on the state of the Russian economy and, as a result, a forecast of an aggravation of the situation in the near future. The sanctions imposed on Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine have a heavy impact on the country's economy and the effect of these sanctions is growing and intensifying over time. The main problems in the Russian economy, according to the forecasts of the authors of the report, will occur in the period of...

Maria Kolesnikova has been moved to an intensive care unit, former presidential candidate Babariko's Telegram account has announced. She was arrested in 2020 after leading protests against Alexander Lukashenko. Leading Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova has been transferred to the intensive care unit of a hospital in the southeastern city of Gomel, jailed opposition politician Viktor Babariko's Telegram account said on Tuesday. The account added that Kolesnikova's lawyer confirmed her hospitalization on Monday. She was first admitted into the surgical ward before being transferred to the intensive care unit. A leading Belarus opposition figure, Kolesnikova has been held behind bars...

Belarus's foreign minister Vladimir Makei was poisoned in a Kremlin sting operation, extraordinary new reports have claimed. The veteran diplomat and former spy died suddenly yesterday amid claims he was in secret contact with the West concerning the war in Ukraine and preventing Belarus from being incorporated into Russia by Vladimir Putin. A video shows Makei, 64, looking healthy on a Belarus military cargo plane last week shortly before he died. He wasn't known to suffer from any chronic illness. -snip- Makei was this week due to attend an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in Poland...

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has postponed a planned visit to Minsk following the death of his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei, according to Russian media reports quoting the foreign ministry. Belarus's state news agency Belta reported on Saturday that the long-standing foreign minister and associate of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko had died suddenly. The cause of death wasn't given and Makei wasn't known to suffer from any chronic illness. Makei, 64, was due to meet Lavrov on Monday. Last week he attended a conference of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) -- a military alliance of several post soviet states...

In a visit to Moscow, Miguel Díaz-Canel showed his support for Russia’s leader, in exchange for the postponement of debt payments. Cuba and Russia are united by sanctions and historic confrontations with the United States. On Tuesday, the leaders of the two countries – Miguel Díaz-Canel and Vladimir Putin – met in Moscow to strengthen their bond. -snip- “We denounce the sanctions against Russia and the sources of the current conflict… make no mistake, Russia is not responsible,” the Cuban president said at the beginning of his meeting with Putin. He went on to accuse Washington of expanding NATO “in...

Vladimir Putin has again been pictured tightly gripping a chair and shuffling his feet amid on-going speculation about the Russian president's health. Footage from Putin's Tuesday meeting with Miguel Díaz-Canel, the president of Cuba and leader of the country's communist party, showed the Russian despot sitting awkwardly in his chair as the pair spoke in front of the cameras. -snip- In the latest example, a puffy-faced Putin is seen smiling gingerly as he speaks with Díaz-Canel infront of a marble fireplace in Moscow. His left hand is seen wrapped tightly around the arm of the white chair he is sitting...

The Kremlin-imposed head of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea says Russian forces are strengthening positions on the peninsula as Ukrainian troops make gains in the nearby Kherson region. Sergei Aksyonov said in a post on Telegram on November 18 that he is overseeing "fortification work" in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Moscow used Crimea in February as one of the areas from which it launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv has said it intends to fight to recapture Crimea.