Free Republic

President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia will continue to test and start mass-producing the hypersonic ballistic missile that it fired at Ukraine Thursday. In a televised meeting with the leadership of Russia’s defense ministry, Putin claimed the missile could not be intercepted by air defenses and said Russia will begin serial production of the new weapon. “There are currently no means of countering such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world. And I will emphasize once again: We will continue testing the latest system,” Putin said. “Based on the test results, these weapons will also go...

An Olympic gold medalist long rumoured to be Vladimir Putin’s mistress hasn’t been seen for weeks. Alina Kabaeva, 40, hasn’t made a public appearance since October 22 during a visit to her elite gymnastics school in Sochi, a Russian city on the Black Sea. Just days later a sketchy Telegram blog said the Russian president had died of a cardiac arrest, a claim the Kremlin furiously denied as ‘fake news’ at best. Only a week before, the General SVR account alleged that if the leader were to die, a body double would likely rule in his stead. Kabaeva was last...