Free Republic

Die Welt tells its readers the truth

Until it decided to confront Moscow with an existential military threat in Ukraine, Washington confined the use of American military power to conflicts that Americans could afford to lose, wars with weak opponents in the developing world from Saigon to Baghdad that did not present an existential threat to U.S. forces or American territory. This time—a proxy war with Russia—is different. Contrary to early Beltway hopes and expectations, Russia neither collapsed internally nor capitulated to the collective West’s demands for regime change in Moscow. Washington underestimated Russia’s societal cohesion, its latent military potential, and its relative immunity to Western economic...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been portrayed as Santa in an anti-Western propaganda video released on the country's social media. The clip shows a boy in the West writing and drawing a picture for Santa, wishing for traditional male toys as well as a mother and father. In the drawing, the child in the fiction has drawn himself holding hands with a woman and a man. Pictures on the mantelpiece in the child's home show he currently has 'Parent 1' and 'Parent 2' - who are both shown to be male. The boy baulks at seemingly being made to dress...