Free Republic

Saturday marks the 86th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, an agreement concluded between Moscow and Berlin that would effectively lead to the carve up of Poland and condemn the world to six years of war. In hindsight, it is abundantly clear that a major global conflict had long been brewing, however, it was the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that is now viewed as the final treachery that would lead to war. While, in essence, the pact was billed as a non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, it contained a secret annex that divided...

Award-winning US filmmaker Woody Allen will take part in Moscow International Film Week, according to the event's website. Kicking off this Saturday, the festival is expected to feature dozens of foreign participants. The event has attracted a large number of international attendees despite a wave of 'cancel culture' targeting Russian art and Western attempts to isolate the country's creative community. The director, screenwriter, and four-time Oscar winner will participate in the film week online, hosting a special session titled Legends of World Cinema. The session will be moderated by top Russian director and producer Fyodor Bondarchuk. Joining Allen as participants...

In May of this year the world was shocked by the Moscow City government decision to unveil a grand bas-relief of Stalin at the Taganskaya metro station in the heart of Moscow. Widely seen as a murderous dictator on a par with Hitler by westerners, Stalin is a much more complicated figure for Russians. He is responsible for the Red Terror of the 30s where millions were shot or sent to the GULAG as well as the mass deportations that still fuel hatred of Russians today in countries like Estonia that were worst affected. But for the average Russian he...

The retired CIA spy who says she led the team that helped draft the controversial 2016 U.S. intelligence community assessment on Russian election meddling has called Donald Trump a “dictator” and MAGA supporters “Nazis” — and insists that the now-discredited Steele dossier “might be true.” Susan Miller, a recently-retired CIA counterintelligence officer, has taken to social media and news media interviews in recent days to tell the story of how she was allegedly hand-picked by former CIA Director John Brennan to lead the team which helped draft the ICA in late 2016, gleefully exposing her anti-Trump sentiments. She has repeatedly...

Recent revelations from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard have undermined the Deep State party line that Seth Rich’s murder was a botched robbery. This assumption hinged on the nearly universal acceptance that it was the Russians who hacked the DNC and DCCC servers in 2016. That assumption has collapsed. In the early morning hours of July 10, 2016, unknown assailants beat and then shot to death the 27-year-old DNC data analyst. This much is not in question. Everything else about Rich’s murder is. The most honest assessment of what happened to Rich came from his mother. On the day...

US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will visit Moscow on Sunday to try for a breakthrough in negotiations on the Ukrainian conflict, according to US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker. Trump has also announced that Witkoff will travel to Russia, although he gave no specific timeline. The special envoy has previously met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions during past diplomatic efforts. DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to four life sentences without the possibility of parole on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022. The surviving roommates and families of the victims delivered emotional statements at the sentencing hearing, held in a courtroom in Boise. When given the opportunity to speak, Kohberger declined to do so. Kohberger pleaded guilty earlier this month to the murders of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves as part of a plea deal that spared him from the death penalty. He was in the courtroom Wednesday...

California gained an embassy in Russia last weekend, at least in the eyes of those who have promised to seek a statewide vote on secession, nicknamed "Calexit," in 2018. Louis Marinelli, a San Diego resident who is the leader of the group promoting an effort to turn the state into an independent country , organized the Moscow event that was publicized on social media. "We want to start laying the groundwork for a dialogue about an independent California joining the United Nations now," he said in an email Monday.

Vladimir Putin has been left humiliated after Ukrainian drones penetrated Russian air defences for the fourth successive day. Moscow and the surrounding regions were under siege as Ukrainian forces unleashed more than 100 aircraft, targeting multiple buildings in the early hours of this morning. Footage circulating on Russian pro-war Telegram channels shows several explosions leaving homes shaking and windows shattered. Chaos also engulfed four of the capital’s airports – Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovskiy – with as many as 134 flights having to be redirected. By 10am local time, only two remained closed to air traffic – Vnukovo in the...

UKRAINE unleashed chaos at Moscow’s four airports with a fourth successive drone blitz rocking the city. Hundreds of passenger planes had to be diverted as waves of flying bombs converged on the Russian capital. Footage showed explosions as Russian air defences attacked incoming unmanned planes in Zelenograd, a district 23 miles northwest of the Kremlin. Ukraine has stepped up assaults since Donald Trump reportedly told Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky it was time to make Russians feel “the pain” of war. Russia's defence ministry claimed to have downed 93 Ukrainian drones overnight across nine regions - 19 of them over the...

A black woman who moved from the US to Russia to escape ‘discrimination’ and ‘racism’ revealed on social media that the entire plan backfired on her in a disturbing way. In a heartbreaking video, Francine Villa claims both she and her baby were brutally attacked by racist neighbors in Moscow. The fact that the attack occurred in her homeland is an extra painful blow. Villa had previously spoken about her move back in the 2020 documentary “Black in the USSR” which aired on the Russian State Media channel, RT. After a year of living in Moscow, she told RT, “I...

Even as war rages in Iraq, federal agents have begun to unlock the secrets of an unlicensed, unregistered Islamic charity in upstate New York that allegedly pumped millions of dollars into Baghdad. Flouting U.S. economic sanctions, the group shipped cash out of Syracuse, laundered it in banks in Jordan and then illegally funneled it into Iraq, according to an unsealed federal indictment. Operating under the name Help the Needy, the organization described itself as a tax-exempt nonprofit that provided food and humanitarian assistance to the "starving children and suffering Muslims of Iraq." But it lacked charitable status, misrepresented itself in...

Belarusian Telegraph Agency reports that a one-of-a-kind artifact was found during excavations near Moscow's Church of the Icon of the Mother of God -- a lead seal dating to the rule of Ivan III (reigned 1462–1505). It was among the 3,000 objects that have been uncovered at the site in recent years. The sixteenth-century seal is the first grand ducal seal ever found in the city and the last known example made of lead. Soon after these items, which were fixed to important political documents, began to be made from wax. One side of the seal depicts an image of...

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Moscow on Sunday for critical diplomatic consultations with Russian officials, as tensions continue to escalate in the region following recent U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. According to Iran’s official news agency IRNA, Araghchi is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials to discuss regional and international developments in light of the ongoing conflict. The visit comes on the tenth day of the Israel-Iran war and follows what Tehran has described as coordinated U.S. and Israeli military aggression. The Iranian foreign ministry emphasized the importance of dialogue with...

Iran’s foreign minister will head to Moscow late Sunday night to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of U.S. strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities. The Daily Telegraph reports Abbas Araghchi confirmed Iran “reserves all options to defend its security, its interests, its people…All options are on the table” while applauding Russia as “a friend of Iran.” The report notes Araghchi said he will speak to Iran’s key ally on how to proceed. “We always consult with each other,” he added in a press conference in Istanbul. The trip comes after President Donald Trump announced Saturday evening U.S....

Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, traveled to Pyongyang on Tuesday under the direct orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, signaling a deepening of strategic military cooperation between North Korea and Russia. The visit, Shoigu's second in less than two weeks and third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in just three months, comes as Moscow seeks to draw Pyongyang closer in its protracted war effort in Ukraine. Observers say the visit suggests a bid by Russia to leverage shifting global attention — particularly the West’s growing preoccupation with escalating tensions between Israel and Iran — to secure...

Newly released CIA memoranda suggest the tech gurus behind the Alfa Bank hoax also tracked Donald Trump’s movements to devise another collusion conspiracy theory. Newly released CIA memoranda suggest the tech gurus behind the Alfa Bank hoax also tracked Donald Trump’s movements to devise another collusion conspiracy theory. While smaller in scale than other aspects of Spygate, the Yotaphone hoax represents an equally serious scandal because it involved both the mining of proprietary information and sensitive data from the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and the apparent surveillance of Trump’s physical movements. When Special Counsel John Durham charged former...

A Russian Orthodox priest has sparked controversy with his provocative claim that Russian Muslims could be mobilized to commit violence against Christians. The statement was made as Moscow's Muslim community celebrated the holy festival of Eid al-Adha on Sunday. Schema-abbot Gavriil, during his sermon, referred to the Muslims congregating on Peace Avenue in Moscow for the festivities: "The entire space is covered with people. And these are healthy men, who do not drink alcohol, who wrestle and go to gyms for training." He made an alarming assertion: "This is a whole army. And if, one fine day, a mullah orders...

Ukraine says it has handed Russia a “memorandum” on a proposed ceasefire, urging Moscow to do the same in return, as fresh talks next week emerge as a possibility. Russia has proposed a second round of Moscow-Kyiv talks for Monday June second, calling Istanbul “the central location for talks”. The Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergey Shoigu thanked Turkey for its “significant efforts” to support talks, saying on Thursday they had ensured “security and creating favorable conditions for the delegations’ work”. Should these talks materialise, they would come over two weeks after the historic but unproductive first set of...

A monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin erected in Moscow's metro is stirring debate, with some Russians welcoming it as a historical tribute, but others saying it's a mistake to commemorate someone who presided over so much suffering. -snip- Nearly 700,000 people were executed in Stalin's 1937-38 Great Terror amid show trials and purges of his real and perceived enemies. Many other Soviet citizens were sent to the Gulag, a grim network of prison camps, spread across the world's largest country. The Moscow metro said in a statement that the new version of the monument, which was presented to the...