Free Republic

Twilight of the Magicians: Aleksandr Dugin and the War Against the West "If the Fourth Political Practice is not able to realize the end of times, then it would be invalid. The end of days should come; but it will not come by itself. This is a task, it is not a certainty. It is active metaphysics. It is a practice.” ALEKSANDR DUGIN, THE FOURTH POLITICAL THEORY [I] The “philosopher” who has done the most to justify Russia’s war against the West is Aleksandr Dugin. He was the first to advocate a Russian invasion of Ukraine. He has also advocated...

NATO member Turkey would consider taking its relations with the China and Russia-led security bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, to a higher level, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday. "Turkey's prospect of (full) membership to the organization does not imply a breakaway from any other bloc or from the West," Erdogan said, according to a transcript of remarks he made to journalists on his return flight from Kyrgyzstan. Erdogan attended a summit of the SCO, of which Turkey is a "dialog partner," in Bishkek on Tuesday. Erdogan also said on Wednesday that a mechanism is needed to permanently ensure...

Greece is set to sign a 3.1 billion euro defence agreement with Israel in Tel Aviv, marking the largest single defence export deal in Israeli history and equipping Athens with its first fully integrated, multi-layered air defence system. A Greek delegation will formalise the contract with the Israeli Defence Ministry, concluding three years of negotiations. The systems, known collectively in Greece as Achilles’ Shield, will be delivered in stages and are scheduled to reach full operational readiness within 35 months. Most of the funding will flow to Rafael Advanced Defence Systems for David’s Sling batteries capable of intercepting heavy rockets...

Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski stated at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Warsaw does not want allied nuclear weapons stationed on its soil, according to Politico on August 27. This statement represents the most explicit position expressed by Polish authorities on the matter to date. Zalewski emphasized that while Poland intends to remain an active participant in NATO's collective nuclear deterrence framework, that role does not require physical deployment of nuclear warheads within Polish borders. “I would like to state clearly and openly: Poland does not want to have nuclear warheads on its territory. We want to participate in...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin ​will not attack a NATO country, and he played down media ‌reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe warned Russian officials against such an attack earlier in the week. "He's not going to attack a NATO territory," Trump said of the Russian leader while speaking to reporters ​in the Oval Office. Earlier in the day, Trump told Axios in a ​phone interview that there would be no such attack, and that Ratcliffe, who ⁠flew to Russia on Tuesday to meet briefly with intelligence counterparts, had not ​been dispatched to...

MOSCOW, Aug ‌27 (Reuters) - Russia warned on ​Thursday that it ​could strike British military targets inside and outside Ukraine in response to Ukrainian attacks on targets inside Russia using long-range British cruise missiles. The warning, delivered by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a news briefing ‌in Moscow, has been made before but without such rhetorical force or urgency. Zakharova said that London was ⁠just "one step away" from becoming legally complicit — in Moscow's eyes — for what she called "terrorism" against Russian civilians and warned of "inevitable catastrophic consequences" unless Britain changed course. Her ‌reference to...

The US MIC is about making money for fatcats; Russia's MIC is about winning wars (if they cannot be avoided)...

The (relatively admirable) status of democracy in Russia...

The Department of War on Friday revoked former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall's eligibility for access to classified intel after he leaked classified information about Air Force One to the media. The Biden-era Air Force Secretary leaked sensitive information about President Trump's Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet to The New York Times. Full statement from Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell: Effective immediately, the Department of War has REVOKED former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall’s eligibility for access to classified information and his ability to hold any sensitive position. This action follows his unauthorized disclosure of classified information...

The US delegation walked out of a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, in protest at comments made by France that compared Washington's voting on human rights to that of authoritarian states. The diplomatic row was initially sparked last week, when the US joined North Korea and Russia in voting against extending Volker Turk's term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. After the vote on Friday, France's UN mission criticised the US and compared it to North Korea and Russia. "The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore," it posted on X. In response, US...

Turkey still does not meet the legal requirements to rejoin the F-35 fighter jet program, the US State Department said in a letter to Congress obtained by The Jerusalem Post. The July 22 letter, sent by the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs on behalf of US President Donald Trump in response to a letter from Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Missouri), reiterated that Washington’s policy toward Turkey’s participation in the F-35 program remains unchanged and is fully consistent with the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and Section 1245 of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. According to...

While most war crimes committed by Serb forces during the Balkan wars are being investigated and made public knowledge, the role played by Russian mercenaries kontraktniki [contract soldiers] deserves more attention. Many Russian citizens voluntarily fought in the Balkans for the government of Serbian President Slobodan Miloševiæ, committing a range of crimes along the way including mass murder, assault and battery, rape, robbery, and theft. Most, if not all, of these Russian kontraktniki war criminals have gone unidentified by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague – hence, so far, unpunished. As the Miloševiæ trial...

YouTube video - no text for body of thread. Hopefully not an over exaggeration, but there definitely seems to be activity on the ground and Tousi *claims* Pahlavi is getting ready to call for an uprising. Hopefully it's not just wishful.

The Los Angeles Times recently published a "News Analysis" headlined: "Trump, long a critic of 'forever wars,' may be stumbling into one with Iran." The analysis offers legitimate grounds for criticizing President Donald Trump. He has described the objectives of the war against Iran in different ways. He has made changing predictions about its duration. He has repeatedly suggested that an agreement was near, only for negotiations to collapse. He promised no more endless Middle East wars, yet the conflict has continued for months, American servicemembers have died, and the administration has not clearly defined what victory looks like. All...

Bulgaria’s parliament votes to allow the United States to base refueling planes in the country, as Donald Trump threatens to further escalate military attacks on Iran. Washington made the request Friday, and parliament approved it with 136 votes in favor, 13 against and two abstentions. Bulgaria will authorize the deployment of up to eight KC-135 tanker aircraft and up to 250 military personnel, tasked with supporting operations in the Middle East. They will be stationed at Bezmer Air Base in the southeast, from July 24 to October 1, 2026. Yesterday, amid news that Bulgaria may host the refuelers, Tehran warned...

• Trump's willingness to even consider lifting the F-35 ban is being seen in the context of his charm offensive to forge closer ties with Erdogan, an initiative the American leader has undertaken despite the Turkish leader's well-documented support for radical Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. • Erdogan also seems to have initiated a charm offensive, most likely with at least a partial view to prying loose those F-35s. • According to the report published by Israel's i24News, Kurdish militias were preparing to launch an attack on Iran with the aim of instigating a nationwide rebellion...

As Estonia's Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur prepared to fly to the NATO summit in Ankara this month, he revealed to local journalists that several hundred U.S. troops deployed to his Baltic nation in the winter had quietly been withdrawn – with no clear sign of when or whether they might return. At the Ankara gathering itself, delegates from the Baltic states and Poland proudly wore badges proclaiming themselves members of the "five percent club", the only nations in the NATO alliance to have already reached the spending ​target set at last year's meeting in The Hague – a status they...

VIDEO AT LINK............. Sara and Tiana Samson have committed no crime, and neither have their parents. Swedish prosecutors said so themselves. Yet three and a half years after social workers pulled the two Romanian girls out of a classroom in Hässleholm, the Swedish state still refuses to give them back, and the reason it has offered the world is that their family went to church too often. On Friday, that scandal arrived on American soil. A crowd of Romanian-Americans gathered outside the Swedish Embassy in Washington to stand with Daniel and Bianca Samson, the Christian parents who have been separated...

A banner reading “Destroy Israel” was unfurled during the opening ceremony of Spain’s annual St. Fermin Festival in Pamplona, drawing condemnation from Jewish organizations. Video circulating on social media showed the banner stretched above the crowd before the traditional chupinazo rocket launch yesterday that marks the start of the weeklong St. Fermin Festival, known for its encierro (running of the bulls through the town square to the bullring). The banner featured the words “Destroy Israel” alongside an image of an Israeli flag crossed out. The initials “EHKS” appeared at the bottom of the banner, referring to a far-left socialist organization...

Andy Burnham and his allies set out a vision of Britain moving even further to the Left under his premiership today, hours after he was effectively anointed Labour leader without a fight. The former Manchester mayor last night won the backing of 322 Labour MPs to replace Sir Keir Starmer, in practice meaning no challenger can now get enough support to oppose him. And this morning one of his closest allies in the Cabinet signalled he could put up taxes or increase public borrowing to fund an increase in defence spending.