Free Republic

The US Military has rubbished claims Russian fighter jets have flown their first combat mission in Syria alongside American-led coalition forces. US Marine Major Adrian JT Rankine-Galloway completely dismissed the claims from the Kremlin on Monday afternoon. 'The Department of Defense is not coordinating airstrikes with the Russian military in Syria,' a statement read.

According to officials in Israel, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, a Jew who is thought of as one of Israel’s main supporters, wanted that his country not be involved in the consultations held on the resolution. However, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko decided to vote in favor of its passage following a telephone conversation with US Vice President Joe Biden.

I have been studying, working and going to Russia for 34 years. From the beginning I was lucky enough to meet and get to know a wide variety of Russians. During these many years whenever I went, it was always apparent that what I saw and heard was often diametrically different from both the official and the journalistic perception in the United States. I came to call it my worm’s eye view. The more I studied Russian history and culture the more I saw that the picture was always far more nuanced and complex than the judgments often characteristic of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a directive on Wednesday to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague. The ICC is meant to be the world's first permanent court and works to prosecute leaders and countries for war crimes, genocide and "crimes against humanity." In 2000, Russia signed the Rome treaty establishing the ICC, but never ratified it. The ICC was established in 1998, and currently has over 100 member states. Like Russia, the US also signed the treaty but declared in 2002 that they had "no intention" of ratifying it. Last Tuesday, the UN General Assembly's Human Rights...

A Syrian Catholic archbishop has said that American president-elect Donald Trump could help bring peace to the country if he can form an agreement with Russia. Archbishop Jean Abdo Arbach, who heads the Melkite Catholic Archdiocese of Homs, said that if foreign involvement in the fighting in Syria can be stopped, “the future of [President Bashar] Al-Assad will be decided by his people.” The archbishop told an interviewer that the situation facing Christians in Syria is disastrous. He reported that “there were 1.5 million Christians in Syrian before the war and now there are only 600,000: less than half.” In...