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Russia is demanding that the U.S. and NATO deny Ukraine membership into the alliance and asking for a rollback in military deployments, according to draft security agreements released Friday. The Russian Foreign Ministry released two documents that were given to the U.S. during a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday. In a press release, the ministry said U.S. officials were "given detailed explanations" of the treaties, adding that it hopes Washington will "enter serious talks with Russia in the near future." A White House official told The Hill, "We are prepared to discuss matters of security and strategic concern with Russia"...

A Polish soldier has crossed the border into Belarus and is seeking asylum, insisting that he is opposed to his government's response to the migration crisis, local media and officials in Minsk reported on Friday. The Belarusian Border Committee announced on Friday that Emil Czeczko, a member of Poland's 16th Pomeranian Mechanized Division, had defected and crossed over the night before. Czeczko had apparently been one of the thousands of troops stationed on the frontier to stop refugees living in camps in the region from entering Poland. Belarusian officials said he fled the country because of disagreement with his government's...

The Iraqi government has transported more than 3,500 migrants from the Polish-Belarusian border, Iraqi Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Al-Sahaf said on Sunday. "Up to present, the ministry managed to organize nine evacuation flights from Minsk," the Iraqi News Agency (INA) cites Ahmed Al-Sahaf. He added that 3,556 migrants stranded on the Polish-Belarusian border returned to their homeland. The spokesman noted that "up to now, 383 passports have been issued to migrants who lost their documents in Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland." "The Iraqi embassies in Moscow and Warsaw continue to support Iraqi citizens who stranded on the border and decided...

Kazimierz Woycicki, a specialist on Eastern Europe at the University of Warsaw, says that there are six possible scenarios for Russia’s future. From Moscow’s perspective, four are disastrous; and two are more hopeful although apparently in the Polish scholar’s view less likely. The four negative scenarios, he suggests, include “the territorial disintegration of the Russian Federation,” “the gradual but peaceful falling apart of Russia,” “the Balkanization of Russia,” and “the fall of Russia under the influence of China” (k-politika.ru/mrachnye-prognozy-v-polshe-raspisali-shest-scenariev-budushhego-rossii). The two more positive ones at least from the perspective of the Russian leadership at the present time, Woycicki argues, are...

Alongside Poland, Hungary has formed a semi-alliance of conservative central European powers, and has been an example of sorts for Western conservatives. They all should do more.Entrenched leftists within the U.S. State Department are supporting the effort to demote Viktor Orban from prime minister of Hungary, if a report in Financial Times is correct. The Biden administration also left Hungary off its invitation list for a forthcoming international virtual Democracy Summit on Dec. 9 and 10 to which some 100 countries were invited.“Trump and his enablers and those who invaded and attacked our Capitol, they don’t like the world we’re...

She’s Sitting Bulls-t.A Canadian medical researcher who rose to become the nation’s top voice on indigenous health has been ousted from her government job and her university professorship — after suspicious colleagues investigated her increasingly fanciful claims of Native American heritage and learned she was a fraud.

The urge to 'play Indian' among privileged white women is far from confined to the U.S. Over in wokester Canada, they found another one. According to the New York Post: She’s Sitting Bulls-t. A Canadian medical researcher who rose to become the nation’s top voice on indigenous health has been ousted from her government job and her university professorship — after suspicious colleagues investigated her increasingly fanciful claims of Native American heritage and learned she was a fraud. Carrie Bourassa, a public health expert who served as scientific director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Indigenous Peoples’...

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Russia's defence minister on Tuesday accused U.S. bombers of rehearsing a nuclear strike on Russia from two different directions earlier this month and complained that the planes had come within 20 km (12.4 miles) of the Russian border. But the Pentagon said its drills were announced publicly at the time and adhered to international protocols. Moscow's accusation comes at a time of high tension with Washington over Ukraine, with U.S. officials voicing concerns about a possible Russian attack on its southern neighbour - a suggestion the Kremlin has dismissed as false. Moscow has in turn...

STUTTGART, Germany — Poland has urged NATO to send reinforcements east over concerns about Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine, which is expected to be the focus of high-level alliance talks in Latvia next week that will include U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. President Andrzej Duda said Thursday at NATO headquarters in Brussels that a beefed up military presence along NATO’s eastern flank is needed given concerns over Russian’s intentions in the region. “This cautiousness and vigilance from NATO, which is responsible for the military security of the allies, is necessary,” Duda told reporters after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General...

In 2010, scientists unearthed an ivory pendant from an abandoned Polish cave. Punctured with patterns reminiscent of moon cycles and mathematics, the artifact's origins eluded archaeologists -- until now. An international team of researchers just declared the relic to be 41,500 years old. That makes it the earliest piece of ornate jewelry ever found in Eurasia, and a wonderful reminder that art is timeless. Images and details of the discovery were published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. But beyond its aesthetic value, this ancient pendant also marks the first proof of post-Neanderthal civilization in the Polish region...

Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko has cleared out the encampment at his border crossing into Poland, where thousands of Middle Eastern migrants had been living in squalor. Last week, that border crossing was the site of clashes between asylum-seekers trying to push through the razor wire and Polish troops resisting with water cannons. While the crisis between Warsaw and Minsk has not ended, it appears to have been temporarily eased. Behind the clash was the recent election in Belarus that the European Union saw as fraudulent and Lukashenko's interception of a commercial airliner to kidnap and imprison a critical journalist. Lukashenko...

Their return felt humiliating. As men, women and children trudged exhausted through the arrivals hall of Irbil airport, camera crews mobbed them and yelled questions about why they had left Iraq in the first place. Most of the families just kept their heads down. On the outbound journey they had been hopeful, ready for the new life in Europe that travel agents had promised. But it turned out they were unwitting pawns in Europe’s latest migration battle. The repatriation flight brought them back to the place they had spent life savings trying to leave. .... Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has...

After more than a week sleeping in a frigid encampment on the border between Belarus and Poland, and an abortive foray across the frontier repelled by pepper spray and police batons, Mohammad Faraj gave up this month and retreated to a warm hotel in Minsk, capital of Belarus. Soon after, however, he watched with surprise and excitement a video report on Facebook claiming that Poland was about to open its border and urging all those who wanted to enter the European Union to gather at a gas station near the encampment that the migrants had nicknamed “the jungle.” Mr. Faraj,...

Belarus has said the hastily constructed migrant camps on its border with Poland have been cleared of people in a sign that Minsk is keen to defuse the deadly crisis that its leader, Alexander Lukashenko, helped to create. On Thursday, that crisis claimed its 13th victim after an NGO reported that a one-year-old child had died after his family attempted the perilous journey through Belarus into the EU. According to the Polish Centre for International Aid, the child’s family was from Syria and had been trapped outside in the forest for six weeks. The cause of death was not given,...

There were chaotic scenes on the Bruzgi-Kuźnica border crossing, where crowds of migrants could be seen breaking up concrete blocks and gathering tree branches to throw toward the Polish side. Loud bangs rang out over the crowds and a dense cloud of smoke hung overhead. Belarusian state media BeITA reported that the water cannons used by Polish forces sprayed a yellow liquid that caused burning, and that people were suffocating and feeling sick from the smoke. A CNN team was hit by the water fired by Polish guards. According to BelTA, the deputy head of the Belarusian Armed Forces' Department...

Britain remains “unwavering” in its support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity amid a “concerning” build-up of Russian troops on its border, Boris Johnson’s spokesman has said. Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of Nato, said the western alliance was standing by Ukraine as he described a “large and unusual” concentration of Russian forces on the country’s borders. He called on Russia to be transparent about its military activities to reduce tensions in the region and prevent an escalation. Asked about the build-up of Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders, Johnson’s spokesman said: “We are seeing a concerning situation at that border. We remain in unwavering...

According to unofficial information obtained by PAP, a meeting of Polish officials is planned for Tuesday at which the possibility of triggering Nato's Article 4 will likely be discussed. The meeting is to be attended by the president, Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the defence and interior ministers as well as officials of the foreign ministry, armed forces, police, Border Guard and other services. Nato's Article 4 provides for joint consultations should a member state consider its territorial integrity, political independence or security to be under threat. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have been tackling an escalating migration crisis...

Russia has orchestrated the deployment of special operations troops to the northern border of Belarus to see how sudden surges of migrants to the area are straining neighboring NATO countries' ability to respond, a source familiar with local governments' assessments tells U.S. News – the latest development in Moscow's troubling campaign of destabilization against Europe. It was not immediately clear whether the commandos came from Russia or from Belarus, says former U.S. Army Europe Commander Ben Hodges, who says senior officials in Latvia believe the deployments are at least for reconnaissance, if not some other form of nefarious distraction. The...

Countries near Belarus are warning that the migrant crisis on the European Union's eastern borders could escalate into a military confrontation. Video released by the Polish defense ministry is said to show Belarus border guards carrying heavy arms at the border, including grenade launchers and sniper rifles. Reuters couldn't verify the grenade launcher claim, but it comes as Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania -- which are both EU and NATO members -- say the incident is posing a serious threat to European security. And Ukraine, which is not an EU member, but is wary of becoming another flashpoint, says it will...

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who led U.S. Army Europe until 2017, said he believes Russia's actions over the last year, including the troop buildup along the Ukrainian border in March and alleged involvement in fostering a migrant crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border, are strategic in nature."This is part of an ongoing process to undermine Ukrainian government, to present Ukraine to the West as a failed state so that there is no further effort to integrate Ukraine into the West, into the EU ... or NATO," Hodges said.Russia is being further emboldened by the European Union's failure to apply more...