Free Republic

Russia has approved a temporary ban on the export of gasoline, a representative for the country's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told local media on Tuesday. Beginning May 1, Russia will impose a six-month ban on gasoline exports to allow the country to "offset the booming demand for petroleum products," the official told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in an internal letter in January, publication RBC reported. Fuel shortages have been reported nationwide in Russia, which is one of the world's biggest producers of oil and gas. Wholesale fuel prices have soared across the country, and Ukraine has ramped up...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When a vehicle is captured and then...

Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, Prime Minister Evika Siliņa, Seimas Speaker Daiga Mieriņa and Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš have called on residents to express solidarity with the people of Ukraine and join in a minute of silence on Saturday, 24 February, at 09:00. "Russia knows that it will not be able to break Ukraine in a fair fight on the battlefield. Russia therefore resorts to all forms of crime: it attacks civilians, bombs cities, abducts Ukrainian children. It is putting pressure on Ukraine’s international partners in the hope that we will all tire out as the war persists," the Latvian State...

Ivan Sechin, the son of Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, died on February 5 at the age of 35, it has been reported. -snip- The VChK-OGPU outlet, which purports to have inside information from Russian security forces, also reported on Sechin's death. Citing an unnamed source, it said that at approximately 4.30 a.m. on February 5, Sechin "complained that he felt bad and was suffocating." "The man fell on the bed and lost consciousness. Those around him carried Ivan to the floor and tried to provide primary resuscitation measures," the Telegram channel said, adding that an ambulance...

Russian forces are pushing hard to take the Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka. But why? In this video, we do a deep analysis on Russia's staggering losses, including infantry, tanks, and heavy equipment. We talk about why Russia wants the city so badly, what Vladimir Putin's stake in it is, and how it all connects back to Russia's invasion of Crimea and the War in the Donbas.