Free Republic

President Dmitry Medvedev made it clear that Russia is ready to sever its relations with the NATO after they got worsened over the conflict involving Georgia. According to reports, Medvedev said this during a meeting with Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin. "We are ready to take any decision, up to halting of relations altogether," he was quoted as saying Monday. However, he called on countries of the Western alliance to avert a worsening in ties so that any "difficult decision" could be avoided. Earlier in the day, Russian parliament voted for the recognition of the breakaway provinces of South...

*Litvinenko 'did not have to flee' *Reporters told of crimminal oligarchs Alexander Litvinenko, the former spy who was murdered in London, was a thug and a thief who had no need to flee to Britain because he was so insignificant, President Putin said yesterday. Litvinenko had not been privy to state secrets and was dismissed from the Federal Security Service (FSB) “for beating people during detentions when he was a security service officer and for stealing explosives”. Mr Putin said: “He got a three-year suspended sentence and there was no need for him to flee. He had said all the...

Not only do a small number of extraordinarily wealthy business clans control most of Ukraine's economy, but they grew accustomed to tremendous access to political power under Kuchma. As unpopular as Russian President Vladimir Putin has become in the West for his assault against Russia's oligarchs, Yushchenko has little choice but to do the same against Ukraine's oligarchs. No one should be surprised if Yushchenko very soon singles out one oligarch to reverse a number of illegal privatizations under Kuchma as an example for other oligarchs of what is to come. Yushchenko's drive to expel oligarchs from direct influence in...