Free Republic

In their final encounter during the transition following the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s incoming national-security adviser surprised Barack Obama’s outgoing national-security adviser. Susan Rice writes in her memoir that the Michael Flynn she was dealing with had nothing in common with the firebrand she had watched leading a “lock her up” chant against Hillary Clinton at the Republican National Convention a few months earlier. Flynn, a retired general and the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was respectful and subdued, eager for her advice. When Rice extended her hand and wished him the best of luck, Flynn asked her...

President Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign to encourage sweeping investigations of his predecessor Barack Obama met a unanimous response from Senate Republicans: No thanks. Trump’s Senate allies on Monday stopped short of echoing Trump’s claim that Obama acted illegally when the Justice Department began probing incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn in late 2016. And they indicated that the Senate would pass on investigating the former president as they conduct their own investigations that could soon ensnare other senior Obama administration officials. “I’m not anticipating calling President Obama,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), whose panel is investigating the origins...

After Mitchell breathlessly summarized the "stunning" and "unprecedented" decision on Flynn, Mitchell saw something sinister in the Thursday phone call between President Trump and Putin. . . . She then asked Figliuzzi to, "Talk to me about your counterintelligence concerns here." Figliuzzi was certain that the phone call and the decision to drop the case were connected, "Yeah, I think they're actually linked. The dismissal of charges against Flynn and conversation by the president with Vladimir Putin, stone cold adversary of the United States on the very same day, that's not a coincidence."

The walls of Russia’s new Orthodox cathedral dedicated to the Armed Forces will be decorated with the faces of President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Soviet leader Josef Stalin, the MBKh News website reported Friday. The 95-meter Armed Forces cathedral, a symbol of close defense-church ties in Russia, is expected to open on May 9 — the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II — at a sprawling military-themed park near Moscow. Once completed, the building will become one of the tallest Orthodox churches in the world. Following MBKh News' report, the...

The walls of Russia’s new Orthodox cathedral dedicated to the Armed Forces will be decorated with the faces of President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Soviet leader Josef Stalin, the MBKh News website reported Friday. The 95-meter Armed Forces cathedral, a symbol of close defense-church ties in Russia, is expected to open on May 9 — the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II — at a sprawling military-themed park near Moscow. Once completed, the building will become one of the tallest Orthodox churches in the world. One of the cathedral’s mosaics...

Moscow (AFP) - Russia is ready to cooperate with Saudi Arabia and the United States to cut oil production, President Vladimir Putin said Friday. Putin said Russia was willing to make agreements within the framework of the OPEC+ group and that "we are ready for cooperation with the United States of America on this issue," according to a statement published by the Kremlin. "I believe that it is necessary to combine efforts in order to balance the market and reduce production." Oil prices have tumbled in recent weeks in the face of a drop in demand and global economic uncertainty...

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a Moscow hospital for coronavirus patients and wore a protective suit. During a visit to the Kommunarka hospital on the outskirts of Moscow, Putin praised its doctors for high professionalism, saying they were working “like clockwork.” After a meeting with the hospital’s chief doctor, Putin donned a yellow hazmat suit with a mask and went into the area where patients were treated. Russia has registered 495 cases of the coronavirus and reported no deaths, which contrasts with the quick spread of contagion in Europe. Some experts say the low numbers could be attributed...

Russia holds large-scale military exercise on Ukraine’s border that involves hundreds of airborne assault vehicles, tanks, attack helicopters, fighter jets and thousands of soldiers.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread around the world, there are growing questions in Russia about the official number of cases that have been declared. According to the count released by its health ministry, Russia currently has only 253 confirmed cases of the virus. That is vastly lower than in other major countries in Western Europe, where there are already thousands of cases.What really makes Russia an outlier, however, is the number of tests it is carrying out compared to its number of positive cases. Russia has done 133,101 tests, putting it behind only China, Italy and South Korea.But with just 306 cases of the...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- Police in St. Petersburg and several other Russian cities have detained activists during and ahead of protests against sweeping constitutional amendments that open the possibility for President Vladimir Putin to remain in power for another 16 years. The March 12 demonstrations were held while local lawmakers discussed the amendments, a day after parliament's two chambers both overwhelmingly approved the changes. In St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, an RFE/RL correspondent reported that police had detained two activists of the Peaceful Resistance group. Dmitry Negodin and Yevgeny Musin rallied in front of the Legislative Assembly with posters urging...

Lyudmila Ivanova and her fiance came to the Arctic from a village in southern Russia in 1978 in search of a better life. Their destination was Vorkuta, a coal-mining city 90 miles north of the Arctic circle. Vorkuta, which means “place of bears”... Now, a better nickname may be “the fastest dying city in Russia.” The lure of higher wages and better housing is long gone, and the population has plummeted... When darkness falls, often just a handful of lights can be seen in apartment buildings of 100 units or more. Ivanova, now 62, feels trapped. Like tens of thousands...

DUBAI/MOSCOW - Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it would boost its oil supplies to a record high in April, raising the stakes in a standoff with Russia and effectively rebuffing Moscow’s suggestion for new talks. The clash of oil titans Saudi Arabia and Russia sparked a 25% slump in crude prices on Monday, triggering panic selling on Wall Street and other equity markets that have already been badly hit by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Oil prices LCOc1 recovered some ground on Tuesday, but were still 40% down on the start of the year. U.S. President Donald Trump spoke...

Moscow (AFP) Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted to parliament a number of new constitutional changes, including amendments that mention God and stipulate that marriage is a union of a man and woman. Putin in January unleashed a political storm by proposing an overhaul of the constitution, the first changes to the basic law since 1993. Last month the Russian parliament's lower house unanimously approved the constitutional reform bill in a first reading after less than two hours of debate. Ahead of a second and key reading set for next week, Putin submitted 24 pages worth of amendments, said State...

Russia could regain its status as “a global rival” for Western powers through some degree of “integration” with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said... Putin made the comment while reiterating his belief that Ukrainians and Russians are “the same people,” a claim widely perceived as a means to justify Russian influence over former Soviet nations. His reference to “integration” is even more unusual, and incendiary, according to Western analysts, given that the two countries have been locked in conflict since Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine in 2014... Multiple Western analysts noted that Putin has been pressuring Belarus...

[Subtitle: “I hope that my story will help you understand the methods of Russian operatives in Washington and how they use U.S. enablers to achieve major foreign policy goals without disclosing those interests,” Browder writes.]The financier Bill Browder has emerged as an unlikely central player in the ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Sergei Magnitsky, an attorney Browder hired to investigate official corruption, died in Russian custody in 2009. Congress subsequently imposed sanctions on the officials it held responsible for his death, passing the Magnitsky Act in 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government retaliated, among other ways,...

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia would not legalize gay marriage as long as he was in the Kremlin. He made clear he would not allow the traditional notion of mother and father to be subverted by what he called “parent number 1” and “parent number 2”. “As far as ‘parent number 1’ and ‘parent number 2’ goes, I’ve already spoken publicly about this and I’ll repeat it again: as long as I’m president this will not happen. There will be dad and mum,” Putin said. During his two decades in power, Putin has closely aligned himself with the...

Novo-Ogaryovo, February 13, Interfax - Russian President Vladimir Putin said that as long as he remains in office, Russia will not legitimize same-sex marriages. "As concerns Parent No. 1 and Parent No. 2, I've said publicly some time ago, and I'll repeat once again now: as long as I am president, we won't have parents number one and number two, we will have Mom and Dad," Putin said at a meeting with members of a working group for preparing constitutional amendments on Thursday. State Duma deputy Olga Batalina said at the meeting that the working group had received numerous proposals...

There have been several clashes between Syrian and Turkish military forces in the last two weeks, as Syria attempts to retake Idlib province from rebel forces. Turkey has carved out a demilitarized zone in Idlib, which is supposed to be a safe zone for Syrian civilians. Their goal is to prevent a flood of refugees from crossing the Syrian border.But Syria is ignoring the Moscow-negotiated cease-fire and driving hundreds of thousands of refugees toward Turkey, most of them in desperate straits. The UN is warning of a humanitarian catastrophe as 700,000 Syrians are on the move with nowhere to...

The pace of growth in the Russian economy fell by almost half last year, fresh economic data released Monday has shown. Russia’s GDP grew by 1.3% in 2019, the Russian state statistics agency, Rosstat said. That compares with an official expansion rate of 2.5% recorded in 2018, and is the weakest annual growth since Russia emerged from economic crisis in 2016. Despite the slow-down, the economy did pick up in the final half of the year, managing to beat pessimistic forecasts from organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that had suggested Russia would struggle to...

The Kremlin reacted with fury on Tuesday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Soviet collusion with Nazi Germany led to the outbreak of World War II. While visiting Poland on Monday to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz death camp, Zelensky said the Poles “were the first to feel the consequences of the criminal collusion of the totalitarian regimes.” Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and carved up Poland in September 1939 under a secret clause of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Nazi invasion prompted Britain and France to declare war on Germany. “We categorically disagree with...