Free Republic

Putin gambled on Western hesitation, and now a war born of miscalculation grinds on because neither Moscow nor NATO is willing—or able—to force a decisive end. Why did the war in Ukraine start in 2021?As in 2008 and 2012, but unlike 2017 to 2021, Vladimir Putin sensed an American president would not or could not deter him, so he invaded a former Soviet republic. Under past presidents, Putin saw no downside to grabbing Ossetia, the Donbas, and Crimea. Putin was also led to believe the West or Joe Biden would not challenge him following the recent humiliating U.S. withdrawal from...

MOSCOW, October 27./TASS/.The age of Western global dominance is becoming a thing of the past, and the world has the most important decade since the end of World War II ahead, Russian president Vladimir Putin said during the Valdai international discussion club meeting Thursday. In his speech, Putin underscored that Russia does not oppose Western elites and does not aspire hegemony in the new multipolar world; he juxtaposed true integration to the Western "neo-colonial" globalization, and called to "build a symphony of human civilization." Answering the questions from the participants... Here are key points of the president's speech and his...

With its decaying industrial landscape and ever-present risk of violence, New York isn’t a place many people would choose to live. But this is Eastern Europe, not the Upper East Side, in a newly renamed town on the front line. On Thursday, Ukrainian MPs voted through proposals to rename the Donbass region village of Novogorodskoye in honor of the East Coast American metropolis. It is located just seven kilometers from the fractious frontier where Kiev’s forces are facing off against troops loyal to the self-proclaimed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic. Shelling, drone strikes, and gunfire have been escalating in the region...