Free Republic

Just one day after terrifying a Russian citizen during a Q and A session in Yalta, Putin issued a speech to political figures in Sochi at the Valdai Discussion Club. In it he claimed the US established "terrorist groups" and "provided them with arms" before accusing America of creating World War 3 tensions themselves. He said: "Mythical threats are devised. Like the so-called Russian military threats. This can help gain them some advantage, get a new budget, make your allies comply with your demands, expand NATO, deploy the equipment and bring troops closer to our border.

A new appraisal names the United States as one of the threats to Russia's national security for the first time, a sign of how relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years. The document, "About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation", was signed by President Vladimir Putin on New Year's Eve. It replaces a 2009 version, endorsed by then- President Dmitry Medvedev, the current prime minister, which mentioned neither the United States not NATO. It says Russia has managed to heighten its role in solving global problems and international conflicts. That heightened role has caused a reaction...

Vladimir Putin has proposed setting up a NATO-style joint task force of post-Soviet states to secure the borders of Central Asia amid fears of Taliban “spillover” from Afghanistan. A fresh sign of the Russian president’s new military assertiveness, the deployment raises the possibility of Russian and allied troops being deployed along Tajikistan’s 800-mile border with Afghanistan, and Moscow tightening its influence of governments in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It comes a day after Barack Obama said American troops would stay in Afghanistan for at least two more years—itself a tacit admission that the Afghan government is unable to tackle the...