Free Republic

The Donbass, once serving as the industrial and coal-mining heartland of Ukraine, was thrust into years of bloodshed beginning in the spring of 2014, after Kiev sent troops to try to crush local resistance to the February 2014 Maidan coup. Russia was not given any opportunity to resolve the conflict in Donbass peacefully, President Vladimir Putin has said. "If there was even once chance to solve this problem by other, peaceful means, of course we would have taken it. But we were not left with such a chance, simply weren't given it", Putin said, speaking to Artyom Zhoga, whose son...

The USA just gave Russia an excuse to seize all of Ukraine Abraham Stein Apr 25 The United States has just given Russia a valid reason to take complete control of all Ukraine. Today, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Diplomat Anthony Blinken paid a visit to the Ukrainian president Zelensky in Kyiv, it was their first visit with Joe Biden as American President. The visit made it clear that the United States is directly involved in the conflict with the Russians, and the comments from Secretary of Defense Austin makes it abundantly clear that only a full Russian takeover...

A very merry Christmas to Pussy Riot, Greenpeace and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, not to say to Vladimir Putin. At his somewhat bizarre annual press conference, with 1,300 journalist waving flags to capture his attention, Putin announced that Khodorkovsky, like the others, would be released from prison. Putin may not be a very lovable or gentle creature, but yet again he has shown himself to be unusually cunning, for all that he has been not only derided but consistently underrated. Since the implosion of the Soviet Union, more than 20 years ago, the west has made every conceivable mistake in dealing with...