Free Republic

BRUSSELS, Nov 25 (Reuters) - A top NATO military official on Monday urged businesses to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly, in order to be less vulnerable to blackmail from countries such as Russia and China. "If we can make sure that all crucial services and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is a key part of our deterrence," the chair of NATO's military committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, said in Brussels. Speaking at an event of the European Policy Centre think tank, he described deterrence as going far...

The Kremlin has fired the commander of its Black Sea Fleet as punishment for a series of humiliating losses to Ukraine, according to Russian war bloggers. The bloggers said that Admiral Viktor Sokolov was replaced by chief of staff Vice Admiral Sergey Pinchuk after Ukraine sank the Russian warship Caesar Kunikov with a sea drone last week. It was the latest in a series of victories for Ukraine, which has a tiny navy, against Russia's much bigger Black Sea fleet. "It seems that it had become impossible to ignore the latest heavy losses of the fleet," the War Informant channel...

Russian federal agents have allegedly shut down a "My Little Pony" convention in Moscow after it was deemed to be “LGBT propaganda” by the government. According to the Russian outlet The Insider, the raid was conducted to break up, "Mi Amore Fest." The event was organized by fans of the "My Little Pony" series.

Russia is in the midst of a historic population decline as it continues to grapple with low birth rates, high emigration, staggering health statistics and a deadly war in Ukraine. The growing crisis has been described by some as a "silent war" against its own human capital. Russian President Vladimir Putin has listed Russia’s declining population as a matter of national security, but his recent war in Ukraine has not only led to hundreds of thousands of additional deaths among fighting-age men but has pushed a mass exodus among Russia's younger populations. Western defense officials have estimated that as many...