Free Republic

Synopsis: The diminutive Russian dictator is inaugurated for the fifth term of his permanent presidency. Russia 1 state television covers the event. State media has also anointed Putin as "Vladimir the Terrible", an imperial title.

This is the German version of how WW2 got started in Europe Now, as far as I am concerned, Adolf Hitler was a goofball and a slave to his own racist ideology and if there was a reason for anybody to like the guy, I wouldn't know what it was. Nonetheless, if anybody were to ask me who started WW2 in Europe, I'd not hesitate to answer the British and the Poles. Pat Buchanan has said that the Brits were handing out war guarantees like they were cotton candy at the time and stopped the Poles from dealing with Germany...

Britain must prepare for the sudden collapse of Vladimir Putin's regime, government officials are warning, amid fears the 'mortally wounded' despot could carry out a 'Stalin-style' purge to cling on to power. Western officials warned that Putin's grip on Russia is crumbling as questions mounted over his whereabouts following the attempted coup by the Wagner mercenary forces, led by his former ally Yevgeny Prigozhin. A senior source in the UK Government told The Times that Britain 'must prepare for a whole range of scenarios' and that 'this could be Chapter One of something new'. Meanwhile, Alicia Kearns, the chairman of...

A group of Russian wives and mothers have called on President Vladimir Putin to stop sending their husbands and sons “to the slaughter” by forcing them to join assault groups without adequate training or supplies. In a video shared by the independent Russian Telegram channel SOTA, the women said their loved ones had been “forced to join assault groups” at the beginning of March despite having just four days training since their mobilization in September. The video shows the women holding a sign in Russian that reads, “580 Separate Howitzer Artillery Division,” dated March 11, 2023. “My husband… is located...

Russia's metropolitan elites have avoided the impact of heavy battlefield casualties that the country's forces are sustaining in Ukraine, according to a new defense intelligence assessment. Russia's elite, particularly in the major cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, have so far emerged "relatively unscathed" from the "extremely heavy casualties" being racked up in the ongoing Ukraine war, the British defense ministry said on Sunday. In the eastern regions of Russia, the death toll for Russian troops is likely more than 30 times higher than in Moscow, as a percentage of population, the ministry wrote in its daily update on Twitter....

BREAKING: Putin declares partial mobilization; the decree has been signed. “Only citizens who are currently in the reserve and, above all, those who served in the Armed Forces, have certain military specialties and relevant experience, will be subject to conscription. “ Partial military mobilization, referendums in Donbas and other regions etc.

Ukrainian forces to the east and southeast of Kharkiv retain the offensive initiative. Russian forces are withdrawing from the strategic hub of Izium and regrouping along a straight north-south line running just east from Kupiansk down to Izium. In the South, company-level fighting continues northeast of Kherson; neither side has made any significant gains since early last week. In response to the Kharkiv region offensive, Russian air and missile forces have attacked energy and water infrastructure throughout Eastern Ukraine and caused massive blackouts in major cities. On the basis of reported large-scale US intelligence and added advanced weapons systems assistance,...

Two top Republican senators have demanded the Justice Department and FBI launch a full investigation into Hunter Biden's laptop, including the revelation unearthed on Hunter Biden’s laptop by the Washington Examiner that President Joe Biden apparently unwittingly financed his son’s participation in an escort ring tied to Russia. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) sent the Thursday letter citing the Washington Examiner’s reporting to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, who is handling the criminal investigation... The Republicans asked Garland and Wray to answer whether “the FBI investigating...

Vladimir Putin has been advised by doctors not to make any 'lengthy' public appearances after he fell ill amid discussions with his military chiefs, a Kremlin insider has claimed. The Russian President felt 'a sharp sickness, weakness and dizziness', while getting up from his desk following a recent video conference with advisers and military leaders, Telegram channel General SVR reported yesterday. 'The President needed urgent medical assistance,' claimed the channel which purports to have sources in the Kremlin and has made repeated claims over Putin's alleged medical problems, including cancer and Parkinson's disease. -snip- Myriad photos and videos have emerged...

Scott Ritter's warning to Finland (Fins thinking that the Russian rescue mission in Ukraine means that they need to join NATO...)

Russia will halt power supply to Finland on Saturday due to lack of payment. According to Reuters, Russian utility Inter RAO will suspend the power supply to Finland due to non-payment since May 6. The Finnish grid company said it can replace Russian electricity supply by importing more electricity from Sweden. Sweden and Finland are both looking to join NATO. Reuters reported:

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview on Italian television on Sunday that the fact Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish does not negate the Nazi elements in his country. Lavrov added that Nazi Germany's Chancellor Adolf Hitler also "had Jewish blood." This is a developing story with more details to come.

A ninth Russian general was reportedly killed in a Ukrainian artillery strike near Kharkiv. Major General Anton Simonov, 55, died during the attack on a Russian army command past in northern Ukraine, President Zelensky adviser Alexey Arestovych said yesterday. -snip- Simonov would be the ninth and youngest Russian general killed so far in the latest blow to Putin's disastrous invasion of Ukraine. He was seen as the Russian military's leading electronic warfare specialist.

A Russian Olympic gymnast widely believed to be the mistress of Russian President Vladimir Putin has emerged to lead a patriotic rhythmic gymnastics festival in Moscow. Alina Kabaeva, 38, stepped out to lead her annual 'Alina Festival' at the Russian capital's VTB Arena and delivered a speech to the press in which she appeared to link the Soviet victory over Nazism in the Second World War to today's events in Ukraine. It marked a rare public appearance for the former gymnast, who is thought to be the Russian strongman's mistress and mother of four of his children whom he has...

Putin's regime has been accused of 'covering-up' the scale of the death toll at a top secret Russian weapons research facility after a local journalist claimed that at least 25 were killed in the deadly blaze - not 'up to seven' like Kremlin-backed media insists. A criminal probe has been launched after video showed an inferno ripping through the Second Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation in Tver, where Moscow's Iskander missiles are designed, on Thursday. Four military scientists were forced to jump out of windows from the burning building, with state media variously...

A 3-month-old baby was among six people Saturday killed when Russia fired cruise missiles at the Black Sea port city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a Telegram post that two missile strikes from Russian troops struck a residential area in the city "Nothing is sacred," Yermak wrote. "Evil will be punished.

The poster Simplicius76 has a large number of videos of the war, most from a Russian point-of-view.

On Wednesday, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was touting a ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ to the war in Ukraine (see Proposed ‘Fifteen Point Peace Plan’ in Russia-Ukraine War Is a Total Defeat for Putin, but Zelensky Is Biding His Time), President Vladimir Putin gave a speech that did not indicate that he had any intention of settling for less than total victory in Ukraine and signaled a crackdown on elements of his own society.<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>The first part...

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia was ready to bring its nuclear weapons into a state of alert during last year's tensions over the Crimean Peninsula and the overthrow of Ukraine's president, President Vladimir Putin said in remarks aired on Sunday. Putin also expanded on a previous admission that the well-armed forces in unmarked uniforms who took control of Ukrainian military facilities in Crimea were Russian soldiers...Russia initially denied that the unmarked forces who took control in Crimea were Russian, but Putin later admitted they were.