Free Republic

Would Putin commit suicide by letting his missiles fly against the United States? No. Rather, he would respond with a limited nuclear strike against a couple of European capitals -- not London or Paris, but smaller ones, presumably in Eastern European countries that have only recently joined NATO. Warsaw, against which Russia has already conducted a drill simulating a Russian nuclear attack, first comes to mind. Or, say, Vilnius, Lithuania's capital. The point is, Putin would bet on decision-makers in Washington, Berlin, London, and Paris not retaliating with nuclear weapons against Russia if it had "only" hit a city or...

Vladimir Putin cannot appear weak, but the public won’t stand for full-scale conflict. So the stalemate continues Hatred is not a tame beast. Once unleashed, it can be surprisingly hard to coax it back into its pen – even for a popular leader such as Vladimir Putin. The stunning reversal of the fortunes of the Ukrainian army in rebel-held regions in eastern Ukraine is not so stunning when one considers the months of hysterical, frothing-at-the-mouth propaganda against the Ukrainian government on Russian state television.If you’re going to label the government of a neighbouring country a bunch of baby-killing Nazis, it stands...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appeared emotional in recent footage showing him witnessing a performance of his country's national anthem while on a visit in Mongolia. In the footage broadcast on Mongolian TV, the normally stoic Putin is seen standing next to Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, looking down and at one point moving his hand to wipe his eye. “Putin is [so] manly, he's required to shed a tear every so often to maintain hormonal equilibrium,” said a user of the army enthusaist site militaryphotos.net. Last year, Russia's longstanding president was seen wiping away a tear during a Kremlin concert...

Pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian military accused each other on Saturday of breaking a tenuous Kremlin-backed truce only hours after it came into force across the war-battered east.

A revitalized NATO is already facing its first test of Russian aggression, on the same day it wrapped up its critical summit in Wales. Russian agents have crossed the border into Estonia, a NATO country, and detained a police officer, according to the Estonian government. "We should see it... as a demonstration on behalf of Russia that provocations have started," Estonia's ambassador to Canada told Evan Solomon on CBC Radio's The House. According to Gita Kalmet, Russian agents wearing no insignia crossed the border at Luhamaa, in southeastern Estonia, jammed communications equipment and threw smoke grenades before abducting the agent...

KYIV, September 6 /Ukrinform/. Russian border guards are receiving offers from the leadership to participate in the fighting in Donbas. National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) information and analytical center spokesman Andriy Lysenko said this at a briefing on Saturday. "According to the latest reports, Russian border guards are getting offers from the leadership to participate in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Volunteers are dismissed from their service, receive a one-time financial compensation of 200,000 rubles [about $5,500] and are sent to the war zone as 'natural persons,'" Lysenko said. He said that after being involved in the fulfillment of...

KYIV, September 6 /Ukrinform/. Militants have shelled the positions of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) forces 28 times over the last 24 hours, including ten after a bilateral ceasefire was declared in Minsk.

A plane carrying Americans was forced to land in Iran by the Iranian Air Force. It was allowed to leave early Saturday. It isn't known if all are still aboard. Link only.(Excerpt) "A charter airplane carrying military contractors, including Americans, took off early Saturday from Iran, hours after its pilots were ordered to land because the flight plan was out of date, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said."

The debate over Germany’s insistence on eurozone austerity has flared anew as an ailing France continues to demand economic stimulus. The European Central Bank may now be siding with Paris, leaving Merkel looking increasingly alone. […] Berlin is particularly alarmed by the stance taken by ECB head Mario Draghi. At the annual conference of top central bankers from around the world at Jackson Hole, Wyoming in August, Draghi surprised those present by saying “there is leeway to achieve a more growth-friendly composition of fiscal policies.” It was a comment that came close to the kind of debt-fueled growth stimulus measures...

Islamic State fighters executed a youth in a Syrian town Friday, after hundreds of residents demanded they leave following regime air strikes that targeted the jihadists but killed eight civilians, a monitor said. Residents of Ashara, in the mostly IS-controlled eastern province of Deir Ezzor, protested in front of an IS headquarters Thursday evening, hours after air strikes killed two children, five women and a man, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said. In response, IS gunmen opened fire and seized several young men, the Observatory and an activist said. The air strikes were part of a...

After a satellite image revealed that Shenyang Aircraft Corporation has already produced eight J-16 multirole fighters, drawing complaints from the Russian aviation industry that its aircraft have been copied without permission, according to the Kanwa Defense Review published by Andrei Chang, a Canadian military analyst also known as Pinkov. As the eight J-16 fighters in the image were all painted in yellow markings, the article said it remains unknown whether the aircraft will be turned over to the PLA Air Force or Navy. However, it is certain that J-16 multirole fighters will replace J-11B fighters designed for aerial combat. China...

NATO: Thousands of Russian Soldiers Armed with Hundreds of Tanks Tracked in Ukraine More than a thousand Russian military men and hundreds of tanks reported on Ukraine territory. Censor.NET reports citing Ukrainska Pravda that on Thursday, the news was broken at informal occasion under confidentiality conditions by an officer of the North Atlantic Alliance. NATO earlier reported "MORE than a 1,000" Russian soldiers acting on the territory of Ukraine noting that Moscow has ESCALATED its aggression in Ukraine. "We are still witnessing many thousands of Russian soldiers on the territory of Ukraine equipped with tanks. The number of Russian troopers...

WASHINGTON - We live in a dangerous and chaotic time when terrorism is rapidly spreading across the globe, Russian troops occupy Ukraine, and America has lost its influence abroad. President Obama's handling of foreign policy is coming under increasing criticism at home, from friends and foes alike, for its timidity, impotence and bungling. As the months race by, Russian President Vladimir has daringly stepped up his invasion of Eastern Ukraine, after seizing and annexing the Crimean Peninsula, threatening at one point to take over the country entirely. The former Communist KGB agent casually told his top advisers he could take...

<p>Sometime in 1993, after several trips to Russia, I noticed something bizarre and disturbing: people kept dying. I was used to losing friends to AIDS in the United States, but this was different. People in Russia were dying suddenly and violently, and their own friends and colleagues did not find these deaths shocking. Upon arriving in Moscow I called a friend with whom I had become close over the course of a year. “Vadim is no more,” said his father, who picked up the phone. “He drowned.” I showed up for a meeting with a newspaper reporter to have the receptionist say, “But he is dead, don’t you know?” I didn’t. I’d seen the man a week earlier; he was thirty and apparently healthy. The receptionist seemed to think I was being dense. “A helicopter accident,” she finally said, in a tone that seemed to indicate I had no business being surprised.</p>

Speaking to reporters from Newport, Wales -- where numerous nations, including the US, met for a NATO summit on Wednesday -- President Obama delivered a short statement explaining what, exactly, was accomplished. “First and foremost, we have reaffirmed the central mission of the alliance,” he said. “An armed attack against one [member state] should be an attack [against all of us].” “It is a binding, treaty obligation,” he continued. “It is non-negotiable.” What’s more, he noted that the US and its NATO allies will increase “air patrols over the Baltics” and “naval patrols in the Black Sea.” Best of all,...

An official from the Internal Security Service (ISS), Estonia's national agency for counterintelligence and high-profile corruption investigations, was abducted at gunpoint at Luhamaa border checkpoint this morning where he was discharging service duties, and taken to Russia. There is no indication that the abduction is more than an isolated criminal incident, but on the backdrop of international tensions, the situation is being treated seriously. The incident occurred at about 9:00 on the Estonian side of the border and was preceded by jamming of communications and use of a smoke grenade, the agency said; the interference was said to originate from...

President Obama was nowhere to be found during the beginning of a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine commission in Wales on Thursday. Obama was "noticeably absent" from the start of the meeting, according to a White House pool report, although U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute was in attendance. Obama was late to the Ukraine meeting because of other meetings on Afghanistan and a meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, according to a White House official. Back at the Ukraine meeting, leaders were addressed by NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen, who urged Russia to stop the "illegal" annexation of Crimea.

The Ukrainian government and pro-Russia rebels meeting in Minsk have signed a preliminary protocol to start a ceasefire, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says. He said that the truce would start at 14:00 GMT. The announcement came after reports of further clashes in the east.

KYIV, September 5 /Ukrinform/. After the necessary reforms are conducted in Ukraine and the necessary criteria are achieved, the question of the country's joining NATO will be resolved by the Ukrainian people.

KYIV, September 5 /Ukrinform/. Some NATO countries have agreed to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons, including precision guidance weapons.