Free Republic

The head of Germany's air force has said the country is "ready to fight Russia tonight", and will "protect every inch of Nato" if Moscow were to launch an attack on allied territory. Lt Gen Holger Neumann, the Luftwaffe's commanding officer, delivered among the most blunt statements from a senior German military figure in years during his first interview with a British newspaper. He said devastating air strikes would be unleashed on Russia should it move against any Nato member, and that defensive action would be "32 against X", referencing the power of combined air forces. "Fight tonight means if...

In the United States, several transcripts of conversations between Russia's leader Vladimir Putin and former US president George Bush have been published, in which Putin argued that Ukraine is an artificial state with a fragmented society and warned of a long-term confrontation with the West if Ukraine were admitted to NATO.Source: European Pravda with reference to the non-governmental research institution the National Security ArchiveDetails: In a conversation dated 16 June 2001, Putin, speaking in a passage about the need for honesty in relations and saying that he senses the mood of Russian society well, spoke about his disappointment with the...

According to a recent study, Russian disinformation and misinformation campaigns on social media had little influence on voters during the 2016 election. Discussing Russia’s alleged influence on the election, a longtime leftist narrative, one of the report’s authors said, “My personal sense coming out of this is that this got way overhyped.” The Washington Post reports that a new study by the New York University Center for Social Media and Politics found that Russian influence operations on Twitter during the 2016 presidential election did not significantly impact voter behavior or attitudes.