Free Republic

U.S. military command officials said Tuesday that a Russian fighter jet dumped fuel on a U.S. drone over the Black Sea, clipped the drone's propeller and forced it into the water. Russia is now denying that the aircraft touched one another, and accusing the U.S. of unnecessarily escalating the issue. "We assume that the United States will refrain from further speculation in the media and stop flights near Russian borders,"said Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov on Wednesday. He claimed that the drone crashed after undertaking "sharp maneuvers," Reuters reports. He later wrote on his Telegram channel, "We consider any action with...

Putin: unfriendly states will pay Russia in rubles for natural gas. Putin ordered the Russian Central Bank to develop a system for payments in rubles within a week. The list of “hostile” states includes the United States, all EU member states, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Japan, and many others...