Free Republic

Moscow (AFP) - US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden warned of dangers to democracy in the first video released of the fugitive since Russia granted him temporary asylum in August. "If we can't understand the policies and programmes of our government we can't grant our consent in regulating them," Snowden said in one of the short video clips posted on the WikiLeaks website Friday night. The anti-secrecy group said the videos were filmed Wednesday when Snowden met with a group of four retired US ex-intelligence workers and activists now seeking to promote ethics within the profession. Snowden, a former National Security...

Ukraine has achieved a breakthrough in its domestic missile program. A new Ukrainian ballistic missile has completed a combat test, striking a Russian command post nearly 300 kilometers from the launch site, military analyst and director of the Center for Army, Conversion, and Disarmament Studies Valentyn Badrak revealed. The missile’s development began in May 2022, with a successful test already conducted in the summer of 2024. According to Badrak, the system is now entering serial production, Badrak stated in a recent interview with Ukrainian news outlet Ukrinform on June 10. “I don’t know how many missiles we can expect per...

Donald Trump issued an ominous warning to Vladimir Putin after accusing him of deliberately drawing out the fragile peace process in Ukraine. The US president was asked whether he thought it was "disrespectful" of his Russian counterpart to accuse him of being overly emotional. A reporter questioned: "Do you believe the Russians are being disrespectful when they say that your criticisms of Putin are simply an emotional response? And do you still believe that Putin actually wants to end the war? Mr Trump responded: "I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know in about two weeks. Within two...

President Trump in a new post on Truth Social on Sunday night accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having gone “absolutely” crazy and said if he did not stop what he was doing, it would lead to the downfall of his country. The social media comments came after Trump had issued some of his toughest comments about Putin earlier in remarks to reporters in New Jersey. “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!,” Trump wrote. “He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took the opportunity while in Rome for Pope Leo XIV's inaugural Mass to meet with top U.S. officials and European leaders on Sunday ahead of a high-stakes phone call Monday between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy spoke with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Rome. Zelenskyy said on social media he had underscored the need for "real diplomacy" and reaffirmed Ukraine's commitment to a "full and unconditional ceasefire." "We have also touched upon the need for sanctions...

This week, a diplomat at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), the collective defence alliance between Europe and North America, hinted the organisation will raise its engagement with Africa, ostensibly to ward off the growing influence on the continent of China and Russia. Russia through the controversial paramilitary company Wagner Group — is now operating in various African states. The idea is to foster improved bilateral relations on security, anti-terrorism efforts and in other fields of cooperation, all in a “pivot to Africa.”On Wednesday, Julianne Smith, US Permanent Representative to Nato, told an African media briefing that the defence alliance...

Wagner Group commander Dmitry Utkin was reportedly among the 10 people killed in a plane crash north of Moscow that also is believed to have claimed the life of Yevgeny Prigozhin. Utkin, a former Russian military intelligence officer, has Nazi tattoos on his body. He helped co-found the militant group and came up with the name “Wagner,” which derived from Adolf Hilter’s favorite composer, Richard Wagner. According to reports, Utkin and Prigozhin were just two of Wagner's top men who were listed as passengers on the flight.

[caption id="attachment_1512" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Image source: Wired.com[/caption] See that over-the-top, anti-Obama comment on Facebook or your favorite blog?  It could be a paid Russian troll.  See the picture above?  He's serving a life sentence without parole because he started an illegal website.  He claims to be a Libertarian, but he certainly made a ton of money (the Feds claim over $100 million) selling--well, everything, sort of like Amazon, but much smaller and very much in the shadows of the "dark web." What do Russian trolls have to do with a guy in prison for life?  One of them was caught...

WTH happened in South Korea yesterday or the day before and why is the story dead. It's dead like the Las Vegas Shooting several years ago. As far as I can figure out, I think there was a coup attempt by the lefty leaders of S Korean congress and then the Korean President called for martial law THEN the congress took a vote and cancelled it? That's at least how I understand it given the choppy reports I was able to read or watch. Having spent some time in the 2ID as a 96B in the HQ Company I know...

(IsraelNN.com) On election night, December 7, rocks were thrown through two windows of Bryansk's Jewish school, and its main entrance was daubed with a swastika and the words "Death to the kikes," according to a December 9 report by the AEN (Agency for Jewish News). Five youths were arrested soon afterwards thanks to a security guard who called the police after hearing the glass shatter. The city's chief rabbi, Itskhak Roytman, suggested to AEN that the attack was linked to the Duma elections: "The results of the just completed elections are a worrisome sign of a rise in nationalistic sentiment...

PRESIDENT Zelensky has rushed to pile praise on Donald Trump as he claimed victory in the US, but Vladimir Putin has remained silent. -snip- "Congratulations to @realDonaldTrump on his impressive election victory!" the Ukrainian President wrote on X as he revealed some of Trump's former discussions with Ukrainian officials. During these conversations, Trump and Zelensky discussed the "strategic partnership" between the European nation and the US as well as "the Victory Plan" and how to end Russian aggression. "I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the 'peace through strength' approach in global affairs," the Ukrainian leader wrote. "This is exactly the...

North Korean special forces troops have been seen boarding Russian ships and being transported to the mainland in satellite images released by South Korea's intelligence services. The images, from mid August, show North Korean troops boarding Russian naval transport ships and then organizing on the mainland. South Korea's National Intelligence Service stated four landing ships and three escort ships belonging to the Russian Pacific Fleet completed the first transport of approximately 1,500 North Korean special forces from near Chongjin, Hamhung, and Musudan, North Korea, to Vladivostok, Russia. A second transport operation is scheduled to take place soon, according to the...

An extraordinary legal filing revealed two of the hijackers responsible for the September 11 terror attacks had a much more intimate relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency than previously known. At least two of the 9/11 hijackers were being closely monitored by the CIA and may have even been recruited by the agency well before they helped fly a pair of Boeing 767s into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, newly-released documents reveal. The jaw-dropping court filing contains extensive testimony by multiple FBI investigators who maintain that the CIA obstructed official investigations into the notorious terrorist attack in...

Footage of Prigozhin shows how the slain leader predicted Ukraine's shock offensive. THE slain chief of the notorious Wagner mercenary group predicted Russia would come under siege from Ukraine before Vlad had him killed. Warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin died when his plane was blown out of the sky in August 2023, allegedly on Putin's orders. He led the private Russian military unit that was called in to assist the Kremlin's quest to illegally conquer Ukraine and became increasingly frustrated with how war efforts were organised. Fed up with the Ministry of Defence, Prigozhin eventually threatened a coup against Moscow - a...

As Russia’s ruling elite one-by-one fall down stairs or out windows, another star is rising. Now speculation is mounting that “Putin’s Chef” is preparing to step out of the kitchen. He started out with a catering business. He quickly became part of President Vladimir Putin’s inner sanctum. He’s now behind Russia’s cyber warriors and a host of online trolls. And he has his own mercenary army. Yevgeny Prigozhin is becoming increasingly bold. He’s spruiking his Wagner Group mercenaries as Russia’s most effective fighting force. He’s waging a verbal war against key Putin appointees. He’s winning public support among extremists who...

Planetary main focus of money laundering and other major forms of transnational gangsterism aced, laced, re-aced, debased, defaced, disgraced, and erased....

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has discovered that a Russian bot farm, with over 900 AI-generated fake social media accounts, has been spreading propaganda and disinformation around the US and other countries. What has the bot farm been posting? Most of the AI-generated fake profiles look like they belong to American citizens, with biographical information, political ideologies, locations, personas, backstories, photos, friends, and families, and have been posting videos, content, and images to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other pro-Kremlin initiatives. One of these fake profiles professed to be a Bitcoin enthusiast and a free speech absolutist, from Minneapolis,...

Two senior Republican lawmakers, the chairs of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, say their colleagues are echoing Russian state propaganda against Ukraine. Researchers who study disinformation say Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, are merely acknowledging what has been clear for some time: Russian propaganda aimed at undermining U.S. and European support for Ukraine has steadily seeped into America’s political conversation over the past decade, taking on a life of its own. McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Puck News he thinks “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately,...

When President Biden proposed an additional $24 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine in August, Moscow spin doctors working for the Kremlin were ready to try to undermine public support for the bill, internal Kremlin documents show. In an ongoing campaign that seeks to influence congressional and other political debates to stoke anti-Ukraine sentiment, Kremlin-linked political strategists and trolls have written thousands of fabricated news articles, social media posts and comments that promote American isolationism, stir fear over the United States’ border security and attempt to amplify U.S. economic and racial tensions, according to a trove of internal Kremlin documents...

Russian president Vladimir Putin over the weekend celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany with a military parade on Red Square and a series of smaller events. But while standing next to German chancellor Angela Merkel, he appeared to justify the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact which the Soviet Union signed with the Nazi regime in 1939. “This pact made sense in terms of guaranteeing the Soviet Union’s security,” he said on Sunday (10 May). Putin noted that Moscow, in the 1930s, had tried to stop Nazi Germany, but felt isolated after Germany, France, and the UK signed the...