Free Republic

China’s navy has significant advantages over its US rival, including a bigger fleet and greater shipbuilding capacity, as Beijing seeks to project its power across the oceans, the head of the United States Navy said Tuesday. Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said China “consistently attempts to violate the maritime sovereignty and economic well-being of other nations including our allies in the South China Sea and elsewhere.” They got a larger fleet now so they’re deploying that fleet globally,” he said, adding that Washington must upgrade the US fleet in response....

"We have seen them provide non-lethal support to Russia for use in Ukraine. The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they're considering providing lethal support,..."...Blinken confirmed that Chinese companies are already providing non-lethal support to the Russian effort. He noted the relationship between Chinese companies and the Chinese government, saying, "To date, we have seen Chinese companies and of course, in China, there's really no distinction between private companies and the state."

Germany is now also debating to reinstitute the military draft. I warned from the outset that Zelensky was nothing more than an actor and he was handed the role of a lifetime to pretend to be the head of state of Ukraine and everything he said to get elected was an outright lie. There is absolutely NOTHING Zelensky says which has EVER been the truth – that is what he was paid to do and instructed by the West’s Neocons who cannot sleep at night as long as China and Russia still exist. The Neocons are driving this agenda and...

Central European countries like Croatia, Hungary, and also recently Austria too are beginning to emerge as voices of reason in the West after their de facto New Cold War bloc’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine over the past year failed to defeat that Great Power. They rightly realize how counterproductive this NATO-led campaign has been for their collective interests, ergo why they’re urging restraint and even an outright reversal of policy at this point in time. Croatian President Zoran Milanovic is unexpectedly giving Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a run for his money when it comes to being the...

For a country constantly chest-thumping about the size of its economy, the United States is remarkably over-reliant on one form of "export" – war. For decades, the American-led political West used proxy wars to hurt its geopolitical adversaries. While most of these weren't a direct existential threat to US rivals and were relatively limited in scope, recent years brought a major shift to this strategic approach. Washington DC has become more bellicose than at any point in its history, aggressively attacking the very heartlands of its opponents. In the case of Russia and China, the only reason America isn't directly...

President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukrainians to have “patience and faith” in a defiant Christmas address after a deadly wave of Russian strikes pounded the southern city of Kherson. Ten months into Russia’s war on Ukraine, Zelensky spoke of endurance and pushing through to the end, while acknowledging that “freedom comes at a high price.” He urged the nation to stand firm in the face of a grim winter of energy blackouts, the absence of loved ones and the ever-present threat of Russian attacks. Zelensky’s message came after Ukrainian officials said Russia had launched deadly rocket strikes into downtown Kherson...

Musk understands what many commentators don’t: The war will end in a negotiated settlement or it will escalate, possibly into nuclear war.As if to burnish his reputation as a super-villain in the eyes of the corporate press, Elon Musk this week floated an idea on Twitter for a possible resolution of the Russo-Ukrainian war. For his trouble, he was swiftly accused of being a pro-Putin stooge by guardians of the Official Narrative. His suggested peace plan was dismissed out of hand as “Russia-friendly” and, as The Washington Post’s Olivier Knox put it, “designed to lock in Russian territorial gains.”But Musk’s...

One Professional Russian Troll Tells AllDmitry Volchek, Daisy SindelarMore and more, posts and commentaries on the Internet in Russia and even abroad are generated by professional trolls, many of whom receive a higher-than-average salary for perpetuating a pro-Kremlin dialogue online.There are thousands of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and vKontakte, all increasingly focused on the war in Ukraine. Many emanate from Russia's most famous "troll factory," the Internet Research center, an unassuming building on St. Petersburg's Savushkina Street, which runs on a 24-hour cycle. In recent weeks, former employees have come forward to talk to RFE/RL about life inside...

Economic war with Russia is likely to keep prices high and send growth into reverse but specter of rationing is fading. There is no end in sight for Europe’s surge in energy prices. That could be just what the continent needs to avoid the devastating effects of having to ration natural gas this winter. This is because prices are so high—many times their level from last year—that they are forcing Europeans to save fuel and secure alternative supplies. That has resulted in rising gas reserves and a higher likelihood that the economy will shrink but not crash outright in the...

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos and former Russian deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry, sent a shocking call on his Twitter account on Monday night, calling for a genocide in Ukraine, “for the sake of our grandchildren.”“In general, what has happened in place of Ukraine poses an existential threat to the Russian people, Russian history, the Russian language and Russian civilization,” “It simply came to our notice then [pe ucraineni] now, unfortunately, our grandparents did not finish it with them, we will have to die, but at an even higher cost for our grandchildren. So let’s...

Russian President Vladimir Putin may retaliate after President Trump canceled a weekend meeting in Argentina over Russia’s detention of Ukrainian sailors, experts said after the surprise announcement Thursday. About an hour after saying he "probably" would meet Putin at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Trump tweeted that he would cancel the meeting “[b]ased on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine,” surprising critics who accused him of being soft on Putin. But the snub — the second this month, after a Paris meeting also was scrapped — may provoke Putin in the near-term,...