Free Republic

The Moscow city administration had refused to allow representatives of the LGBT community to hold a gay pride parade on May 25 and three rallies on May 25, 26, and 27, LGBT activist Nikolai Alexeev told Interfax. The estimated number of would-be participants in the procession is 300. “The Moscow authorities just forbade the holding of a Moscow gay parade for the 14th year in a row, and also three LGBT meetings, including with a call for the execution of the decree of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of ‘Alexeev and others vs. Russia’ on...

Representatives from Google, Facebook and Twitter are all slated to testify before a Senate Judiciary panel on Tuesday, the day before company officials are set to appear in a pair of highly-anticipated intelligence hearings. Tuesday’s hearing is before Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) subcommittee on crime and terrorism and will focus on how to combat extremist and Russian propaganda online, his office announced on Friday. Facebook and Twitter will be represented by their general counsels, while Google will send its director of law enforcement and information security. On Wednesday, the general counsels for all three companies are scheduled to testify in...

The Patriot News Agency website popped up in July, soon after it became clear that Donald J. Trump would win the Republican presidential nomination, bearing a logo of a red, white and blue eagle and the motto “Built by patriots, for patriots.” Tucked away on a corner of the site, next to links for Twitter and YouTube, is a link to another social media platform that most Americans have never heard of: VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. It is a clue that Patriot News, like many sites that appeared out of nowhere and pumped out pro-Trump hoaxes tying his...

A Russian destroyer had to open warning fire as a Turkish fishing vessel sailed on a collision course towards them and didn't respond to calls from the warship, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. Following the incident, the Russian Defense Ministry warned the Turkish military attaché about "the possible harmful consequences of the reckless actions by Ankara against the Russian military contingent, involved in tackling international terrorism in Syria." "Deep concerns were voiced over another provocative action by the Turkish side against the Russian patrol ship Smetlivy in the Aegean Sea, which forced them to open warning fire...in order to avoid...

Despite fraught relations between the two countries after a Russian pilot was killed last week, the Turkey's PM demanded communication channels be opened up to stop similar incidents from occurring. Ahmet Davuto?lu told a news conference: "Our call to Russia again is to open military communication channels to prevent similar incidents happening. Let's keep diplomatic channels open." His call for dialogue comes after the Kremlin closed an emergency phone line with Ankara in anger at the attack, which Russia claims happened over Syrian airspace.

Despite the vast amounts Russia is spending on anti-Ukrainian propaganda, the TV channels Rossiya 1 and NTV skimped on actors – and got caught. Rossiya 1 shows a person they call Andriy Petkov and call him a supporter of federalism who was beaten up by “radicals”. NTV shows the same man, even adds a caption with the same name, yet has a quite different story, Petkov, they claim, was certainly injured, but is himself a “mercenary” who has made a “sensational confession” – that he, a resident of Germany brought 50 people, “all residents of Western Europe” to Ukraine to...

Russian military sources warn By Webster G. Tarpley Online Journal Contributing Writer Mar 26, 2007, 01:02 WASHINGTON DC, -- The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 am on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly "Argumenty Nedeli." Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account. The attack is slated to last for 12 hours, according to Uglanov, from 4 am until 4 pm local time. Friday is...