Free Republic

Monday visit comes amid West’s concerns over Russia assisting Islamic Republic with its nuclear program in exchange for ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine. The announcement came as Russia has condemned Israel’s “political murder” of Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.

In the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday, a large flock of Ukrainian drones winged north from Ukraine all the way to Toropets, a town in western Russian that hosts the 107th Arsenal, a sprawling ammunition dump feeding the Russian force fighting in Ukraine, 300 miles to the south. The arsenal exploded with enough force to register as a small earthquake, draw the attention of NASA fire-spotting satellites and compel local authorities to order an evacuation of nearby residents. A lot of Russian munitions went up in flames. (snip) That so many of Russia’s best munitions were reportedly concentrated in a single...

Russia's banks have practically emptied their stash of yuan, largely because Chinese financial firms are spooked from doing business with the nation. Lenders have urged Russia's central bank to address a yuan liquidity shortage in the nation, with insiders saying that access to the Chinese currency was running dry, Reuters reported. Russia's ruble dropped nearly 5% against the yuan earlier this week, Reuters noted. The drop came shortly after Russia's finance ministry suggested the Central Bank of Russia would shrink its daily yuan sales, with central bankers selling just $200 million a day, down from the $7.3 billion sold daily...

UKRAINE has dealt Vladimir Putin another huge blow after blasting a Russian gas rig in the Black Sea, killing 40 soldiers.

Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia are building massive new fortifications along their borders with both Russia and Belarus in order to create a common defense line against possible future invasions by Moscow or its allies in Minsk. The Baltic Defense Line as the project has come to be known was an important piece of a new agreement struck between the three nations aimed at reinforcing NATO’s borders with Russia, and the defense will only get tougher. Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds noted in a statement about the new agreement that he and the defense ministers of Estonia and Lithuania approved the...