Free Republic

Oligarch Boris Berezovsky may have been killed by British spies from MI5 or MI6 to stop him leaking state secrets to the Russians, a leading supporter of Vladimir Putin argued today. Fears in the West that the tycoon was planning to make peace with the president and end his 13-year UK exile may have led to him being assassinated, Kremlin insider Sergei Markov has said. After falling out with Putin in 2000, the 67-year-old fled to Britain where he was later given political asylum.

"Disrespectful", "insulting", and "ill-informed." Donald Trump's threats aimed at strong-arming Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine have been badly received by some politicians and nationalists in Russia who say his tactics bode ill for a deal. -snip- Influential war bloggers, read by millions of Russians and licenced by the authorities, expressed outrage. One of them, Voenkor Kotonok, said Trump's statement was "insulting, arrogant and self-satisfied." Another, war correspondent Alexander Kots, speculated that the Middle East ceasefire had given Trump a misplaced sense of omnipotence. "Russia is not the Gaza Strip. And starting a dialogue with ultimatums is not the...

Putin has appointed his ex-bodyguard, who is considered a likely successor for the Russian leader, as an 'angel of vengeance' tasked with trying to reclaim the territory seized by Ukraine. Former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin, who once single-handedly scared off a bear from the president's mountain residence, will lead the charge on 'Operation Revenge' to reclaim the 386 square miles of Russian soil now under Ukrainian control. Dyumin, 51, grew up in the Kursk region, where a state of emergency was implemented almost immediately after thousands of Kyiv's troops surged across the border and began seizing territory. Putin has now chosen...

Russian president Vladimir Putin was expected to give a speech at 6pm London time from Moscow potentially announcing the official declaration of war in Ukraine to defend Russian-occupied territories, but kept the world waiting on Tuesday night. Russian news channel that announced the speech deleted their posts around two hours after the Russian leader was set to begin what would have been his first international announcement since the country’s invasion of Ukraine on February 25. It appeared as though the Russian leader had cancelled his speech, pushing it back to Wednesday, according to a Telegram account run by political analyst...

Russian officials voiced fear Wednesday that the rise of the Republican party could threaten President Barack Obama’s “reset” of relations with Russia. “We all understand the reason for this [defeat]: disappointment that Obama isn’t a magician,” said Sergei Markov, a senior legislator from the ruling United Russia party. “ Unlike voters in the U.S., we in Russia already knew he wasn’t a magician.” He and other Russian officials voiced fear that the rise of the republican party could threaten Mr. Obama’s “reset” of relations with Russia. On Wednesday, the chairman of a key committee in the Russian parliament said it...