Free Republic

Moscow closed all four of its main airports for several hours into Tuesday after state media reported the military had shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight. Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said that at least 19 drones were destroyed on their way to the capital as it prepares for Victory Day celebrations this week. Debris fell on a major avenue in the city's south without causing injuries, Sobyanin wrote on Telegram. Governors in other Russian cities, including Penza and Voronezh, said they had also been targeted by Ukrainian drones. It was the second night in a row that Russia...

Russia's air defence units destroyed at least seven Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow, while 59 of the air weapons were downed over the Bryansk region near the border with Ukraine, local officials said on Tuesday. "According to preliminary information, there is no damage or injuries at the site of the fall of the debris," Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app. The drones were destroyed in the Lyubertsy and Ramenskoye districts of the Moscow region, as well as in the Podolsk city district, Sobyanin said. Podolsk is some 38 km (24 miles) south of the...

PM Mishustin would become acting president and elections would be held, but experts say the substance of a post-Putin Russia is tough to predict. In recent months, the health of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been the subject of much speculation, with claims that he has cancer, Parkinson’s, or has even survived an assassination attempt. But so far, no doctor’s note has been produced. “He can stay in power for 10 years or more if he wants, it really depends on the circumstances,” political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya told Al Jazeera. “I wouldn’t really pay too much attention to the problem...