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  BOOKS CITED Central Asia's New States: Independence, Foreign Policy, and Regional Security by Martha Brill Olcott (U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 202 pp., $19.95) Highlanders: A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory by Yo'av Karny (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 436 pp., $15) The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture by Charles King (Hoover Institution Press, 303 pp., $39.95) Ukraine: The Search for a National Identity edited by Sharon L. Wolchik and Volodymyr Zviglyanich (Rowman & Littlefield, 310 pp., $35) Return to the Western World: Cultural and Political Perspectives on the Estonian PostCommunist Transition edited...

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Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation, with Clinton’s copious help, was the source of Russia’s incredible hypersonic weapons technology. During his first TV interview as the new President of the United States, Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Russian Federation had been “stealing” hypersonic weapons research and development from the United States during the Obama administration. This point went viral. But the story is murkier than that. Certainly, Russia did acquire key components from the United States during the Obama administration. But they did not steal it. They purchased it. And the person who authorized the sale was none other...

Azeri president says apology isn’t enough, in confrontation that shows Moscow’s waning influence over former Soviet territories. Azerbaijan’s president accused Russia of trying to cover up its role in a plane crash that killed 38 people, delivering a harsh condemnation that signaled a reversal of the power dynamics that long saw Moscow hold sway over its former Soviet republics. President Ilham Aliyev said Sunday that Azerbaijan had laid out for the Kremlin the necessary conditions to satisfy the country, demanding that Russia take responsibility for causing the crash, provide compensation for the country and victims’ families, and bring those guilty...

Putin has vowed to incinerate Ukraine with new missiles firing warheads almost as hot as on the surface of the sun. The Russian dictator said he would use the new Oreshnik missiles to turn areas of Ukraine “to dust” in blasts “comparable to nuclear weapons”. In a speech to ex-Soviet state leaders in Kazakhstan Putin vowed to ramp up his country’s production of hypersonic missiles, in a bid to outpace the West’s ability to supply Ukraine. Boasting about his new super-weapon Oreshnik, he said that in future it would be devastating in the destruction it caused. “Of course, there are...

"Europeans must be ready to sacrifice some “luxuries” to pay to support Ukraine and to prevent a “wartime scenario” coming to the nations of the continent if they are insufficiently prepared, NATO’s most senior military officer said in a speech namechecking both Russia and China as threats..."- from the article

Russia's central bank hiked its key interest rate by 200 basis points on Friday to 21%, the highest level since the early years of President Vladimir Putin's rule, when Russia was recovering from the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

On Oct. 16, 1978, the cardinal electors of the Roman Catholic Church elected Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to sit on the Chair of St. Peter. Wojtyla took the name Pope John Paul II, having succeeded John Paul I, who died suddenly after serving as Roman pontiff for only 33 days. Though few recognized it at the time, the papal election of Karol Wojtyla was the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire. As George Weigel explained in The End and the Beginning, John Paul II, only eight months after his election, “ignited a revolution of conscience in his native...

...For several nights, military personnel had reported a mysterious breach of restricted airspace over a stretch of land that has one of the largest concentrations of national-security facilities in the U.S. The first drone arrived shortly. Kelly, a career fighter pilot, estimated it was roughly 20 feet long and flying at more than 100 miles an hour, at an altitude of roughly 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Other drones followed, one by one, sounding in the distance like a parade of lawn mowers. The drones headed south, across Chesapeake Bay, toward Norfolk, Va., and over an area that includes the home...

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Commencement Address at Harvard University—8 June 1978. {Russian audio with English-translation audio overlay; and English subtitles.} PLEASE NOTE: THERE DOES NOT EXIST A VIDEO WITH ONLY ONE LANGUAGE AUDIO. SORRY. THIS IS HOW IT WAS RECORDED. PLEASE TURN ON CC/SUBTITLES TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE ENGLISH.

Draft documents say defence and security will make up 40% of government spending as Putin continues war against Ukraine. Russia is to increase its spending on defence by 25% to its highest on record, as Vladimir Putin vows to continue his war efforts in Ukraine and further escalate his standoff with the west. The latest planned increase in spending will take Russia’s defence budget to a record 13.5tn rubles (£109bn) in 2025, according to draft budget documents published on Monday on the parliament’s website. That is about 3tn rubles more than was set aside for defence this year, which was...

Bioterrorism threat said real Oct 17, 2002 12:00 PM, Harry Cline There are 7,000 unaccounted for former Soviet Union biological warfare scientists and technicians in the world today. Before 9/11/01, that fact would be filed away under "So what...just left over Cold War paranoia." Now, though, that fact is cause for considerable concern to Americans, and a panel of experts on bioterrorism and radical environmental groups speaking at the recent California Plant Health Association and CropLife America joint annual convention in Palm Desert, Calif., only served to heighten that concern when they addressed biological warfare issues facing America today. According...

Last week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Vice President Kamala Harris officially became the Democratic nominee for US president. The symbolic and celebratory event — which included a live concert and dance party with rapper Lil Jon — was the culmination of a carefully choreographed, by-the-powers-that-be process unprecedented in American politics. President Joe Biden was removed from the race, dubiously replaced by Harris to run against GOP nominee Donald Trump. In an unusual virtual roll call, Harris secured 99% of the participating delegates’ votes — along with hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funding that donors had...

By September 1, the school administration demanded that toilet paper, napkins, and liquid soap be brought in. The mayor's office conducted an inspection and stated that this was unacceptable. A shopping list was given to parents of students at School No. 38. It included liquid soap, at least 200 napkins, two rolls of toilet paper and paper towels, and copy paper. It was noted that all purchases had to be put in a separate bag and signed. The parents were not told what purposes this was all being collected for. The press service of the Petrozavodsk administration told Pod’yom that...

President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the complex prisoner-swap deal with Russia that freed unjustly imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and two others in exchange for prisoners including Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov as a prodigious “feat of diplomacy.” Biden said all four of the recovered prisoners were “convicted in show trials” by Russia “for absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever.” In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the freed detainees included Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Muza, a U.S. green-card holder and Washington Post contributor who was sentenced to 25 years in prison...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reaffirmed his government’s support for the administration of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, expressing during a visit to Caracas on February 20 Moscow's commitment to strategic cooperation in numerous sectors...

Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, says that the plan to isolate Iran has been abandoned, and today "Israel and the US are the most isolated and hated in the world." "Defending our country's borders today is not just about guarding the border. Blocking the border of the Islamic Republic of Iran means blocking the global policies of our enemies against Iran," he claimed. He added that "Iran does not base its security on a narrow territorial margin but seeks to establish security across all borders of Islam, and this is a great task entrusted to the military...

Finally! Putin Showed Off A New Terrifying Hypersonic Missile That Shocked NATO The diamond in the crown of the Russian Empire and Putin’s Joker are both quite appropriate epithets. In military terms, we are discussing a hypersonic glide vehicle that flies to the target at hypersonic speed. It has a nuclear warhead of between 0.8 and 2 megatons. Three hypersonics, Zircon, Kinzhal and now the Avanguard.

Vladimir Putin plans to send Russian children to a summer camp in North Korea where activities include polishing the statues of leaders. Grigory Gurov, the head of Putin’s Movement of the First youth organisation, announced the plan despite opposition from worried Russian parents. “We will now form our delegation,” he said. “Conditions there are good.” The children will be the first Russian group for five years to visit the Songdowon camp, built on North Korea’s eastern shore by dictator Kim Jong-un’s grandfather in 1960. Accounts from Russian adult leaders on previous trips described Songdowon camp as a cross between a...

Today, on June 28th, 2024, a significant event occurred in my life that I will always remember. My name is Ryan Samsel, and last night, I witnessed Donald J. Trump’s victory over Joe Biden. As always, I said my nightly prayer and woke up feeling a sense of goodness that I can’t quite explain. Then, someone informed me that the Supreme Court overturned the 1512(c) charges. I was in a state of shock and disbelief, unable to fully comprehend the news. Let me begin by sharing that I have endured immense suffering and hardships throughout this entire ordeal since January...