Free Republic

Ukrainian drones on Wednesday attacked St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, on the opening day of an annual economic conference that President Vladimir V. Putin has tried to cultivate into a showcase of a modern and prosperous country. It was the second time in a month that Ukraine had struck a major Russian city before an event important to Mr. Putin, as Kyiv expands a campaign of long-range strikes aimed at inflicting economic damage on Russia and demonstrating its vulnerability to attacks. In early May, Ukrainian forces hit sites in Moscow, including a high-rise apartment building near the city center, days...

MOSCOW, April 22 (Reuters) - The veteran leader of Russia's Communist Party has warned parliament that the ​country's faltering economy risks stoking a 1917-style revolution and that the government needs to take urgent measures to correct ‌its course. Gennady Zyuganov, 81, issued his warning to a plenary session of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, ahead of a parliamentary election due in September, according to a recording of his speech posted on the Duma's official website. "We’re doing everything we can to support (President Vladimir) Putin and his ​strategy and policies, but you (the government) are not listening,"...

Russian state media has launched a barrage of criticism against U.S. President Donald Trump after he accused Russia's Vladimir Putin of saying "a lot of bulls***" about the war in Ukraine, the exiled news outlet Agentstvo reported Wednesday. -snip- Prominent pro-Kremlin television host Vladimir Solovyov on Tuesday chastised Trump on his flagship talk show for addressing Putin in what he described as a disrespectful tone. “Trump has started to speak rudely,” Solovyov said. “It seems to us that he’s undergoing a ‘Bidenization.’ His belief that he’s the only person able to speak with Putin has made him transform into another...