Free Republic

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin's visit to Iran highlights growing ties between the two nations, as they deepen economic cooperation and strengthen their anti-Western alliance. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin visited Iran this week. His visit comes amid blossoming ties between the two countries. Iran has provided Russia with drones for its war in Ukraine. Russia has become increasingly tied to Iran. The two countries have decades of ties but their increasing warmth is due to their shared anti-western views. Russia’s ties with Iran have also empowered it to be more destabilizing in its regional role, backing proxies to attack...

Why does the Biden-Harris administration deify Zelensky and Ukraine but demonize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel? About half of America sympathizes with Ukraine’s plight and wishes to arm it. After all, Kyiv was attacked preemptively by Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, in an effort to decapitate its government and turn the country into a Russian satellite, perhaps similar to the status of a Belarus or Chechnya. The heroic ability of the Ukrainians to save Kyiv and to stop the Russian assault beyond the occupied Donbas and Crimea has hinged on Western weapons deliveries, specifically from European NATO...

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said on Thursday that Moscow would support Pakistan's inclusion in BRICS. "We would be supportive of it," Overchuk, who is on a two-day visit to Islamabad told a joint press conference with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, in response to a question about Pakistan's request to become part of the grouping of the world's leading emerging market economies.

Since last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has postponed several official visits to Turkey. A multitude of reasons have been offered by officials. Some have said Putin has been avoiding any countries that were not part of the Soviet Union since the Ukraine war began. Others have put it down to the Russian elections earlier this year. However, sources familiar with Russian thinking told Middle East Eye that Putin’s conditions to visit Ankara are the primary reason for the constant delay. Putin would like to fly to Turkey with Russian fighter jet escorts, the sources said, possibly concerned by Ukraine's...

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...

A state of emergency was declared in the Voronezh region of Russia after akamikaze drone strike caused a major blaze at an ammunitions warehouse. There were several explosions and huge flames for hours after the Ukraine hit in Ostrogozhsk overnight. At least 200 people were evacuated and two people were injured, one seriously, in the district. Regional governor Aleksandr Gusev acknowledged there was a ‘detonation of explosive objects’ and claimed the ignition came from the falling debris from a drone. Russian channels, meanwhile, confirmed that an ammunition warehouse had been struck. Ukrainian forces are engaged in a long-term campaign of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov have inspected Chechen troops and volunteers preparing to fight in Ukraine in Putin’s first visit to the North Caucasus region since 2011. -snip- “As long as we have men like you, we are absolutely, absolutely invincible,” Putin told soldiers at the Russian Special Forces University, a training school in Chechnya’s Gudermes, according to a transcript on the Kremlin’s website. “It is one thing to shoot at a shooting range here, and another thing to put your life and health at risk. But you have an inner need to defend the Fatherland...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday made an unscheduled trip to Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic within the Russian Federation, his first visit in nearly 13 years, as Ukraine's stunning cross-border incursion into western Russia entered its third week. Putin was greeted by Chechnya’s self-styled strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov

-snip- After my first trip to Ukraine, a few readers wrote in or left comments urging me to check out the assessments of retired colonel Douglas Macgregor, contending he had the real scoop. I wasn’t familiar with Macgregor, but a bit of digging illuminated the retired colonel’s very consistent assessment of how the war is going: March 4, 2022: “The first five days Russian forces I think frankly were too gentle. They’ve now corrected that. So, I would say, another ten days, this should be completely over.” March 15, 2022: “The Ukrainians are being crushed. Even the Washington Post and...

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine should negotiate an end to their conflict to avoid the war spilling over into Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally of Vladimir Putin, said in an interview with Russian state television. Lukashenko was speaking against the backdrop of a Ukrainian incursion into Russia that began on Aug. 6 when thousands of Kyiv's troops smashed through Russia's western border in a major embarrassment for Putin's top military brass. In a wide-ranging interview, Lukashenko said that only "high-ranking people of American origin" wanted the Ukraine-Russia war to continue. The West, he said, was encouraging Kyiv...

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 told Monday that Ukraine currently controls 28 settlements in the Kursk region, as Russia expanded its evacuations amid Kyiv's ongoing cross-border offensive. The Russian state-run news agency, RIA Novosti reported on its Telegram channel that Putin had a meeting with top Russian security officials where he was notified by the acting Kursk governor that "the situation in the region is difficult" and noted that Ukraine currently controls 28 settlements in the region. Video footage from RIA Novosti showed Putin reacting angrily and interrupting the acting governor during the meeting.

Residents who have been displaced by the ongoing fighting in Russia's Kursk Oblast will be paid 10,000 rubles ($115) each as compensation, President Vladimir Putin said on Aug. 8. In a video conference with Alexey Smirnov, the acting governor of the oblast, Putin said that it would a be one-time payment to "citizens who need it." He added that "other damage will also need to be assessed."

THIS is the moment a convoy of Ukrainian tanks rumble into Russia as Vladimir Putin's troops put up the white flag on their own turf. -snip- In Novoivanovka, the Ukrainians took prisoners, say reports. Previous footage showed dozens of soldiers submitting to Ukrainian forces as Russian positions in Nikolayevo-Darino and Oleshnya were raided amid intense cross-border offensive. Geolocated footage published by Ukraine Map shows dozens of men claimed to be Russians. Russian prisoners of war are seen in Ukrainian hands in a further humiliation for Putin. The surrendered soldiers and FSB border guards are shown on video after capture in...

"The complete collapse of the entire railroad network in the country could happen in days," the channel said. "[Russian Railways] chiefs have been ordered to work to the point of exhaustion. Those who fail to cope are threatened with dismissal and 'execution.' This is the motivation." Russian Railways in 2023 reported that the number of trains suspended due to issues with its trains more than doubled to 42,600 amid a shortage of critical parts. This was due to "insufficient maintenance of the locomotive fleet," Kommersant reported in March. A Russian Railways spokesperson told Vedomosti in February that the issue "became...

The European Union's internal affairs chief warned Hungary on Thursday that its decision to ease visa restrictions for Russians and Belarusians posed a potential security threat and said she would take action if her concerns were not addressed. Hungary last month extended its "national card" immigration programme to include Russians and Belarusians, among others. The holder of such a card is allowed to work in Hungary without security clearance and can bring their families to the country. The move sparked alarm among EU officials, who said Russia and its ally Belarus could exploit the scheme to send saboteurs and spies...

After the Israeli army carried out an attack in southern Beirut, representatives from Hamas, Yemeni Houthis, Iran, and the Russian Federation promptly responded. Moscow: In a stern statement, the Russian government condemned the Israeli action, calling it a “dangerous escalation” that threatens regional stability. The Russian Foreign Ministry urged Israel to cease its military operations immediately and called for international mediation to prevent further conflict. “We strongly oppose any actions that exacerbate tensions and lead to the loss of civilian lives,” the statement read. Russia also reaffirmed its support for a two-state solution and called for renewed efforts towards peace...

Russia has sent a stark warning to Israel over its war in Gaza as Moscow's Foreign Minister says the IDF cannot destroy Hamas. Sergei Lavrov said it is "unrealistic" to believe that Israel can dismantle the Palestinian group because of its "support in the Muslim world." -snip- The Kremlin has hosted Hamas in Moscow twice since the war broke out after the brutal October 7 attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Nicolas Maduro on winning the disputed Venezuelan election, and the Kremlin said it was deepening cooperation in all areas - including sensitive ones - with Caracas. -snip- "Russian-Venezuelan relations have the character of a strategic partnership," Putin said in a message to Maduro, the Kremlin said. "I am confident that your activities at the head of state will continue to contribute to their progressive development in all directions." -snip- Putin ended his message to Maduro: "Remember that you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil."

A staunch ally of Vladimir Putin lamented the destruction of the Black Sea Fleet, dealing the Russian president a double blow as his Navy was forced to hold a muted annual parade on Sunday. In a rare admission of Russia's military failures, Yevgeny Fyodorov from the ruling United Russia party complained that Ukraine has disabled such a large proportion of Putin's prized Black Sea Fleet that it is essentially "gone." -snip- "The Russian fleet as an operational mechanism in the Black Sea does not exist! Not physically, but in terms of its actual combat presence. This is a fact," the...