Free Republic

President Vladimir Putin announced a compensation plan for citizens in the Russian region that came under attack by Ukraine. Russians "who need it" will be eligible for a one-time payout of 10,000 rubles, Putin said during a video call with Kursk's acting governor, Alexey Smirnov, per the Kyiv Post's translation. That shakes out at about $115. "Other damage will also need to be assessed," Putin said. Around 3,000 people have been evacuated from Kursk, the western Russian border region attacked by Ukrainian forces this week, officials have said. Speaking to Putin, Smirnov said that extra trains were scheduled to take...

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was in the running to become President of Belarus. She was forced to flee the country after Alexander Lukashenko declared a landslide victory, though many believe she won the election instead. In her first interview from exile, the opposition leader told the BBC she does not see herself as a President but as a symbol of freedom and change. She urges protesters to carry on, warning that if they step back now they would become “slaves” to the regime. She spoke to the BBC’s Europe Correspondent Jean Mackenzie, a month after they first met in the run up...

Russia's state TV Channel One has broadcast conspiracy theories blaming U.S. President Donald Trump or "international corporations" for the coronavirus. The report was broadcast on the main evening news show watched by millions on February 5.

MOSCOW -- For three straight days last weekend, the employees of the Novaya Buryatia newspaper in southern Siberia used scissors to remove an article from 50,000 copies of the weekly before it could be distributed. The same article, which had been posted a few days earlier on the paper's website, was pulled down. (It can be seen in an archived file here.) As a result, an article that was intended to clear up some mysteries involving alleged Russian military participation in the fighting in eastern Ukraine has itself become the center of a mystery: Is this a case of Soviet-style...