Free Republic

I mourned the untimely passing of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman for the very personal reason that I hoped he would one day get to play Whittaker Chambers in a film version of Chambers’ 1952 masterwork, Witness. Short, heavy set, permanently rumpled, Hoffman would have made a near perfect Chambers to George Clooney’s Alger Hiss, the smooth, handsome, establishment golden boy. Chambers’ 800-page story of his life and their encounter remains the great political book of the twentieth century. Chambers was a deep thinker, a dazzling writer, and a reluctant participant in the most riveting political drama of the era. No...

The Italian Renaissance gave birth to ballet, but Russians dominated the art to such a degree no one questioned their supremacy. The Bolshoi, the world’s reigning company, pirouetted onto U.S. stages in 1959 and 1962. The State Department-sponsored American Ballet Theatre (ABT) went east in 1960 followed two years later by the New York City Ballet (NYCB), led by its Russian émigré choreographer George Balanchine. Adding a thermonuclear layer of stress, the Cuban Missile Crisis ignited in October 1962 when the Bolshoi and the NYCB were in each other’s countries. Upstart Americans left home unproven underdogs…The New York Times feared...

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said he is ready to go to war with Europe, accusing EU leaders of sabotaging peace talks with the US. “We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now,” Putin warned.

NATO is weighing a more "proactive" and "aggressive" posture in countering Russia's hybrid-warfare campaign — potentially including "preemptive" actions, said Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone. Dragone, NATO's most senior officer and chair of the alliance's Military Committee, made the remarks in response to myriad attacks at the hands of Russia, including sabotage, cyberattacks, and airspace violations. "We are studying everything. ... On cyber, we are kind of reactive," Dragone said. "Being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about." Dragone added that a "preemptive" strike could be considered a "defensive action," adding that...

Kaja Kallas said that Belgium has legitimate concerns about the risks, but the other member-states have said that they are willing to share those risksBRUSSELS, December 1. /TASS/. The European Commission intends to make the decision on the expropriation of Russian assets at the European Council’s meeting on December 18-19, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas told reporters. "We are not going to leave the Council in December without the result for the financing of Ukraine," Kallas said. "Belgium has legitimate concerns about the risks, but the other member-states have said that they...

Volodymyr Zelensky, in the next phase of talks to end the war in Ukraine, intends to draw a red line at the most contentious issue on the table: the Russian demand for Ukraine’s sovereign territory. As long as he remains the nation’s president, Zelensky will not agree to give up land in exchange for peace, Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Andriy Yermak, told me today in an exclusive interview. “Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory,” said Yermak, who has served as Zelensky’s chief of staff, lead negotiator, and closest aide throughout the full-scale war...

Oh, where do I even begin with Sisu: Road to Revenge? This is not merely a movie; it is a transcendent thunderclap of pure cinematic audacity. From the first frame, the film detonates onto the screen with the subtlety of a meteor strike, announcing itself as a masterpiece of gleeful excess. This is the movie that every other action film will envy for the rest of their lives. The landscapes are so gorgeously shot they look like nature itself hired its own personal glam squad. The score doesn’t merely accompany the action; it leaps off the speakers and demands that...

Donald Tusk emphasized that the European Union would not be able to impose anything on Warsaw on this issueMOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/. The European Union cannot impose its court decision on recognizing same-sex marriage on Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a cabinet meeting. "I would like to reassure everyone - the European Union will not be able to impose anything on us on this issue (an EU Court decision on recognition of same-sex marriages in other countries of the union - TASS)," Tusk said as broadcast on the social media of the office of the head of government. He...

“Down with autocracy” and “Down with war” read the banners of the March 8 (Feb. 17 in the Julian calendar) Women’s Day march in St. Petersberg, Russia that began the 1917 Revolution… Leon Trotsky would later reflect, “The February revolution was begun from below… the initiative being taken by the women textile workers of their own accord, demanding bread for the children.” Besides the desperation of the times, Russia had strong currents of feminism, going back to Catherine the Great who ruled the empire from 1762 to 1796… The Russian Revolution was the first in history to seek women’s emancipation...

President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war between Ukraine and Russia would give the Russians parts of eastern Ukraine they don’t occupy, Axios reported, citing a U.S. official. As part of the deal, Ukraine will receive a security guarantee from the U.S. and Europe against future Russian aggression, the official said. While Ukraine would view the deal as a major surrender to Russia, the White House believes Ukraine would likely lose the territory anyway and the country could receive assurances Russia wouldn’t just resume the war, Axios reported. The deal would call for Russia to control the Donbas region,...

Intelligence officer, allegedly speaking with PA chief’s ousted rival Dahlan, laments state of Palestinian leadership, says Abbas ‘has nothing to offer’ A top Egyptian intelligence official is heard mocking Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a newly leaked phone call with a chief rival of the PA leader, characterizing him as old and stupid and saying the Fatah party is “screwed” under his leadership. According to the Middle East Eye, the comments were made by Major General Wael el-Safty, an officer in Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate in charge of Palestinian affairs, during a conversation with Fatah’s Mohammad Dahlan. In excerpts...

In May 2025, the authorities in Moscow unveiled a life-size bas‑relief sculpture of Josef Stalin in the Taganskaya metro station. The next month, a statue of Lenin was pulled down in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Between these two symbolic acts lies Kazakhstan, caught in a tug-of-war over the memory of Soviet-era repression. Tensions have sharpened since the war in Ukraine. In the background, Putin has accelerated the rehabilitation of Stalin, architect of the gulag archipelago. His busts are reappearing across Russia. Volgograd’s airport has been renamed “Stalingrad.” In occupied Melitopol, a new statue of the dictator was erected. “We’re witnessing a broad...

This important historical commentary takes a deep dive into the atrocities committed by the Soviet Union and the Russian people. From the invasion of Poland and the Katyn Forest Massacre to the millions of Eastern Europeans who never returned from the inhuman conditions of the Gulag system the narrator discusses in detail the unspeakable atrocities committed against the Eastern Europeans.

The Russian leader noted that the reaction of Western elites on a new interpretation of events was primitive and straightforwardMOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. Western elites spent years teaching Russia about the importance of freedom of speech and competition, and now they are trying to ban and block all of that, President Vladimir Putin said in a speech marking the 20th anniversary of RT. "For years, they [Western elites] taught us how to live, how the media should work, how to understand democracy and what democracy is. What true freedom of speech is. They convinced us of the importance of competition,...

According to Kirill Dmitriev, the tunnel with a railroad and cargo link, will unlock joint resource explorationMOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. A tunnel crossing the Bering Strait and connecting Russia and Alaska can take less than eight years to build, at the cost that does not exceed $8 billion, Special Presidential Envoy for economic cooperation with foreign countries and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said. "Imagine connecting the US and Russia, the Americas and the Afro-Eurasia with the Putin-Trump Tunnel - a 70-mile link symbolizing unity. Traditional costs are $65bln+, but the Boring Company [tunnel construction...

Before that, there will be a meeting of the countries' high level advisorsWASHINGTON, October 16. /TASS/. The presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, will soon hold a new in-person meeting, which will take place in Budapest, the US leader announced following a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart. "At the conclusion of the call, we agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors, next week. <...> President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary <...>," Trump wrote on his page on the Truth Social...

The link has a download option to obtain the 350 page document. Until folks do Russian translations, us English folks should go to the appendices for now. Lots of in-English documents and photographs.

"This is of massive historical significance," Anna Paulina Luna saidWASHINGTON, October 15. /TASS/. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from Florida, said a group of experts will begin examining Russia’s archives on the assassination of 35th US President John F. Kennedy (JFK) on Wednesday. "I have received a hard copy of the report on JFK’s assassination from the Ambassador of Russia. A team of experts is enroute to my office in the morning to begin translation and full review of documents. We will be uploading as soon as we can," she wrote on the...

President Trump has just ousted Sergio Gor, the man many believe to be the Hatchet Man behind the sabotage of the Trump/Musk relationship. Sergio Gor previously served as director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, controlling hiring and firing across the administration — a role that carries significant power. But Gor is now out, being moved to be the Ambassador to India. You gotta love President Trump’s sense of humor…he finds out Gor has been (allegedly) stabbing him in the back and sabotaging his most important relationships to President Trump sends him to go live in that shithole named India...

Family members of law enforcement officers are facing threats from individuals affiliated with the far-left extremist group Antifa, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an Oct. 10 X post.“Antifa terrorists are threatening the families of our law enforcement. We will hunt these sickos down and put them behind bars,” the post said. “In Texas, the spouse of an ICE officer received a voicemail filled with violent threats.”The agency uploaded an audio clip of the threat received by the spouse, in which a woman can be heard using expletives against the wife of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)...