Free Republic

“The 80’s called, they want their foreign policy back.” At the time, it was a stone cold zinger - a nice line that was typical of the celebrated personal political skills and folksy ease of President Barack Obama, and a slick little soundbite on the road to his clinical defeat of Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. With the passage of time, however, it has entered into the dubious ranks of history’s famous last words. When Romney argued in that debate that Russia was the chief geopolitical rival to the United States, it was easy for Obama to dismiss...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is readying to go to North Korea on Tuesday for his first trip to the country in 24 years. The Russian leader is set to visit the isolated nation for two days at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, state-run Korean Central News Agency said. The talks are expected to focus on expanding military cooperation between the countries

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — The leader of Armenia on Wednesday declared his intention to pull out of a Russia-dominated security alliance of several ex-Soviet nations as tensions rise between the two allies. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his government will decide later when to leave the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, a grouping that includes Russia and the former Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Amid the widening rift with Russia, Armenia earlier froze its participation in the alliance, canceled its involvement in joint military drills and snubbed CSTO summits. Pashinyan said Wednesday for the...

American journalist Evan Gershkovich will stand trial in Russia on charges of spying for the CIA, prosecutors announced Thursday. The prosecutor's office said that Gershkovich's indictment on espionage charges had been finalized following an investigation by Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB. It said he had "acted on instructions from the CIA" and "collected secret information" about the manufacturer Uralvagonzavod, a facility in the region that produces and repairs military equipment. It added that "illegal actions were carried out by Gershkovich in compliance with careful measures of secrecy."

The United States has lifted restrictions on providing weapons and training for the high-profile Ukrainian military unit the Azov Brigade. The U.S. State Department confirmed Monday that the unit, which has played a significant role in Ukraine's effort to repel the ongoing invasion launched by Russia in February 2022, could now be trained by U.S. military personnel and use U.S.-provided weapons. The State Department's move reversed a decade-old prohibition imposed on the Azov forces under the Leahy Law, which prohibits the U.S. from supplying weapons or financial assistance "to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating...

About Sergey Karaganov (from Wiki): Karaganov Doctrine Karaganov is known as the progenitor of the Karaganov Doctrine, which states that Moscow should pose as the defender of human rights of ethnic Russians living in the 'near abroad' for the purpose of gaining political influence in these regions. This idea was first brought into domestic Russian Federation politics by Boris Yeltsin in 1992, although it was only a fringe ideology in Yeltsin's Russia. It has become a mainstream ideology in Putin's Russia after 2012. After Karaganov published an article advocating this stance in 1992, Russia's foreign policy position linked Russian troop...

Disclaimer: Lots of f-bombs in the audio. NSFW. To see the interview with Scott Ritter please skip to the 4:00 mark. Scott Ritter responds to questions by the host. Per Ritter his passport was seized without a stated reason. Ritter speculates as to the reason for the passport seizure. He also says he expects a nuclear war between the US and Russia in the next forty days. The gist of his commentary is that he was going to Russia to appeal to the Russian people not to start a nuclear war, clearly implying that Russia wants to start a nuclear...

The last few weeks have arguably been a period of change for the war in Ukraine, both on and off the battlefield. In Moscow, long serving Defence Minister Shoigu has been removed from that post, while a number of Russian Generals and senior figures have been arrested or otherwise removed. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russia has escalated the previously quiet Kharkiv front, edging slightly closer to Ukraine's second city. In this episode, I want to unpack some of the current political and economic context and ask what may be next for a Russia war effort that is now 'under new management'

Commander Daryl Caudle said breaches are seen every week amid an 8,000% surge in Chinese migrants at the southern border...Commander Caudle said attempted infiltrations are happening 'two or three times a week' - at Navy bases alone....the perpetrators often claiming to be innocent tourists when caught...A lot of times they have passports, they have papers, but they are in no way shape or form authorized to be on our base. Operatives from Communist China have been caught scuba diving close to Cape Canaveral, wandered on to a missile launch site in New Mexico, and claimed to be looking for Holiday...

Video footage of Vladimir Putin's press conference yesterday with Alexander Lukashenko. Russian President Putin Visits Belarus, Discusses Tactical Nuclear Exercises with Lukashenko

Russia's war in Ukraine has revealed to the world in graphic detail the smorgasbord of lethal technologies that can be used to destroy one's enemy in a large-scale 21st-century clash. But despite all the capabilities of such cutting-edge military tech, Moscow's primary frontline tactic appears ripped from the playbook of World War I generals - batter Ukrainians with artillery before dispatching waves of soldiers to secure territory inch by blood-soaked inch. It's a style of warfare reminiscent of the Battle of Passchendaele - but it has proved nonetheless effective with Vladimir Putin's forces gaining territory hand over fist in eastern...

The removal of the navigation buoys is part of a 'broader pattern of provocative behaviour' by the Kremlin, the EU's chief diplomat says. The EU's foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has asked Moscow for an "explanation" after buoys on the Narva River demarcating Estonia's border with Russia were removed in the early hours of Thursday. According to Estonian border guards, their Russian counterparts confiscated 24 of 50 buoys intended to mark sailing routes on the border waterway, an act which Borrell described as "unacceptable." "This border incident is part of a broader pattern of provocative behaviour and hybrid actions by...

"If I'm being honest...This type of approach was common practice in the USSR.".. On April 22, 2021, the Aspen Institute — an influential civil society group that draws funding from several federal agencies and in recent years has become an odd hodge-podge of boutique-left ideas and hardcore security-state rhetoric — announced that a “Commission on Information Disorder” would be preparing a major report, one that: Aims to identify and prioritize the most critical sources and causes of information disorder and deliver a set of short-term actions and longer-term goals to help government, the private sector, and civil society respond to...

EU member Estonia feels threatened by neighbour Russia. This year, the small NATO country will invest over 3% of its GDP to beef up its defence capabilities. It has also been hosting NATO exercises and training civilians in trench warfare, as EuronewsWitness reporter Hans von der Brelie discovered. Indrek Jurtšenko is a trained opera singer. But today he takes me to a military manoeuvre in the Estonian forests. Armed civilians, part of the “Estonian Defence League” (EDL), are war-gaming together with professional soldiers: “In our exercise there are 500 people from Estonia, Lithuania and France participating”, he says. The drill...

Synopsis: Russian state media talking heads claim that the Western Allies actually lost World War Two and that the war was won solely by Russia.

Some of the anti-Israel protests taking place at U.S. college campuses, including the recent demonstrations at Columbia University, have been supported by organizations that traveled to communist Cuba to receive resistance training, an ADN investigation has uncovered. ADN’s investigation coincides with a recent Sunday report published by the New York Post that revealed a radical NYC based organization known as The People’s Forum familiarized anti-Israel activists with Black Lives Matter protest techniques just hours before they stormed Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, and that the group was incited by Manolo De Los Santos–a radical activist organizer with deep ties to...

All five Central Asian presidents are scheduled to attend a parade on Red Square on May 9 to commemorate the end of World War II in Europe in 1945, while the majority of the world's leaders continue to condemn Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. Yury Ushakov, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, on May 7 said Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, and Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhammedov will attend the event in the Russian capital’s Red Square. Ushakov added that President Miguel Diaz-Canel of...

The figurehead president of the Cuban communist Castro regime, Miguel Díaz-Canel, arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for a two-day official visit that will include a meeting with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, who has been recently inaugurated for a new six-year term as president. According to the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Díaz-Canel will “address bilateral agenda priorities” following Putin’s inauguration, meeting with other representatives of the Russian government before meeting with Putin on Thursday. Díaz-Canel will also participate in Wednesday’s meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, representing Cuba in its capacity as an observer member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)....

Russia on Thursday wrapped itself in patriotic pageantry for Victory Day, as President Vladimir Putin celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II by hailing his forces fighting in Ukraine and blasting the West for fueling conflicts around the world. Even though few veterans of what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War are still alive 79 years after Berlin fell to the Red Army, the victory remains the most important and widely revered symbol of Russia’s prowess and a key element of national identity. Even though few veterans of what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War are still...

Synopsis: The diminutive Russian dictator is inaugurated for the fifth term of his permanent presidency. Russia 1 state television covers the event. State media has also anointed Putin as "Vladimir the Terrible", an imperial title.