Free Republic

MOSCOW — At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American conservatives to label the officially atheist Soviet Union a “godless nation.” More than two decades on, history has come full circle, as the Kremlin and its allies in the Russian Orthodox Church hurl the same allegation at the West. “Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent keynote speech. “Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in...

In fact, European leaders are finally beginning to reveal the true nature of the ongoing debt dispute, and the answer is not pleasant: it is about power and democracy much more than money and economics. Of course, the economics behind the program that the “troika” (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) foisted on Greece five years ago has been abysmal, resulting in a 25% decline in the country’s gross domestic product. I can think of no depression, ever, that has been so deliberate and had such catastrophic consequences: Greece’s rate of youth unemployment, for...

The Russians responded to the sanctions against Russia. A group of Siberian entrepreneurs have started selling toilet paper featuring the text of the sanctions imposed against Russian Federation by the European Union and the United States.

NAPLES, Italy — The Marine Corps is preparing to deploy a company-size unit equipped with tanks, armored vehicles and artillery to Bulgaria, an expansion of its Black Sea footprint meant to reassure allies and add new crisis-response options. The first rotation of the Combined Arms Company will bring 150 Marines to the Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria, in September. Accompanying the unit will be four Abrams tanks, six Light Armored Vehicles and three howitzers, said Brig. Gen. Norm Cooling, deputy commander of Marine Forces Europe-Africa. Current plans call for three consecutive six-month rotations, Cooling said, though the presence could be...

MOSCOW, June 16 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday Russia's nuclear arsenal would be would increase by 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2015. Speaking at Army-2015 Expo, an international military trade show near Moscow, Putin said the new missiles could "overcome even the most technically advanced anti-missile defense systems," adding a new long-range early-warning radar "to monitor in the western direction" was also being prepared. It was a reference to plans by NATO to permanently place troops and heavy armaments in Poland, a Russian neighbor and former Warsaw Pact country. In reference to apparent plans to reinforce NATO's...

The Russian Security Council made a statement, according to which the elements of the missile defense systems that will be deployed in Poland and Romania pose potential threat to Russia, and therefore will become the targets for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The Russian Security Council made a statement, according to which the elements of the missile defense systems that will be deployed in Poland and Romania pose potential threat to Russia, and therefore will become targets for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It was stated by the Deputy Security Council Secretary Yevgeny Lukyanov on Wednesday,...

Russia on Thursday sent into Ukraine more than 100 trucks that Moscow claims are carrying aid for people in Ukraine’s Donbas region - the 31st such convoy that has crossed into Ukraine without permission from the Ukrainian government. Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/society/1093631-russia-sends-another-massive-aid-convoy-into-ukraine.html The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said the vehicles were delivering food and medicine in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The truck convoy, as with previous ones, split into two after crossing from Russia into militant-held Ukraine, with one section heading for Donetsk and the other for Luhansk, according to Russian state news agency TASS, with reference to...

There are no sure things in politics, but Hillary Clinton is the closest thing to a sure thing to become the Democrats' candidate for president in 2016. This is one of the painful but inescapable signs of our time. There is nothing in her history that would qualify her for the presidency, and much that should disqualify her. What is even more painful is that none of that matters politically. Many people simply want "a woman" to be president, and Hillary is the best-known woman in politics, though by no means the best qualified. What is Hillary's history? In the...

Around 1,400 passengers of the Polish airline LOT were grounded at Warsaw's Chopin airport on Sunday after hackers attacked the airline ground computer systems used to issue flight plans, the company said. The computer system was hacked in the afternoon and fixed after around five hours, during which 10 of the state-owned carrier's national and international flights were canceled and about a dozen more delayed, spokesman Adrian Kubicki said.

Saudi Arabia and Russia have signed an agreement to cooperate on nuclear energy development, a Saudi government body in charge of such projects said. The government body, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, announced the cooperation deal on its website on Thursday but gave no further details. Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV, citing unnamed sources, said the kingdom planned to build 16 nuclear reactors in which Russia would play a significant role in operating them. The Saudi atomic and renewable energy body has already signed nuclear cooperation deals with countries able to build reactors, including the United States, France,...

Intelligence unit of Ukrainian Army Regiment “Dnipro-1″ published a video recorded by the drone that was flying over Lugansk. In 2 hours flight they confirmed concentration of Russian troops on the East of Ukraine. They checked several bases and found 63 tanks, 32 APCs and 96 military trucks. [VIDEO] “Dnipro-1″ used “Leleka-100″ UAV, that is Ukrainian drone manufactured by design department “DeViRo”. The video was recorded on June 6 2015. 1st stop of the drone was at 48.597967, 39.176593 There is military training ground there near Oleksandrivsk (also spelled as Aleksandrovsk), that was a location of Ukrainian army unit #...

Russian propaganda kills. It kills reason and common sense but it also kills human beings. The tragic death of my father on 27 February was an act of political violence for which Russia’s state TV channels, among others, bear responsibility. For years, they stoked hatred towards him and other opposition figures, casting them as “national traitors”. Propaganda is not a crime, in and of itself: it is part of the furniture of the modern world. What is a crime is to use propaganda to incite people to break the law, employ violence or wage war. It was for these crimes...

Saudi Arabia on Saturday urged its citizens not to distribute "documents that might be faked" in an apparent response to WikiLeaks' publication on Friday of more than 60,000 documents it says are secret Saudi diplomatic communications. The statement, made by the Foreign Ministry on its Twitter account, did not directly deny the documents' authenticity. The released documents, which WikiLeaks said were embassy communications, emails between diplomats and reports from other state bodies, include discussions of Saudi Arabia's position regarding regional issues and efforts to influence media. Saturday's statement is the only official government response since the release, which WikiLeaks says...

WikiLeaks is in the process of publishing more than 500,000 Saudi diplomatic documents to the Internet, the transparency website said Friday, a move that echoes its famous release of U.S. State Department cables in 2010. WikiLeaks said in a statement that it has already posted roughly 60,000 files. Most of them appear to be in Arabic. There was no immediate way to verify the authenticity of the documents, although WikiLeaks has a long track record of hosting large-scale leaks of government material. Many of the documents carried green letterhead marked "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" or "Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Some...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said after Friday's talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that a prospective Russian natural gas pipeline should help Greece service its debt, but the Kremlin said the question of direct Russian financial aid to Greece was not discussed. Speaking of the pipeline deal at a meeting with top executives of global news agencies, including The Associated Press, which began nearly three hours behind schedule at around midnight, Putin said he saw no support for the Greeks from the EU. "If EU wants Greece to pay its debts it should be...

U.S. Senator John McCain has again called on the United States to send weapons to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russia separatists in the east of the country. At a press conference in Kyiv on June 20 with two other visiting U.S. senators, McCain (Republican-Arizona) said it would be "disgraceful and shameful" for the West not to act as Russian President Vladimir Putin, in McCain's view, sought to dismember Ukraine. McCain, one of the most vocal supporters in the U.S. Congress on arming Ukraine, said the Ukrainians had "proven they are willing to fight." Speaking alongside McCain, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (Republican-Arkansas)...

(AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during an annual call-in show on Russian television, "Conversation With Vladimir Putin," in Moscow, April 16, 2015. Russia's ambassador to Sweden has warned the country of the potential military "consequences" associated with joining NATO in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, The Local reports. Russian Ambassador Viktor Tatarintsev told Dagens Nyheter that Russia does not have any military plans against Sweden, in line with Stockholm's alliance neutrality.

... "After tens of years of peace, that peaceful period after the Cold War is now over," Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak told reporters in Zagan. "Because there are more and more crises erupting around Europe... It's not only the Ukrainian and Russian crisis but also ISIS and a number of different crises in northern Africa," he said, using an acronym to refer to the jihadist Islamic State group.

RIGA, Latvia — In a significant move to deter possible Russian aggression in Europe, the Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 American troops in several Baltic and Eastern European countries, American and allied officials say. The proposal, if approved, would represent the first time since the end of the Cold War that the United States has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member nations in Eastern Europe that had once been part of the Soviet sphere of influence. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the war...

MI6 has pulled its spies out of 'hostile countries' and America's intelligence agencies are on high alert after Russia and China cracked encrypted files leaked by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden. The top-secret documents contain information that could lead to the identification of British and American spies, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services. A senior Home Office official accused Snowden - the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor responsible for the biggest confidential information leak in US history - of having 'blood on his hands' after they gained access to over one million...