Free Republic

This is the moment a smug Vladimir Putin is taken down a peg by one of his top energy officials in a dispute during a tense discussion about Russia's Arctic infrastructure projects. Director General of Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom Alexei Likhachev yesterday visited the Kremlin where he delivered a presentation about the company's performance and ongoing projects under Vladimir's steely gaze. After a lengthy speech in which he boasted of Rosatom's 24 per cent annual revenue growth and lauded the successes of the company's work to establish Russia as a major player in nuclear energy globally, the director...

North Korea claims more than a million young people have signed up to join or rejoin the army this week, state media reported, after accusing South Korea of sending propaganda drones to Pyongyang and blowing up border roads. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Wednesday that 1.4 million young people, including students and youth league officials, signed the petition to join the army. “Millions of young people have turned out in the nationwide struggle to wipe out the ROK scum who committed a serious provocation of violating the sovereignty of the DPRK through a drone infiltration,” KCNA...

Some 18 North Korean soldiers are believed to have deserted the Russian frontline, with Kremlin fighters reportedly searching for them. The troops were deployed in Russia's Kursk and Bryansk oblasts, about four miles from the border with Ukraine, when they deserted, the public broadcasting company of Ukraine, Suspilne, reported. Intelligence officials cited by the broadcaster said the Russian military is searching for the North Korean soldiers, while commanders are trying to conceal the desertion from their higher-ups. It comes after reports that Moscow was planning to assemble a battalion of troops sent over by Kim Jong Un to help push...

Russia is reportedly assembling a battalion of North Korean nationals to help push Ukraine's forces out of Kursk. -snip- In an apparent effort to remedy its waning forces, the North Korean soldiers will form a "special Buryat battalion," named after the Mongolic ethnic group, indigenous to the region spanning Siberia as well as northern Mongolia and China. -snip- The battalion is anticipated to comprise up to 3,000 North Korean soldiers and is currently being equipped with small arms and ammunition. This North Korean unit will complement the Buryat presence in the Russian army, currently one of the most overrepresented groups...

Vladimir Putin looked off-colour at a conference with Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko today as the pair met to discuss the war in Ukraine. The Russian president, 71, posed for cameras to shake hands with his counterpart in Minsk but appeared frail as he talked through developments in the conflict across the southern border. -snips- Putin appeared at a press conference after the meeting looking tired and rundown as Ukraine claimed minor successes in pushing back his shock advances in the Kharkiv region. Much speculation has been made around the health of Putin, who was sworn in for his fifth term...