Free Republic

Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” against Ukraine hit a turning point Wednesday—but not the kind the Kremlin wanted. Instead, the Russian leader may have inadvertently put the final nail in the coffin of his decades-long reign with his bombshell announcement that hundreds of thousands of citizens will be called up to face likely death in the war next door. Advertisement While Putin’s most loyal allies rallied around the leader with calls for unity and defense officials bent over backward to provide dubious assurances to the general public, ordinary Russians rushed for the exits and took to the streets. Airline tickets...

KYIV—Ukraine is ready to investigate the connections Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden had with the Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings, according to Anton Geraschenko, a senior adviser to the country’s interior minister who would oversee such an inquiry. Geraschenko told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview that “as soon as there is an official request from the Trump administration, we’ll look into it,” but “currently there is no open investigation.” “Clearly,” said Geraschenko, “Trump is now looking for kompromat to discredit his opponent Biden, to take revenge for his friend Paul Manafort, who is serving seven years in prison.”...

IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL07.01.16 2:20 PM ET Mastermind of Istanbul Airport Attack Had Been Georgian Informant, Official Says Akhmed Chatayev is blamed for planning the deadly attack in Turkey, and an official says he was on the government payroll before returning to jihad. ODESSA, Ukraine — Sometimes the world of terror and counterterror is amazingly small. The day after at least 43 people were killed and more than 235 injured in a terrorist attack on Istanbul’s international airport, Turkish officials announced the arrest of the alleged mastermind behind the attack: Akhmed Chatayev, an ethnic Chechen from Russia who,...