Free Republic

A Russian court sentenced opposition leader Alexey Navalny to another 19 years in prison after convicting him of “extremism,” a decision he had earlier described as “Stalinist.” The closed hearing on Friday held inside a strict-regime prison found President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critic guilty of charges of founding an “extremist” group and six other related counts. The judge ordered the new term also to be served in a strict-regime prison. Navalny, 47, had predicted “a huge sentence, what they call a ‘Stalinist’ sentence” in a statement on his website the day before the verdict. He said he also expected...

The all-Muslim Hamtramck City Council on Tuesday banned LGBTQ Pride flags from being flown on all city properties, drawing criticism that the diverse city chose bigotry over inclusivity. The so-called "neutrality flag resolution" also prohibits the display of religious, ethnic, racial, and political flags and states that the city won’t provide “special treatment to any group.” The unanimous vote followed more than three hours of public comments and months of impassioned debate. Dozens of supporters and opponents crowded into the council chambers and hallway at City Hall to speak out. “I am a Lebanese person, and I support the American...

"He really left us with a very deep impression about the principles that, without ceasing to be an earthly man, he promoted in the international arena," the Russian diplomat said. On Friday, Russian Federation's Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov evoked the historical figure of Commander Hugo Chavez, the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution whose death anniversary Venezuelans will remember next Sunday. "We pay tribute to Hugo Chavez, who passed away 10 years ago, leaving a deep mark not only in the history of his country and Latin American, but also in the history of the world community," Lavrov said, pointing...

MOSCOW, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- More than 146.4 million people permanently resided in Russia as of Jan. 1, down 555,332 from the past year, data published by the country's Federal Statistics Service showed on Wednesday. More than 40 million people lived in the Central Federal District and over 13 million of them lived in Moscow, the capital and largest city of Russia. More than 13.6 million people lived in the Northwestern Federal District and almost 5.6 million of them lived in the country's second largest city of St. Petersburg. Some 109.6 million people permanently resided in urban areas, with 16...

MBABANE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2023) Russia and Eswatini have agreed to increase security cooperation, and Moscow is ready to consider Eswatini's applications on any issues that need to be resolved to ensure the security of the state, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday. "We agreed today at a meeting with the military leadership to increase cooperation in the field of security. We have existing intergovernmental agreements on military cooperation, military-technical cooperation, a working group on military-technical cooperation," Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Eswatini Foreign Minister Thuli Dladla. The minister added that...

Moscow’s occupying authorities in the southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol said Saturday they had brought back a statue of Lenin, seven years after it was taken down following Kyiv’s pro-EU revolution. The Moscow-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region, Vladimir Rogov, posted a photograph of workers in the city reinstating the tribute to the Bolshevik leader. “After seven years the statue of Vladimir Lenin has returned to its place in Melitopol,” he said, adding that city authorities had taken it down in 2015. Ukraine dismantled Lenin statues across the country after its 2014 revolution overthrew a Moscow-backed regime as part of...

Russia has acknowledged the deaths of several of its conscripts in Ukraine. Russian media reports that these soldiers have been sent to the front without training. Source: BBC News Russian, citing relatives and close friends of the dead soldiers Details: BBC journalists identified three out of five soldiers [whose deaths were reported by the Chelyabinsk Oblast military commissariat on Thursday, 13 October]: Anton Borisov, Igor Yevseev and Timur Akhmetshin. They were conscripted by the Korkino military commissariat [in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia] between 26 and 29 September. A total of almost 1,000 people were conscripted around that time, the relatives of...

Nato’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that the alliance would provide Ukraine with “hundreds of drone jammers” after Russia was accused of targeting its cities with Iranian kamikaze devices. “Nato will deliver counter-drone equipment to Ukraine with hundreds of drone jammers which can help render ineffective Russian and Iranian-made drones,” said Mr Stoltenberg, during a press conference at the end of a two-day meeting of Nato defence ministers devoted to strengthening support for Ukraine.

The visit, which comes at the invitation of the Russian Foreign Ministry, will last for several days and aims to discuss prospects for bilateral relations to serve the Palestinian cause. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with a delegation of the Palestinian movement Hamas, headed by political bureau chairman Ismail Haniyeh, in Moscow on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "On September 12, … Lavrov hosted … Haniyeh, who is in Moscow as the head of the delegation of this Palestinian movement. During the conversation, the main attention was paid to the development of the situation in the Middle East...

“The invaders renamed Freedom Square in Mariupol as Lenin Square and displayed their tricolor over it,” Andriushchenko wrote in a post on the Telegram messenger on June 11. He suggested that the Russians would like to replace the Ukrainian inscription “Mariupol” on the square with the Russian version (as they did to the monument at the entrance to the city). “Stop destroying Mariupol. Just rename it Zhdanov again,” Andriushchenko wrote. Earlier, the invaders changed the Ukrainian name of the city on the marker at the entrance to Mariupol to Russian. However, it was done so clumsily that the name of...

Activists from the western Russian city of Smolensk have petitioned the country's parliament, the Duma, to demolish a symbolic memorial site to the Katyn massacre and a cemetery for its victims, Russian daily Kommersant has reported. Images posted online showed heavy machinery, bearing the pro-war 'Z' and 'V' symbols, approaching the Katyn monument in an apparent bid to destroy it. The memorial site and monument commemorate the Katyn Forest Massacre in western Russia, a series of mass executions of Polish POWs, mainly military officers and policemen, carried out by the Soviet NKVD security agency in April and May 1940. The...

Finland appears to be getting closer to joining the NATO military alliance despite Russia's threat of military consequences if it becomes a member. The country's politicians and NATO itself have both pointed to the possibility of Finland joining soon, and a recent survey showed a majority of the country in support of membership in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Sanna Marin, Finland's prime minister, said on Saturday the decision on whether or not to join should happen "this spring," the Financial Times reported. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on March 31 that while the decision to join the...

The authorities of the Republic of Poland, after consultations between the President and the Goverment, are ready to deploy – immediately and free of charge – all their MIG-29 jets to the Ramstein Air Base and place them at the disposal of the Government of the United States of America. At the same time, Poland requests the United States to provide us with used aircraft with corresponding operational capabilities. Poland is ready to immediately establish the conditions of purchase of the planes. The Polish Government also requests other NATO Allies – owners of MIG-29 jets – to act in the...

Germany will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine, marking a complete reversal in Berlin's restrictive arms export policy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Saturday. Why it matters: Germany has for months come under intense criticism for its response to Russia's aggression toward Ukraine. The government said its "historical responsibilities" prevented it from shipping arms to conflict zones, and had previously blocked other NATO allies from transferring German-origin weapons to Ukraine. What they're saying: "The Russian attack marks a turning point. It is our duty to do our best to help Ukraine defend against the invading army...

I'm just watching the Denmark-Finland European championship game and Denmark's star collapsed on the field. They've been doing CPR for 10 minutes on the field doesn't look good.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fired a warning shot Monday against withdrawing more U.S. troops from Afghanistan, even as the Pentagon is preparing an order to do so. McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor, warned that only a "small minority" in Congress would support a rapid drawdown and warned that a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan "would hurt our allies and delight, delight, the people who wish us harm." "The consequences of a premature American exit would likely be even worse than President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq back in 2011. ... It would be reminiscent of the...

The city of Jacksonville’s inventory for Confederate memorials lists three monuments and eight markers on city property related to the Civil War. As of Tuesday morning, there was one less, and Mayor Lenny Curry said the others are coming down, too. Crews were seen overnight using a crane to remove a Confederate monument in Jacksonville’s Hemming Park, the downtown city plaza framed on two sides by City Hall and the Federal Courthouse. The statue and nameplate were hauled off well before daylight, leaving an empty pedestal.

Former officials from the George W. Bush administration have formed a super PAC to support former Vice President Joe Biden’s White House campaign. The super PAC, dubbed 43 Alumni For Biden, referring to the 43rd president, was formed Monday, according to a Tuesday filing with the Federal Election Commission. Karen Kirksey, a former Treasury Department official from the Bush administration, is listed as the group’s treasurer and custodian of records.

It’s a grim reality that the number of people who have died around the world, across the country and here at home grows every day. For privacy reasons, we’ll never know who these people were unless their families share their stories -- as a few who you see named below have -- yet we want to acknowledge the loss of all of them our communities. We’ll update this list of the casualties in our battle with COVID-19 daily based on the limited information the Florida Department of Health provides on each one. For complete coverage of coronavirus’ impact and response,...

Senate Republicans are planning to release an interim report on their probe into Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma and the role former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden may have played in helping the company evade investigations by sitting on the company’s board, according to a report. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) told reporters on Wednesday he is likely to release that report within one to two months, according to Politico. “These are questions that Joe Biden has not adequately answered,” Johnson told reporters. “And if I were a Democrat primary voter, I’d want these questions...