Free Republic

More than four years after they took up arms against the Ukrainian government and seized a southeastern chunk of the country, pro-Russian separatists appear no closer to their dream of making their enclaves part of Russia. More than 10,000 people were killed in the resulting war, most in that first year, and both Russian and local support for the separatists has waned as various separatist warlords competed for control of coal mining, factories, the food supply and humanitarian aid from Russia and the West. More than 2 million people have fled to central Ukraine or Russia. No Western journalists have...

(Editor’s note: All quotes and historical facts appearing in the following article are documented in the author’s new book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West.)What accounts for the stark difference between how Western and Eastern European nations respond to Muslim migrants? The former -- including Great Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia -- have been welcoming, whereas the latter -- including Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia -- have not, and vociferously so.The answer, which may surprise some, revolves around awareness of regional history: Eastern European nations have a long and intimate history with Islam, and thus understand the...

Why have several Eastern European nations been so adamant against taking in Muslim migrants? Most recently, when Polish lawmaker Dominik Tarczyński was asked earlier this month how many "refugees" Poland has taken in, he flatly responded: "Zero." When the British interviewer, whose nation has taken in millions of Muslim migrants, scoffed, "And you're proud of that?," he said: "We will not receive even one Muslim, because this is what we promised [to voters] ... this is why our government was elected; this is why Poland is so safe, this is why we have not had even one terror attack." Considering...

During the July 2018 NATO summit, elements of the USA newsmedia focused on President Trump’s accurate attacks on Western Europe’s contradictory actions and positions in the arenas of defense and commerce. What the USA newsmedia covered much less was how welcome those points were to NATO members from Eastern Europe, whose memories of Russian aggression are much more recent, perhaps, than those of Western Europe, making them as wary of these issues as Mr. Trump is. Delegates from Poland, Lithuania, and Romania, for example, appeared just as happy about Mr. Trump’s comments as delegates from England, France and especially Germany...

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will offer the leaders of central and eastern Europe on Saturday expanded business ties at a summit in Sofia while seeking to reassure the EU that Beijing is not trying to divide the continent. Li, whose attendance at the seventh such “16+1” summit coincides with an escalating trade war between China and the United States, will also try to dispel growing doubts among some participants about the value of the annual meetings. China has promised billions for development projects in the region as part of its Belt and Road strategy to carve out new export markets,...

Poland signed the largest arms procurement deal in its history on Wednesday, agreeing with the United States to buy Raytheon Co’s (RTN.N) Patriot missile defense system for $4.75 billion in a major step to modernize its forces against a bolder Russia. “It is an extraordinary, historic moment; it is Poland’s introduction into a whole new world of state-of-the-art technology, modern weaponry, and defensive means,” President Andrzej Duda said during the signing ceremony. NATO member Poland has accelerated efforts to overhaul its ageing weaponry following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. Two-thirds of Poland’s weaponry dates from the Cold...

Reuters) - Hungarian leader Viktor Orban called on Sunday for a global alliance against migration as his right-wing populist Fidesz party began campaigning for an April 8 election in which it is expected to win a third consecutive landslide victory. Popular at home but increasingly at odds politically and economically with mainstream European Union peers, Orban has thrived on external controversy, including repeated clashes with Brussels and lately the United Nations. Those conflicts, mostly centered on migration since people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa flooded into Europe in 2015, have intensified as the elections approach...

Japan’s prime minister says his country has entered into a pact with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to boost economic and political ties with the three former Soviet republics. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said after meeting on Saturday that information technology, transportation and medicine are areas where Japan sees the most potential in the Baltic countries. …

Nearly 30 years ago, the people of Eastern Europe were freed from the yoke of communism. Their liberation is a reminder that the Cold War didn’t just end -- it was won. And it was won because the ideas espoused by leaders such as Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II were far stronger than any army the Soviet Union could ever field. But eternal vigilance, as the saying goes, is the price of liberty. Freedom that is won can, through neglect, become freedom lost. Which is why, since the lifting of the Iron Curtain, America has...

<p>The European Union is losing a major player in the United Kingdom, but there’s other potential cracks in the alliance showing up and additional wrinkles to resolve. While it’s still far from a sure thing, Catalonia may split off from Spain, leaving a question mark over their future. And some of the established EU members have been making noises about not being terribly happy with the way Brussels runs the operation.</p>

U.S. President Donald J. Trump evoked images of the Cold War during his speech in Warsaw’s Krasiński Square Thursday, and reminded listeners of one Pole whose tenacity helped lead to the defeat of an atheistic communist regime. “When the day came on June 2, 1979, and one million Poles gathered around Victory Square for their very first Mass with their Polish Pope, that day, every communist in Warsaw must have known that their oppressive system would soon come crashing down,” Trump said to applause. “They must have known it at the exact moment during Pope John Paul II’s sermon when...

"The greatest difference is that in Europe, politics and religion have been separated from one another, but in the case of Islam it is religion that determines politics" — Zoltan Balog, Hungary's Minister for Human Resources. It is no coincidence that President Donald Trump chose Poland, a country that fought both Nazism and Communism, to call on the West to show a little willingness in its existential fight against the new totalitarianism: radical Islam. [snip]In a historic speech to an enthusiastic Polish crowd before the meeting of the G20 Summit leaders, US President Donald Trump described the West's battle against...

BUDAPEST, Hungary — When other countries welcomed refugees with open arms, Hungary decided it was time to eradicate illegal immigration at any cost. The country succeeded, but that success damaged relations with the European Union in the process. Hungary’s second border fence has just been completed in the southern town of Asotthalom. The 96-mile long, 14 ft. tall double-line of defense doesn’t look too intimidating from a distance. Go a little closer and you’ll notice several layers of razor-wire capable of delivering electric shocks, cameras, heat sensors and loud speakers ready to tell migrants they’re about to break Hungarian law...

Austria is joining forces with 15 other Eastern European countries to stem the flow of migrants northwards, as they believe the European Union (EU) has failed in its duty to protect the region’s borders. Under the banner of the Balkan Frontier Defence Project, the countries will ensure that their police and military forces are in constant contact to ensure the vigilant protection of the national borders northwards of Greece, and repelling illegal immigrants from those borders. Austrian Defence Minister Hans-Peter Doskozil (SPÖ), told Die Welt: “We do not believe that the EU’s external borders are adequately protected so far by...

The German government wants to stop citizens of other EU countries, particularly from eastern Europe, from moving to Germany just for its benefits. Government sources told DPA that the German cabinet was in agreement about approving a proposed law to prevent EU citizens from countries outside Germany from claiming welfare benefits during their first five years in the country. […] Hartz IV was introduced in 2003 as a base social welfare payment available to all German citizens, regardless of whether they had ever had a job. …

Sometimes life sends along something to cheer us up. It did so for me, when I came across a stemwinder of a speech made in the Czech Parliament a few months ago by one of its members, Klara Samkova. Samkova is a left-of-center — not “far-right,” even if the Western press would like to label her as such — politician mainly known as a defender of minorities, especially the Roma. In the past, she was even prepared to collaborate with the Union of Czech Muslims, though after being mugged by Muslim reality, that collaboration has stopped. Her speech was part...

Eastern European nations happen to be the countries that are the strongest defenders of Western Christian civilization. Having lived under communism, these people can see through the communistic system of political correctness that has taken over Western Europe. My favorite country, after America, is Poland. It is a very pro-family country, that elects pro-family politicians.

Too bad we can’t keep them all in one bowl, pour on the milk, and chow down. Some of us feel destined to remain stuck in the pits.Tragically, disgraceful, reprobate lawmakers are not only turning California into sanctuary state for illegal aliens, but also the final resting place for bigots, statist, and budding tyrants. Indeed, the state legislature just shoved a rash of anti-Second Amendment bills down our barrels. Now it will be a crime to buy guns with a “bullet button” for example. California has one of the worst business climates, with the highest taxes in the nation (including...

It didn't take long for western media to lose focus. After Russia began its military campaign to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the world largely stopped paying attention to Ukraine. It shouldn't have. Over the last few months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been busy trying to deepen the quagmire he created in Eastern Europe. A United Nations' report released in November detailed the degree to which his proxy war in Ukraine has turned the country into Russia's killing field. More than 9,000 people have died since the spring of 2014 after Russia-backed rebels began fighting Kiev for independence,...

Vladimir Putin scheduled the war to retake the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – for the first half of the last Final Four college basketball game. He anticipated, correctly, that the President’s focus would be on his brackets instead of Russia’s plan to recapture its former glory. The signs were all there – prior aggression in Georgia, the invasion of Ukraine, the unscheduled “maneuvers” in both Russia and Belarus adjacent to the panicking Baltic States’ borders, the provocative military flights into their airspace and that of nearby Sweden. And the administration, fixated on pushing through its domestic agenda...