Free Republic

Ground zero of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine shifted Friday to Moscow’s Crocus City Hall. ISIS claimed responsibility for the concert shooting that killed 133 and injured 140, but all is likely not as it seems — and the Kremlin is putting the blame on Kyiv. ISIS may or may not have been involved. If the latter, the Federal Security Service (FSB) was probably behind it. ISIS often claims responsibilities for attacks it did not commit to build its reputation and exaggerate its reach. Heavily guarded Moscow feels like a heavy lift for the Islamic terrorist...

But upcoming Biden administration and German decisions concerning the deployment of precision deep-strike weapons — namely ATACMS and the Taurus cruise missile — are likely weighing heavily on Putin’s mind, along with the coming introduction of F-16 fighter jets. Ditto bilateral security guarantees, some signed just days ago, with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy and Canada — and Sweden’s and Britain’s announcements last week of additional military assistance. Europe is not giving up on Ukraine. Propaganda wins aside, it was a losing week for Putin... As many as 65 soldiers from Russia’s 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade...

In Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO entered the critical fourth quarter of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s war of survival against Russia. President Joe Biden, unfortunately, fumbled the football. Instead of strengthening Zelensky in the eyes of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin cronies and talking heads, Biden in fact diminished Zelensky. In his 2014 book “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote of then-Vice President Joe Biden, “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Even former President Barack Obama was reported...