Free Republic

The war in Ukraine is a trompe l’oeil. Behind the appearances of the unity of NATO and its consolidation by new members, several big players run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. In reality, all those who are not blinded by their own propaganda know that their side is going to lose and is already planning other enemies on other battlefields. Washington is making the best of a bad situation and using Russian pressure to close ranks. On the front of the stage, Nato assures that it has been strengthened by “Putin’s madness”. Ukraine, powerfully armed by the...

Valery Gerasimov: Russian General of the Army, the current Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, and first Deputy Defence Minister. Sergei Shoigu: General of the Army who has served as Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation since 2012. Shoigu has also served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Defense of the Commonwealth of Independent States since 2012. Nikolai Patrushev: Security officer and intelligence officer. He served as Director of the Russian Federal Security Service, which is the main successor organization to the Soviet KGB, from 1999 to 2008, and he...

ransomnote: The Expose is over the target and taking flak, banned and censored - even Paypal turned against them in an effort to deprive them of funding. Please pray that the Expose receive the funds it needs to keep serving the public.Quoting Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, Ukrainian Channel 24 TV presenter, Fahruddin Sharafmal, called for his countrymen to destroy the Russian nation by killing their children, and urged Ukrainians to “kill at least one Moskal” – a derogatory term for Russian – each.Eichmann was a senior SS officer who played a key role in setting up the Nazi death...

Ah, Alaska, America's 49th state and the Last Frontier. The home of salmon, gold, oil, and many kinds of wildlife. And a potential place of origin for World War III. In 1867, the Russian Tsar sold the territory of Russian America to the United States. The territory wasn't doing the Tsar much good, never really turning a profit, and proving to be an unnecessary thorn in the Empire's already strained relationship with the UK (which owned Canada), so the Russian government was open to any reasonable opportunity to offload it. Russia and the US being rather buddy-buddy in the 1850s...

White House officials have been holding private meetings this week aimed at soothing lawmakers’ concerns over the U.S. posture in Syria, the future of the American military presence in Afghanistan and defense spending. The meetings come as a frustrated White House seeks to push back at criticism of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. But the White House outreach appeared to be having little effect on some lawmakers’ concerns. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Tuesday night’s White House meeting with chief of staff Denis McDonough and national security adviser Susan Rice as...

Whatever you think of Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade America’s credit, their justification was fairly plain. Political gridlock has managed to scuttle several successive efforts to get a handle on the federal debt. And few, if anyone, is sanguine that the new “supercommittee” in Congress will have any better luck. But a closer look reveals that, despite the nation’s pessimism, there are several reasons to believe that the 12-member supercommittee may be able to implement a plan that sets the nation back on track. The setup has been rigged to force a deal. So, in an age where “shorting”...

An American Politburo has materialized before our eyes. Yes, our Congress is the result of a two-party system (those Rs and Ds) and, on the surface, doesn't fit very well with the one-party USSR system, but, let's look at those little pesky things called facts. Administrative actions are already replacing legislative acts as the primary governance mechanism. Just examine the number of regulations emanating from the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services, etc, etc. Unelected officials (unaccountable to the citizenry) all around this land are producing laws we must abide...

Icky LeaksSensitive diplomatic communications have been published by the Wikileaks Web site, and some of this sensitive material concerns Russia. The importance of Russia as a global power has been downplayed since the fall of the Soviet Union. Leaked U.S. State Department cables give us a glimpse of how dangerous Russia is becoming. The true nature of the Russian regime has not been a popular topic of public discussion; but in secret meetings between diplomats, statesmen and law enforcement officials, there is growing concern. Russia has become the center of international corruption, drawing other states into her orbit.From the leaked...

Russia says Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will personally head the investigation into an aeroplane crash that killed Poland's president. A total of 96 people were on board the plane that crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk, all of whom are believed to be dead. Polish president Lech Kaczynski was on board the Russian-built Tupolev 154 jet when it went down in heavy fog near a military airport. Russian authorities have already said they suspect pilot error in the crash, near Smolensk, in Western Russia. There are reports the jet made several attempted landings before the crash. Also on...

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has often described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest tragedy” of the 20th century, has now said that the “reunification” of Georgia has “already been decided,” a suggestion some of his listeners believe was a call for restoring Moscow’s control over Georgia and even the former USSR as a whole. In an intriguing commentary published in yesterday’s “Gazeta,” Bozhena Rynska describes both the celebration of the 80th birthday of longtime Soviet and Russian official Yevgeny Primakov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s two very different toasts on that occasion (www.gazeta.ru/column/rynska/3287611.shtml). The celebration took...

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin of Russia obliquely compared the foreign policy of the United States to the Third Reich in a speech Wednesday commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, in an apparent escalation of anti-American rhetoric within the Russian government. Putin did not specifically name the United States or NATO but used phrasing similar to that which he has used previously to criticize American foreign policy while making an analogy to Nazi Germany. The comments marked the latest in a series of sharply worded Russian criticisms of the foreign policy of the Untied States - on...

While U.S. weapons development stalled almost completely during the 1990s - both Russia and China have continued to field a new generation of missiles for which the west has no equal nor defense. A popular new weapon is the Russian long range air-to-air Vympel R-77 missile, NATO code named AA-12 Adder. The R-77 is designed to destroy other aircraft beyond visual range and reported to be equal to or better than the U.S. made AIM-120 AMRAAM missile...

A Nazi state has been reborn within the European Union and its "blasphemous" leaders are bent on glorifying the Third Reich and insulting Russia. There is talk of sanctions and even of internal armed resistance. That, at least, is the view from Moscow, where politicians from President Vladimir Putin on down have condemned the government in the tiny Baltic republic of Estonia. On a snow swept square outside the medieval walls of Tallinn's old town stands the cause of a row that is straining Russia's relations with its former-Soviet neighbours. The Bronze Soldier of Tallinn was erected 60 years ago....

Tensions between Britain and Russia burst into the open today when a leading Cabinet minister voiced criticism of President Putin's "huge attacks" on liberty and democracy.Peter Hain, the outspoken Northern Ireland Secretary, indicated that relations with Moscow had hit a low as he exhorted the Russian leader to return to democratic processes. Outspoken: Peter Hain, Northern Ireland Secretary His comments come as the Government has been treading carefully with Russia amid claims that the Kremlin ordered the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. The Foreign Office asked Moscow on Friday to hand over any material which might...

Poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died on Thursday in an intensive care ward, London's University College Hospital said. Litvinenko, a fierce critic of the Russian government, suffered a rapid deterioration in his health on Thursday, but doctors still were unable to determine the cause of his death, a spokesman said in a statement.

Just a headline, as of 10AM.

MOSCOW — Russian lawmakers on Friday called for international condemnation of the United States' economic blockade of Cuba, calling it a "massive human rights violation." Members of the State Duma, the Russian parliament's lower house controlled by Kremlin's loyalists, unanimously voted in favor of an appeal to parliaments worldwide to condemn the sanctions and urge the U.S. to end the blockade. "The United States ... in recent years has further strengthened its policy of interfering with the affairs of a sovereign state with the aim of a forcible change of the constitution regime of the Republic of Cuba," the statement...

Russia's Foreign Ministry says the international community should take a measured response to North Korea's announced nuclear test. In a press statement, the ministry says the North Korean action threatens the peace, safety and stability of the region. It also calls for Pyongyang to return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and agree to new talks. North Korea was a signatory of the treaty, but withdrew from it in 2003. Pyongyang also pulled out of six-party negotiations about its nuclear program last year, talks that included Russia. Along with China, Moscow maintains cordial diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, but Russia has been...

There are many reasons to expect Moscow's deteriorating ties with the West will continue their downward trend this autumn. But the key one may be growing differences over the breakaway regions of Transdniester, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia and their stated desire to proclaim independence from Moldova and Georgia. The issue pushing the frozen conflicts to the fore are two independence referendums -- one in Transdniester on September 17, the second in South Ossetia on November 12. Russia, which has acted as a long-term booster for the separatist regions, is looking at the plebescites in two ways: a chance to bring...

Kazan(Russia), Aug 31: Officials and religious figures from Russia and more than a dozen Islamic countries kicked off a conference here that organizers said was aimed at deepening their dialogue and defending a "multipolar" world in the face of US power. "Values cannot be imposed by force," Mintimer Shaimiyev, President of Russia`s mainly Muslim republic of Tatarstan where the three-day conference was being held, said in an opening address to delegates. "The example of Iraq has shown that democracy can only be the result of internal development. Liberal values can`t be exported like cars. A multipolar world without a system...