Free Republic

The Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok is one of the indispensable annual milestones for keeping up not only with the complex development process of the Russian Far East but major plays for Eurasia integration. Mirroring an immensely turbulent 2022, the current theme in Vladivostok is ‘On the Path to a Multipolar World.’ Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, in a short message to business and government participants from 68 nations, set the stage: “The obsolete unipolar model is being replaced by a new world order based on the fundamental principles of justice and equality, as well as the recognition of...

Ukrainian authorities on Friday announced further rolling blackouts in and around the country's largest cities amid ongoing Russian strikes targeting energy infrastructure. The press service of Ukrenergo, the sole operator of Ukraine's high-voltage transmission lines, said in a statement that "emergency outages" of four hours a day or more had resumed in the Kyiv region. The capital region's governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, said on Telegram on Friday that residents could expect to see "tougher and longer" power outages compared to earlier in the war.

The Moscow-installed authorities of the port city of Mariupol, which fell to Russian forces after a devastating siege earlier in the year, took down a monument to Ukrainian victims of Stalin's famine on Wednesday. Kyiv has been calling the 1930s man-made hunger under Josef Stalin a "genocide," while Moscow has been downplaying it as an episode of famine all over the Soviet Union. The state-run RIA Novosti news agency published a video of a truck uprooting the monument in Mariupol. "We are not taking out a memorial, we are getting rid of a symbol of the political disinformation of the...

(interesting pro-Russian article out of India - elpadre) Two massive terrorist strikes misfired spectacularly and a terrible beauty is born in the Ukraine war. These two carefully planned attacks in quick succession — on Nord Stream gas pipelines and Crimean Bridge — were intended as a knockout blow to Russia. According to President Vladimir Putin, people ‘who want to finally sever ties between Russia and the EU, weaken Europe’ are behind the Nord Stream blasts. He named the US, Ukraine and Poland as ‘beneficiaries’. Last Wednesday, Russia’s domestic intelligence service FSB identified Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, as the...

A real estate company with ties to first son Hunter Biden received more than $100 million from a Russian billionaire for property investments across the US that date back a decade, sources have told The Post. The hefty cash injections into Rosemont Realty came from Elena Baturina — one of Russia’s wealthiest women, the widow of the former mayor of Moscow, and a close ally of Moscow tyrant Vladimir Putin, the sources said. In one portfolio deal, Baturina paid at least $40 million to Rosemont to invest in office buildings across the country, according to a source with knowledge of...

The presidential press office of Ukraine accused global media outlets of “nuclear hysteria” on Thursday for sharing remarks made by President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked the world for “preemptive strikes” on Russia to avoid nuclear war. Zelensky made the remarks during a question and answer session with the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, on Thursday, asserting that NATO had a responsibility to “make it impossible for Russia to use nuclear weapons.

[…]Here are a few facts about the sabotage: 1. Biden said we were going to do it2. It happened “overnight” on the 26th of September3. We have a US Navy P8 fly from the United States to a refueling rendezvous point over Grudziądz Poland at 0210 hrs GMT4. The two aircraft, Callsign N/A, and BART12 sync up at 26,400 ft for an extended 1:20 minute refueling, disconnecting at 0328 hrs GMT5. The BART12 air refueler RTB’d to Spangdahlem Air Base Germany and one should note the flight record has been wiped6. The Navy P8 then continues onto the Nord Stream...

Russia plans to supervise operations of the Zaporizh .. (Cannot extract more from the article easily)

A top-of-the-line Russian nuclear-powered submarine has gone missing from its harbor in the Arctic along with its rumored "doomsday weapon," according to multiple reports. NATO has reportedly warned members that Russia's Belgorod submarine no longer appeared to be operating out of its White Sea base, where it has been active since July. Officials warned that Russia may plan to test Belgorod's "Poseidon" weapons system, a drone equipped with a nuclear bomb that Russia has claimed is capable of creating a "radioactive tsunami," according to Italian media. The drone can be deployed from the submarine at any time and detonated at...

In a Sunday editorial in the state-owned Global Times, Beijing warned that allowing the country into the alliance—as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested—would lead to an inevitable escalation in the conflict, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats to use nuclear arms against the West. While unlikely—U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan stated in a White House press briefing last week that NATO should delay talks on allowing the country into the alliance—the newspaper warned "all European countries will tremble under the shadow of a possible nuclear war" should it take place, and called for the Western alliance to withdraw...

The CEO of Siemens Energy is asking his compatriots to do without: "Just switching to a big electric car" is not a solution, according to Christian Bruch. Energy will remain expensive in the long term - and that will cost Germany many jobs. According to Christian Bruch, CEO of the Dax group Siemens Energy, German companies and consumers are facing drastic changes. "This crisis will fundamentally change Europe's economy like nothing before," Bruch told Der Spiegel . According to Bruch, he expects companies to leave the country and jobs to be relocated on a massive scale. Energy will always be...

In 1922 Vladimir Il'ich Lenin, head of the revolutionary Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, decided that several regions which for centuries had been Russian and under Russian rule were to be put, for reasons unknown, under the administration of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine. In 1954 a similar decision was taken with regards to autonomous republic of Crimea. The sudden disintegration of the Union in 1991 led to unruly phases in the newly created republics. Ethnic Russian people suddenly found themselves in territory that was no longer ruled by Moscow. In several of the new countries ethnic non-Russian majorities...

The Army’s first openly transgender officer was indicted Thursday on charges of trying to provide American soldiers’ medical information to the Russian government. A federal grand jury in Baltimore indicted Jamie Lee Henry and his wife, Anna Gabrielian, on charges of conspiracy and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information. According to prosecutors, the couple met last month with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian diplomat and offered medical information from Fort Bragg, the home of the military’s elite Delta Force. Gabrielian, an anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told the undercover agent during an Aug. 17 meeting that...

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will hold an emergency meeting with top security, political and defence officials on Friday, following the Kremlin's announcement of plans by Russia to annex four Ukrainian regions.The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would sign documents on Friday proclaiming Moscow's annexation of regions where Russia organised what Kyiv and the West said were sham referendums staged at gunpoint on Russian-held Ukrainian territory."President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called an urgent meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine for tomorrow. The agenda and other details will be announced later," presidential...

Gala concert devoted to the 1160th anniversary of Russian statehood Vladimir Putin made a speech at a gala concert marking the 1160th anniversary of Russian statehood. President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, Today, we are marking the 1160th anniversary of Russian statehood. I would like to congratulate you on this momentous historical date that is of key importance for Russia. Veliky Novgorod, Rurikovo Settlement, Staraya (Old) Ladoga and Izborsk are the cradle of Rus, the source of our civilisation and our state, our culture and education. It is from here, from the north, that the guards of the first Russian...

Vladimir Putin appeared poised to go all-in on his war in Ukraine today, sparking fears of an escalation in fighting that could drag in NATO and spark World War Three. In a day of rapid-fire developments, Kremlin stooges in Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions simultaneously announced referendums on becoming part of Russia between September 23 and 27, with the sham votes expected to easily pass. Dmitry Medvedev, a staunch Putin ally, then vowed 'all forces of self-defence' will be used to protect what he called 'Russian territory' - teeing up a new phase in the conflict involving weapons...

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen declares an energy emergency. The crisis will not be contained to Europe. EC President Seeks 'Emergency Intervention' in Electricity Market Please note Ursula von der Leyen Calls for 'Emergency Intervention' in Electricity Market. "The skyrocketing electricity prices are now exposing, for different reasons, the limitations of our current electricity market design," the European Commission president said on Monday while addressing the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia. "[The market] was developed under completely different circumstances and for completely different purposes. It is no longer fit for purpose. "That is why we, the Commission, are...

(machine translation, emphasis added) The Russian Defense Ministry said that the APU lost more than 1,200 people in an attempt to attack The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), while trying to conduct an offensive in Mykolaiv-Krivoy Rog and other directions, suffered heavy losses, more than 1,200 soldiers were destroyed. This was reported to journalists by the Ministry of Defense of Russia. According to the ministry, Russian troops destroyed 48 tanks, 46 infantry fighting vehicles, 37 other armored combat vehicles, 8 pickups with heavy machine guns. In addition, while repelling the enemy’s offensive, the Russian military defeated the units of the...

Ritter notes that Russian war aims have expanded to include the idea that Russian and Russian-speaking regions of the former Ukraine will come under Russian governance and control, noting that Ukraine has forfeited the right to govern Russians. He notes that these areas have basically been abandoned by Kiev one way or other.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 92, Russian news agencies cited hospital officials as saying on Tuesday.