Free Republic

Pope Francis made an emotional plea for peace on Sunday in an impromptu addition to comments delivered at his weekly Angelus address in Saint Peter's Square. As the Argentinian-born pontiff wrapped up his regular address to the faithful, he spoke of the upcoming centenary of the outbreak of World War One and said his thoughts were on the Middle East, Iraq and Ukraine in particular. With his voice appearing to crack with emotion, the pope broke off from his scripted remarks to make a direct appeal for fighting to end. "Please stop!, I ask you with all my heart, it's...

British lawyers are getting ready to hit Russian President Vladimir Putin with a multi-million pound class action suit for his alleged role in the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine this month, an English daily reported. According to British daily The Sunday Telegraph, senior Russian military commanders and politicians closely-linked to Putin will likely be also included in the suit, set to take place in American courts. “There has been talk of civil suits against Malaysia Airlines, but those immediately responsible are not only the separatists who are alleged to have fired the rocket at Flight MH17,...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended her handling of the U.S.-Russia relationship on Sunday, saying she remained "skeptical" of Russian President Vladimir Putin during her time as the top U.S. diplomat, despite a high-profile effort to "reset" relations between the two countries. Clinton and other U.S. officials also urged the Europeans to step up their economic sanctions against Russia, stressing the need to exact a price from the Russians for their interference in Ukraine and their alleged involvement in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Critics have said Clinton's "reset" initiative was naive because Russia was never...

Ukrainian army defeated the huge armored column militants near Torrez According to Igor Burkut "Rovenky held column of regular troops - Concerted crews of combat vehicles, artillery calculations. From air attack column covered two ZSU-23-2 trucks. A classic militia would ride on conventional trucks, pickups, buses. Their weapons would be unsuited - from hunting rifles and museum to the PCA captured AK-74 and a variety of machine guns and mortars. Immediately visible - the same type weapons, the soldiers prepared. So they transferred from abroad, and then recently - has not had time to pull. "

One hundred years ago this week, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany exchanged a series of telegrams to try to stop the rush to a war that neither of them wanted. They signed their notes “Nicky” and “Willy.” Cousins who vacationed together, hunted together and enjoyed dressing up in the uniforms of each other’s military officers when sailing on their yachts, these two great-great-grandsons of Paul I of Russia wrote to each other in English, affirming their mutual interests and outlining an agreement that would have resolved the crisis on terms acceptable to both rulers. Yet...

Speaking at a high-level security conference in Aspen, Colorado, outgoing US Defense Intelligence Agency head Michael Flynn warned against the dangers of toppling Hamas, saying what may replace the Islamist group could be even worse. “If Hamas were destroyed and gone, we would probably end up with something much worse. The region would end up with something much worse,” Flynn, a lieutenant general, told the conference Saturday, according to Reuters.He warned that with Hamas out of the picture, the Islamic State, or something like the brutal Islamist group ruling over parts of Syria and Iraq, could take its place.Flynn also said...

The world is a hot mess. Pro-Russian separatists shot down a passenger jet over Ukraine. Iraq is under siege from Islamic radicals, the Taliban is rebounding in Afghanistan and civil war grinds on in Syria. Israel is fighting in Gaza. Negotiations on Iran's nuclear program have come up empty. China is bullying its neighbors. When trouble flares up around the world, U.S. presidents get blamed. The latest polls show that only about 36 percent of Americans approve of Barack Obama's handling of foreign affairs -- down from 51 percent in May, 2011, after the death of Osama bin Laden. Republicans...

As Ukrainian troops gained ground in eastern Ukraine in early July, separatist leader, Aleksander Borodai, a Russian national, left for Moscow for political consultations. After what he described as successful talks with unnamed people there, he returned to the rebel stronghold of Donetsk to introduce a new senior figure in his self-proclaimed republic, a compatriot seasoned in the pro-Russian separatist movement in Moldova and a war between Russia and Georgia.

Washington, DC – Failure to reach a nuclear deal with Iran will not lead to a continuation of the current status quo, but rather a deterioration of the situation with severe military, economic and security consequences. This is the conclusion of a new NIAC Policy Memo published today analyzing the consequences of a diplomatic failure between the U.S. and Iran. The Policy Memo will be presented today at an event at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC at 2.30pm. The military consequences of not reaching a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran have been clearly defined by the White House: “You...

The Pentagon and American intelligence agencies are developing plans that would enable the Obama administration to provide specific locations of surface-to-air missiles controlled by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine so the Ukrainian government could target them for destruction, American officials said. But the proposal has not yet been debated in the White House, a senior administration official said. It is unclear whether President Obama, who has already approved limited intelligence sharing with Ukraine, will agree to give more precise information about potential military targets, a step that would involve the United States more deeply in the conflict.

Israeli anger at US envoy for his attempt to forge a ceasefire with Hamas sponsors Turkey, Qatar, in Paris talks. An Israeli minister accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry of “digging a tunnel under the the Egyptian ceasefire proposal” by accepting Hamas's conditions for a ceasefire in Paris talks Saturday, Channel 2 reported. The minister's identity was not revealed. Kerry and top diplomats from Europe and the Middle East who gathered in Paris Saturday called for an extension to a temporary truce declared Saturday between Israel and Hamas. However, neither Israel, nor Egypt, nor the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud...

On Thursday July 24, Hillary Clinton told NPR “the reset worked” with Russia. But that was Thursday… On Sunday Hillary Clinton told Fareed Zakaria on CNN she was the “most skeptical” of the Russian ‘Reset’ policy. Really?

Russia on Saturday accused the United States of contributing to the Ukraine crisis and suggested that Obama administration “lies” about Moscow’s involvement in the downed Malaysian jetliner led European nations to impose new sanctions. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. is conducting "an unrelenting campaign of slander against Russia, ever more relying on open lies." The administration has said since the passenger jet carrying 298 people was downed over Ukraine July 17 that it has evidence suggesting Moscow supplied the rocketry and training to the pro-Russian military forces, or separatists, opposed to the Ukraine government and believed...

Vladimir Putin is facing a multi-million-pound legal action for his alleged role in the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose. British lawyers are preparing a class action against the Russian president through the American courts. Senior Russian military commanders and politicians close to Mr Putin are also likely to become embroiled in the legal claim. The case would further damage relations between Mr Putin and the West, but politicians would be powerless to prevent it. Last week, lawyers from McCue & Partners, the London law firm, flew to Ukraine for...

On August 1, the Russian Federation comes into force a new anti-terrorism law, which is fully entitled to receive the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation almost all the personal data of users of Internet resources registered in the Russian Federation. Thus the FSB at the legislative level has full right to interfere in the personal lives of not only Russian citizens, but also foreigners, according to "The Press of Ukraine". Data for all logins and e-mail addresses of its users, their lists of contacts, information on the quantity, volume and recipients of messages transmitted owners mail servers, blog...

The Pentagon and American intelligence agencies are developing plans that would enable the Obama administration to provide specific locations of surface-to-air missiles controlled by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine so the Ukrainian government could target them for destruction, American officials said.

Why would the leader of a powerful country in reasonably good standing want to risk everything by putting himself in the same league with Muammar Gaddafi? ...Since the crisis began, he has been taking on ever greater risk—not to mention serious damage to the Russian economy—with negative return. .... So it appears that Putin is not only a poor chess player, he is an exceeding bad poker player, constantly raising the stakes while facing a decreasing expected return. If he ever could return Ukraine to the fold—an exceedingly unlikely prospect—he would accomplish no more than a return to the status...

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new use of Russian military force inside Ukraine harkens back to 1939 when Joseph Stalin led a Russian invasion of Poland, and Dempsey predicted Putin was far from finished. The latest development represents a dangerous escalation of the crisis on the part of Putin, and the Russia-Ukraine crisis is now a global problem, he said. “It does change the situation. You’ve got a Russian government that has made a conscious decision to use its military force inside another sovereign nation to achieve its objectives....

Hamas militants are attempting to negotiate a new arms deal with North Korea for missiles and communications equipment that will allow them to maintain their offensive against Israel, according to Western security sources. Security officials say the deal between Hamas and North Korea is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and is being handled by a Lebanese-based trading company with close ties to the militant Palestinian organisation based in east Beirut. Hamas officials are believed to have already made an initial cash down payment to secure the deal, and are now hoping that North Korea will soon begin shipping extra...

Ramzan Kadyrov has expressed condolences to the victims of Israeli attacks on Palestinians and emphasized that the USA and Europe were turning a blind eye on this policy of “state terrorism.” The head of the Chechen Republic published an extensive statement on latest political events on his social media of choice – the Instagram. Kadyrov spoke out after Israel stepped up its ‘Protective Edge’ ground operation in Gaza Strip on Sunday. According to Gaza Health Ministry’s official release, a t least 425 Palestinians, including 111 children, have been killed and over 3,000 have been wounded since the beginning of the...