Free Republic

Aug 29 (Reuters) - Seven NATO allies plan to create a new rapid reaction force of at least 10,000 soldiers as part of plans to boost NATO defences in response to Russia's intervention in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

Aug 29 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow had to strengthen its position, economically and militarily, in the resource rich Arctic region, where other countries are vying for influence.

(Reuters) - More than 100 Russian soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine in a single battle this month while helping pro-Russian separatists fight Ukrainian troops, two members of the Russian presidential human rights council said on Thursday, citing accounts from eyewitnesses and relatives of the dead.

(Reuters) - Russia's defense ministry has denied that a Russian aircraft entered Finnish airspace, local media quoted the ministry as saying on Sunday. Finland's defense ministry said a day ago it suspected a Russian state aircraft briefly entered its airspace over the Gulf of Finland without permission on Saturday afternoon.

(Reuters) - Polish President Bronis law Komorowski said that Vladimir Putin is trying to build a new Russian empire for Moscow and that the region now had to choose whether it wanted "a Cossack Europe or a democratic one".

Finnish defence forces announced on Saturday that they are to conduct an unusually large-scale military exercise close to the Russian border next summer. Up to 8,000 reservist troops from all regiments will take part in training in the border district of Pielinen Karelia in June 2015. Major Markku Vääntänen said military exercises on this scale are only organised in the region about once every ten years. The training will be the defence forces' principal exercise event next year.

(Reuters) - Russia is at war with Ukraine and so effectively at war with Europe, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said on Saturday, calling on Europe to supply Kiev with military equipment.

Russia Disowned and forgotten: Russian soldiers in Ukraine A Russian parliamentarian and human rights observers are demanding Russia finally admit its own soldiers are fighting in Ukraine. The soldiers are risking their lives, they say, in an undeclared war. The official Russian version of events is as follows: In eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army is battling Ukrainian army rebels, the so called "people's militia." A civil war is taking place between the nation's own people. Russian human rights observers, however, assume that Russian soldiers have long been involved in the war in eastern Ukraine. They are convinced that not only...

Over and over again — throughout the entirety of my adult life, or so it feels — I have been shown Polish photographs from the beautiful summer of 1939: The children playing in the sunshine, the fashionable women on Krakow streets. I have even seen a picture of a family wedding that took place in June 1939, in the garden of a Polish country house I now own. All of these pictures convey a sense of doom, for we know what happened next. September 1939 brought invasion from both east and west, occupation, chaos, destruction, genocide. Most of the people...

The United Kingdom will push the European Union this weekend to consider the most punitive sanctions yet against Russia for its involvement in escalating the crisis in Ukraine. According to Bloomberg, the U.K. plans to propose blocking Russia from the SWIFT banking transaction system, a move analysts say would effectively cut off Russian businesses from the rest of the world's financial system. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron will put forward the proposal during a meeting with E.U. leaders in Brussels on Saturday. "This would be a major escalation of the sanctions. Most international payments flow through SWIFT. Banning Russian banks...

When Russian President Vladimir Putin began referring to portions of Ukraine by their Tsarist-era name, Novorossiya, Russia hands expressed alarm. Novorossiya, or “New Russia,” incorporates the area of Southern Ukraine from Donbass to the present day border with Moldova. Some suggested that Putin’s brazen invasion and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula was a prelude to a much more significant land grab. They noted that Putin could have designs on the entirety of Southern Ukraine, linking Russia to the portion of Moldova known as Transnistria, an area which has been under Russian occupation for years and is already a de...

Ukraine's prime minister has said he will ask parliament to put the country on a path towards Nato membership. Arseny Yatsenyuk said the government was sending a bill to MPs urging that Ukraine's non-bloc status be cancelled. The remarks come as Nato holds an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis in eastern Ukraine. The West has stepped up its accusations of direct Russian involvement in the conflict, following advances by pro-Russian rebels. On Thursday Nato released satellite images it said showed Russian forces inside Ukraine. and said more than 1,000 troops were operating there.

For much of the twentieth century, Catholics around the world prayed after every Low Mass for the conversion of Russia.Called the Leonine Prayers, originally they were conceived as a protection of the sovereignty of the Papal States, which were then under attack. This intention ended with the Lateran Treaty of 1929 but the prayers continued from that time for the conversion of Russia that had become an atheistic state bent on destroying religion.The prayers included 3 Ave Marias, a Salve Regina, a versicle and response, a prayer for the conversion of sinners and the “exaltation of Holy Mother Church,”...

The deal between Beijing and Moscow can dramatically alter the balance of power in South Asia Russia's reported plan to sell advanced S-400 anti-aircraft missile system to China may rile wary neighbours, especially India, as Moscow and Beijing moved closer in the backdrop of deepening Ukrainian crisis, according to a media report. A recent comment by Kremlin's chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, "the chances that China may be the first foreign buyer of S-400s are high," cited by official Voice of Russia, has sparked off speculation that the two countries have moved closer to clinch the deal that was dragged...

Vladimir Putin's expansionist urges Yesterday, Ukrainian President Petro O. Poroshenko declared that Russia had invaded his nation. Col. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian military, confirmed that two armored columns of Russian forces, replete with tanks and armored fighting vehicles, captured the town of Novoazovsk on the Sea of Azov near the Russian border. Ukrainian troops were forced to retreat in the face of superior fighting power that included Grad missiles launched from Russian territory. “Our border servicemen and guardsmen retreated as they did not have heavy equipment,” Lysenko said in a statement. NATO released a series of satellite images...

With the Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine -just like Sarah Palin (and I) warned you about over five years ago- Vladimir Putin and his tight, sinister inner circle have betrayed themselves for what they really are- a (rogue) state within a state. More specifically, the Putin regime is a criminal organization that enjoys the protection of the state in which it resides...  Obsessively consumed by self interests and corrupt by nature, they can't stop what they have started... these are men who lie even when the truth would do them far better service. Alas, one major defeat, step-down, or admission of error...

Is that all just part of the plan? Or is Putin himself becoming erratic? And is the collective Putin coming unglued?

The Kremlin regime continues to misinform the Western audience trying to convince that that Ukrainian war is its internal issue. How successful it will be? It depends when the Western media will decide to finally report the bigger picture of this war.

Aug. 27 will officially go down as a red letter day in the history of reserve currencies and dollar hegemony in how oil and gas are purchased throughout the world. In a new announcement from the Russian business media source, Kommersant, Gazprom has conducted the first sale of oil in a currency other than the dollar, and will henceforth open their purchase window to accept both Roubles and Yuan for the exchange of oil and gas products. Beginning today with an 80000 ton oil shipment from their Arctic fields, Gazprom Neft agreed to new terms on the sale and transfer...

U.S. Official Says 1,000 Russian Troops Have Entered Ukraine By Victoria Butenko, Laura Smith-Spark and Diana Magnay, CNN August 28, 2014 Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- A top Ukrainian army officer said a "full-scale invasion" of his country was under way Thursday, as a U.S. official said up to 1,000 Russian troops had crossed Ukraine's southern border to fight alongside pro-Russian rebels. U.S. officials said Russian troops were directly involved in the latest fighting, despite Moscow's denials. Russian Combat Forces Inside the Territory of Ukraine Russian Combat Forces Inside the Territory of Ukraine Rebels backed by Russian tanks and armored personnel...