Free Republic

A U.S. reporter appearing on state-run television channel Russia Today on Wednesday to discuss the Bradley Manning verdict used his two minutes of airtime to protest Russia's anti-gay propaganda law and slam President Vladimir Putin. James Kirchik, who was speaking via video link from Stockholm with Russia Today news anchors, wore rainbow-colored suspenders on the air and began his speech by noting that "being silent in the face of evil is something we can't do." "So you know, being here on a Kremlin-funded propaganda network, I'm going to wear my gay pride suspenders and speak out against the horrific anti-gay...

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Greenpeace said Wednesday that Russia had denied its ship access to Russian Arctic waters to hide the extent of its lucrative energy exploration work in the fragile ecosystem. The global environmental lobby group said its Arctic Sunrise icebreaker intended to enter the Northern Sea Route to protest at work being conducted jointly by Russia's Rosneft energy giant and its US partner ExxonMobil. Arctic Sunrise confronted the Rosneft-contracted Akademik Lazarev last week near the Barents Sea as the Russian vessel was performing powerful seismic sounding tests. The environmental watchdog said Russian authorities had refused it permission to enter...

Russian female athletes Yulia Gushchina and Ksenia Ryzhova denied Western media reports that said that their kiss at the award ceremony of the 2013 Athletics World Championships in Moscow was an action to support sexual minorities. "I did what everyone does on a pedestal," said Gushchina, having learned about the response of Western journalists to the photograph, on which the two athletes are shown kissing on a pedestal at Luzhniki stadium. According to her, the kiss was an expression of joy for the gold medal and nothing more.

MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) – A separate branch dedicated to cyber warfare is being created in the Russian Armed Forces as the Internet could become a new “theater of war” in the near future, a senior Russian military R&D official said. “Cyber space is becoming our priority…the decision to create a cyber-security command and a new branch of the armed forces has already been made,” said Andrei Grigoryev, the head of the recently-created Foundation for Advanced Military Research. “We are working on the overall concept of the program to be developed in this area,” Grigoryev said in an interview...

MOSCOW, August 18 (R-Sport) - Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Sunday the country's controversial anti-gay legislation is for the protection of its young generation, "whose psyche has not been formed," and lumped in the promotion of homosexuality with that of alcohol and drug abuse. Mutko, who has emerged in recent weeks as one of Russia's spokespeople for how it plans to enact the law during the Sochi Olympics next February, smirked when asked about the subject at a closing news conference for the world athletics championships in Moscow. "I've had to repeat this question numerous times and I should...

Moscow's Veterinary Committee reported that the mass death of pigeons in the capital is caused by salmonellа, not the more dangerous Newcastle virus. Veterinary specialists detected lesions on the gastrointestinal tracts and livers of dead birds, caused by salmonella, an intestinal infection spread among animals and humans. Earlier, the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Inspection Service announced that the bird's abnormal behavior was connected to the Newcastle virus disease, which can more easily spread to humans. The birds' salmonella will not be harmful to city residents if direct contact with the sick birds is avoided and standards of personal hygiene are...

A psychiatrist of the early 20th century coined “homosexual panic” to describe an overreaction by heterosexuals who have been hit on by a gay guy. Now it’s the gays turn to panic, in this case by any public criticism, imaginary or otherwise, or legal restriction on their proselytizing. Gay writer Jonathan Capehart published a short piece in the Washington Post this week in which he oh-so-bravely spoke truth to Gospel power. He attended his aunt’s funeral in North Carolina at which the preacher’s “guest eulogy gave way to a harsh sermon about who can and cannot get into the kingdom...

According to the Red Book of the Russian Federation, the country has seen a sharp reduction in the number of rare animals. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is rampant poaching and smuggling to China. After all, the demand on bears, tigers, musk deer, marten is high in the People's Republic of China. Dead animals are transported to China in batches, while many tiger and bear cubs are left orphaned in the wild. Indeed, the number of crimes related to the poaching of rare and endangered species of plants and animals, as well as the transportation of derivatives across...

This week saw Russian policing in the spotlight after an officer was seriously injured when he was attacked as he attempted to apprehend a suspected sex offender in a Moscow market. President Vladimir Putin criticized Russia’s law enforcers, and the police officers involved are under investigation for failing to act to protect their colleague. The incident also prompted days of sweeping document checks on migrant workers in which more than a thousand people were detained, with some to face deportation.

Four Dutch citizens detained by police during a gay rights seminar outside the northern Russian city of Murmansk appeared in a local court Monday for allegedly promoting homosexual relationships among minors, human rights activists and local media reports said. Investigators and migration officials reportedly detained the four, who were making a film about gay rights in Russia, on Sunday afternoon at a campsite during an event for young rights activists. The four were then questioned for about eight hours, said Tatyana Kulbakina, a representative of human rights monitoring organization OGON. Those detained included Kris van der Veen, a gay rights...

St. Petersburg is the city of literature. Most of its streets are as straight as an arrow, laid out on a fanned grid like books neatly placed on a shelf. But there are anomalies, too. Its curved, tapered streets lined by beautiful old buildings that hug narrow, wending waterways can actually look like an open book if you look hard enough. At least they always have to me. St. Petersburg is a city you share with the writers you love. You sense clearly that they — even if they wrote in the 18th or 19th century — sat in the...

State-controlled airline Aeroflot sees no benefits from its membership in the SkyTeam alliance, but a decision to leave the group is not for management to take, a source close to its board said. Aeroflot is considering leaving the SkyTeam alliance because of unfavorable agreements with other members, in particular U.S. Delta Air Lines Inc., Kommersant reported Friday. "There is no point in cooperating with them," a source close to the board said. He doubted, however, that Aeroflot would drop out of the alliance unless there was a political decision to do so. The agreement to join SkyTeam in 2004 was...

As the possibility of free market competition in liquefied natural gas sales looms, Gazprom is preparing to do battle with potential domestic and international rivals. The gas giant plans to take as much as 15 percent of the world LNG market, up from its 5 percent share today, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said at annual shareholder meeting held at company's headquarters on Friday. Europe's own gas production is decreasing, while many LNG producers prefer to supply premium markets in the Asia-Pacific region. As a consequence, Europe's share in world LNG imports decreased from 28 percent in 2009 to 21 percent...

Chechnya has pledged to spend about half a million dollars for a group of English teachers to give a three-week course in the southern Russian republic, according to an entry on the state purchases website. The teachers will be housed in "luxury suites in a five-star hotel" in the republic's capital, Grozny, the entry says, adding that the educators must have a doctorate degree and previous teaching experience in the United Kingdom. At least 16 foreign teachers are being sought for the program in order to raise the qualifications of local instructors, in part by providing theoretical approaches to teaching...

The new head of the Central Bank has vowed to continue her predecessor's battle against inflation, resisting calls for radical monetary stimulus and a weaker ruble to revive the economy. A first interest rate cut could come in the third quarter of this year, but only if inflation is clearly falling, Elvira Nabiullina said in an interview before she takes charge at the financial regulator Monday. In wide-ranging remarks, Nabiullina also said that without deep structural reforms and successful efforts to stamp out corruption, Russia’s $2 trillion economy cannot attain a goal of 5 percent annual growth set by the...

The newly appointed Economic and Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Monday that his main task was to prevent a recession, while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the government expected a 400 billion ruble ($12 billion) budget deficit in 2014. Ulyukayev, who served as first deputy chairman of the Central Bank for almost a decade before being appointed economic development minister on Monday, outlined his future policy at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. He indicated that he would try to pursue his policy without relying on high oil prices, but added that his task would be hard. “It is one...

About 21 percent of Russians are "seriously worried" about environmental issues in their country, according to a survey published by an independent Russian pollster on Wednesday. The Levada Center pollster said the figure is four percentage points less than during its previous poll on the issue held last year. Almost 62 percent of respondents, however, are convinced that polluted environment has a negative impact a person's health. The survey was conducted on May 23-27 among over 1,600 respondents in 130 cities and towns from 45 Russian regions. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4 percent.

The birth rate in Russia grew 30 percent since 2007, the Minister of Labor and Social Protection Maxim Topilin said on Wednesday. In his interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station, the minister attributed the trend in part to the introduction of the so-called "maternity capital" on January 1, 2007. "During this period, the birth rate increased by 30 percent," Topilin said without giving the exact figures. Growth was attributed "to the introduction of the maternity capital, among other things." In a bid to encourage families to have more than one child, all women who gave birth to their second...

MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) – Google has not provided the US authorities with direct assess to its servers, the head of Google Russia said on Wednesday, while acknowledging that the Internet giant regularly receives requests for user data from government agencies. “Yes, we receive government requests to provide data, but this is strictly in line with the law. It is important to understand that these are requests that we respond to, and not access to servers,” Yulia Solovyova, the recently appointed head of Google Russia, said in an interview with Kommersant published Wednesday. Her statement comes amid worldwide public...

WASHINGTON — Data technology developed by Russia is fighting Cold War suspicions to compete in U.S. markets, amid mushrooming revelations about secret U.S. government data surveillance programs. But that drive to win contracts has no motives other than making money in a free market and is not rooted in Russia's track record of monitoring the communications of its own citizens, as critics are starting to accuse the U.S. government of doing, developers involved in the effort said. "We're a 22-year-old independent company formed by individuals who quit their day jobs and started a new company from scratch," said Alexey Khitrov...