Free Republic

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is a hard man to reach these days—especially if you’re Hillary Clinton. The U.S. Secretary of State tried for twenty-four hours to get Mr. Lavrov on the phone to discuss a draft resolution on Syria, with no luck, according to the transcript of a State Department briefing. Britain, France and the U.S. plan to make their strongest effort yet to push through a draft resolution calling for Syrian President Bashir Assad’s resignation. At least 5,400 people have been killed in the country’s 10-month long crackdown on protestors. Mr. Lavrov, who was in Australia when Mrs....

Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee said on Friday a prominent rebel leader responsible for a series of high-profile acts of "sabotage and terrorism" had been killed in a raid by security forces in the volatile North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia earlier in the day. Dzhamaleim Mutaliyev, 35, known as Adam, was a leader of Caucasus Emirate, a loose umbrella organization of militant groups operating in the North Caucasus, and a close associate of notorious North Caucasus warlord Shamil Basayev who was killed in July 2006, the committee said in a statement. Mutaliyev is believed to be a mastermind of a several...

Mouths open in shock and muscles tensed at the freezing temperatures, these Russian plunge themselves into icy rivers and ponds across the country to mark Epiphany. In temperatures approaching -10 degrees, hundreds of Russian Orthodox Church followers brave the dip into especially cut holes in the ice om Tyarlevo village, near St Petersburg, at midnight.

This Girl Snuck Into a Russian Military Rocket Factory Her name is Lana Sator and she snuck into one of NPO Energomash factories outside of Moscow. Her photos are amazing, like sets straight out of Star Wars or Alien. Now the Russian government is harassing her. It was easy to get in. She just went there, jumped over the fence and got right into the heart of the complex through a series of tunnels and pipes, which was very surprising. After all, this is an active industrial installation that belongs to one of the top manufacturers of liquid-fuel rockets in...

Rescue ships are racing to save a Russian crew who have taken to lifeboats after their fishing ship hit an iceberg taking on water. The crew of the stricken Sparta, which is listing at 13 degrees, are trying to empty water from the ship as it slowly sinks in the Ross Sea near Antarctica with a 5ft hole in the hull below the water line. But vessels speeding towards it are being hampered by heavy sea ice and are unlikely to reach the the area - about 2,000 nautical miles south east of New Zealand - for four to five...

From an apparently impromptu remark on Monday, the United States has elevated the Russian parliamentary election held on December 5 to a core issue of US-Russia ties. The dramatic escalation of rhetoric scatters the continued pretences over the Barack Obama administration's "reset" of relations. In a swift move, Beijing has also stepped forward to express understanding for Moscow. The faultlines will impact on the regional and international situation on a host of issues in the coming period. To recap, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost no time to offer comment on the Russian parliamentary election when speaking on the...

The Russian nuclear submarine Aleksandr Nevsky will be fitted with its own Orthodox chapel after the vessel finishes its sea trials. It has become the second nuke-carrying sub equipped with a sanctuary in addition to ballistic missiles. ­The military chapel will allow sailors to attend religious services right on board during the sub’s long missions. It was donated to the vessel’s crew by the Omophor Fund (omophorion), which brings together both able-bodied and war-wounded veterans who spent their lives serving their motherland and who are continuing that service in the field of social and church charity. It is the sixth...

Nov 25 (Reuters) - Former Soviet weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev, who won two Olympic and eight world super heavyweight titles and set 80 world records during his illustrious career, died on Friday following a long illness.

<p>A popular Russian newscaster has reportedly caused a stir following a live newscast in which she apparently gave President Obama the middle finger.</p> <p>The Telegraph reports that online footage of the incident, which occurred earlier this month during an afternoon broadcast on the privately-held REN TV channel, is being "avidly viewed" in both Russia and the United States.</p>

During a news broadcast on Russian TV, anchor Tatiana Limanova spoke about Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s appearance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Shortly after, the anchor mentioned that Medvedev will soon take an APEC leadership role previous held by U.S. President Barack Obama. The only odd thing to note, however, is that Limanova says Obama’s name while simultaneously showing her middle finger.

Reporting from Moscow — Over a bottle of vodka and a traditional Russian salad of pickles, sausage and potatoes tossed in mayonnaise, a group of friends raised their glasses and wished Igor Irtenyev and his family a happy journey to Israel. Irtenyev, his wife and daughter insist they will just be away for six months, but the sadness in their eyes on this recent night said otherwise. . . . Experts believe that 100,000 to 150,000 people now leave the country annually and warn that the exodus reached dangerous dimensions in the last three years. "People are going abroad for...

Russian warships are due to arrive at Syrian territorial waters, a Syrian news agency said on Thursday, indicating that the move represented a clear message to the West that Moscow would resist any foreign intervention in the country's civil unrest.

After exhaustive work to recover from a dramatic August launch failure, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut was poised for blastoff late Sunday on a delayed flight to the International Space Station, the program's first manned launching since the U.S. shuttle was retired.

Along with training in spacewalks, robotics, and piloting a spaceship, NASA is requiring that all future astronauts learn to speak and read Russian. The rules are plain and simple: If you flunk the foreign language requirement, you can't go into space.

For twenty years – long before 9/11 – the danger of terrorists armed with surface to air missiles shooting at passenger planes has been the secret fear of many top political leaders. In the late 90s, a terrorist network was nabbed trying to bring them into Newark Airport, but the airline industry and the government have done nothing to equip passenger airplanes with any defense against these always deadly missiles. Now Barack Obama has committed the ultimate sin: He has let 20,000 surface-to-air missiles escape from military depots in Libya. According to ABC News “U.S. officials had once thought there...

Vladimir Putin declared on Saturday that he planned to reclaim the Russian presidency in an election next March that could open the way for the former KGB spy to rule until 2024. The announcement, greeted by a standing ovation at a congress of the prime minister's ruling United Russia party, ended months of speculation over whether he or President Dmitry Medvedev would run. The two have ruled in a power 'tandem' since Putin was forced by the constitution to yield the presidency in 2008 after serving a maximum two consecutive terms, and Putin said they had agreed several years ago...

[Updated, 9:50 a.m. Sept. 7: The Kings issued this statement Wednesday: "The Los Angeles Kings organization is deeply saddened with the tragic news of this morning’s plane crash in Russia that was carrying the members of the KHL’s Lokomotiv organization, including former Kings forward Pavol Demitra, former Kings prospect Jan Marek and many other members of the NHL family. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family and friends of those affected by this terrible occurrence."] The plane, which was carrying members of the Kontinental Hockey League team Lokomotiv, crashed on the banks of the Volga River shortly...

Moscow, July 25, Interfax - A remembrance service for victims of Soviet-era repressions was held by the Solovetsky Stone on Moscow Lubyanskaya Square on Monday. "Many are trying to tell us that that period should be forgotten together with the great number of victims," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said at the ceremony. The Church, the public, veterans and political repression victims "must do their best so that no one and nothing is forgotten," he said. Society cannot live a calm life or "have a decent future" unless it learns the lessons...

This is how you do it:  nab the perps, tie 'em up, put them back on their own boat, then set the whole kit and kaboodle on fire and.... pooof, no more pirates. The video below shows Russian Navy commandos on a Somali pirate ship shortly after the pirates had captured a Russian oil tanker. A number of commands directed at the prisoners are heard from from an English-speaking Russian, i.e. when the commandos find a weapons stash ("WTF??!")- and "This is not a fishing boat!"The soldiers immediately freed their compatriots and the Russian oil tanker. They moved the pirates...

The Russian delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is submitting to PACE a resolution “On ways of opposing the manifestations of neo-Nazism and right-wing radicalism” This document names six countries, in which the problem of neo-Nazism are purportedly acute. Five out of those six countries (three Baltic countries, Ukraine and Austria) are members of the Council of Europe, and the sixth country is Canada. However,it contains no mention of the Russian Kremlin-sponsored groups, NASHI and RODINA, which by any text-book definition are “fascist” if not “neo-Nazi.” Details about these groups, their activities and governmental links...

Cliff Kincaid of USA Survival News confronts anti-war activist Adam Kokesh over his paid position with Moscow’s propaganda channel Russia Today.

When the feds busted a syndicate of Russian-speaking nightclub owners and their so-called Bar Girls, it seemed like just another titillating tale from South Beach. But the April bust showed that the FBI is taking the Eastern European mob a lot more seriously these days than the Italian Mafia. La Cosa Nostra is no longer the bureau’s Public Enemy No. 1 when it comes to organized crime in South Florida. “Eurasian organized crime is our No. 1 priority,” said FBI supervisory special agent Rick Brodsky of the Miami office. In April, six reputed members of an Eastern European network —...

Today Russian President V. Putin ordered U.S. Senator Barack Obama, who is also tight with MOSSAD, to be held in custody under suspicion of being a British operative illegally spying in Russia at off-limits secret facilities.

This artifact was found on March 21, 2011, about 2 PM, in NW Colorado. It was reported that it was still warm when found.

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- The Russians are hiking the price of rocket rides again for U.S. astronauts — to nearly $63 million. The price goes up in 2014 for an astronaut to fly to and from the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. NASA announced the news Monday. The previous contract charged just under $56 million apiece. The contract extension with the Russian Space Agency totals $753 million. That covers trips for a dozen astronauts from 2014 through 2016. NASA officials say inflation is the reason for the latest price increase.

The Russian central bank has put into effect its latest moves in the fight against inflation with some style. After raising interest rates on Monday for the first time since 2008, the authorities late on Tuesday widened the trading band for the rouble – and were happy to see the currency rise sharply on Wednesday, by a full 1 per cent against a US dollar/euro basket. As well as gaining some ground in the anti-inflation front, the central bank can claim another modest advance towards its aim of liberalising the rouble. Governor Sergei Ignatiev should be pleased with this week’s...

MOSCOW, Feb. 19 - Russian budget airline Avianova announced it will be hiring clowns, actors and musicians to amuse and entertain passengers during flights. Avianova officials said the first in-flight live entertainment will take place Saturday on a flight from Moscow to Krasnodar. The airline said it was inspired to install stages on the planes when it was forced to reduce the number of seats from 180 to 159 because of a change in Russian customs policy.

Since 1924 visitors from around the globe have flocked to Moscow's famous Red Square to view the body of former revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. But now, the Bolshevik could be relocating six feet under if the Russian people have their way with him.

". . . some of New York’s Russian immigrants (who know Soviet-style Communism all-too-well) are aligning with Republicans—because they view Democrats’ policies to be too similar to the failed policies of their homeland . . ."

While in Pennsylvania for the Holidays, I came into possession of what was described to me as a "Russian Soldier's Cross." It appears to be made of brass and has writing on it in Cyrillic, in either Russian or possibly Old Church Slavonic. While I can guess at some of the inscriptions on the front, I have no idea what the writing on the back is. I found a very similar object here, although it's apparent the inscription on the obverse is somewhat different. The cross is rather small, and the photos below were taken on 1/4" ruled graph paper...

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday three top Russian officials should spend New Year's Eve in the dark after failing to fulfill their promise to repair damaged power lines. "You said everything would be fine by 1800 (1500 GMT)," Russia's de facto number one said in nationally televised comments to the three. "You should not have said anything if you were not sure," he added during a meeting that included the governor of the Moscow region as well as federal energy minister and the head of the local power utility. The televised comments were followed an hour later by news...

What exactly is the temperment of Russian men and what sort of spouses do they make?

Ticaboo • Syd Auster’s father flew fighter jets to protect American soil, including this dusty company town off a two-lane road to Lake Powell. But soon the same mineral-rich landscape that Auster’s dad safeguarded decades ago will be largely owned by the country he once guarded against. By year’s end, the Russian mining company Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ) will have a controlling stake in the Canadian company Uranium One. When that happens, the town itself, the Shootaring Canyon uranium mill a few miles up the highway, more than 10,000 acres of uranium claims in Utah and holdings in South Dakota, Wyoming and...

Four leading House Republicans, citing national security concerns, are urging Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to block the sale of a Wyoming-based uranium mine to an arm of the Russian government's main nuclear agency. The lawmakers are raising alarm over the proposed sale of a Powder River Basin, Wyoming-based uranium processing facility operated by Uranium One USA, a Canadian-based company, to Atomredmetzoloto, a subsidiary of the Russian government agency Rosatom, according to a letter obtained Tuesday by The Washington Times. The sale was first announced on Aug. 31, and the lawmakers claim that it could give Moscow control of up...

Wyoming’s Washington delegation is concerned about the proposed transfer of three Powder River Basin uranium facilities into the hands of a Russian company. The Powder River Basin uranium facilities have been pulled into the Iran nuclear debate on Capitol Hill with a deal that would transfer the controlling interest of Canadian-owned Uranium One to the Russian company JSC Atomredmetzoloto. The company now owns 23.1 percent of Uranium One’s common stock and is seeking a controlling 51 percent share. Commonly known as ARMZ, the company is controlled by Russia’s state agency that oversees its nuclear industry. The agency has supplied uranium...

US approval a step toward Russian company control of Wyoming uranium mines Published on November 30th, 2010 Topics : Nuclear Regulatory Commission , Uranium One , Wyoming , U.S. CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Two uranium mines in Wyoming are on their way to control by a Russian company now that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved transferring the mines' licenses. The NRC last week approved the license transfer to a Russian company known as ARMZ which expects to obtain a controlling interest in Canadian-owned Uranium One by year's end. Uranium One holds the licenses for a proposed uranium mine and an...

The US and Japan were forced to halt military exercises this week because of Russian jets flying nearby, Japanese officials have revealed. Russia admitted its jets were flying above the Sea of Japan, but said the pilots had not breached any rules. Moscow and Tokyo have argued recently over an island chain they both claim. The US-Japan war games are the biggest ever held between the two countries, involving more than 44,000 personnel and 60 warships. The drills - codenamed Keen Sword - are being held to mark the 50th anniversary of the US-Japan alliance.

The call by Democratic senators Chuck Schumer and Carl Levin for AIPAC to back passage of the stalled START treaty with Russia speaks volumes about the growing desperation of both the White House and its Senate allies. The administration is reportedly going all-out to push Jewish groups to lobby for the treaty, but it is unlikely that AIPAC will succumb to the pressure. The group has been scrupulous about sticking to its agenda of working only on behalf of Israel-related issues, a policy that keeps it strictly neutral on arms control measures like START.

In Russia, the motherland of conspiracy theories, almost no one believes that Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are free agents acting on a desire to crack official secrecy and broaden the horizons of public awareness. Although the more than a quarter-million secret US diplomatic cables spilled into cyberspace by WikiLeaks on Sunday include just 3,337 reports prepared by the US Embassy in Moscow, many Russians are already viewing it as part of a plot by American hardliners to discredit President Obama and, perhaps, to undermine his fragile efforts to “reset” US-Russia relations. .... “I have no doubt that this was a...

I can recall October 2003. My last day as a free man. Several weeks after my arrest, I was informed that president Putin had decided: I was going to have to “slurp gruel” for 8 years. It was hard to believe that back then. Seven years have gone by already since that day. Seven years – quite a long stretch of time, and all the more so – when you’ve spent it in jail. All of us have had time to reassess and rethink many things. Judging by the prosecutors’ presentation: “give them 14 years” and “spit on previous court...

Daniel Radcliffe's favorite novel is 'The Master and Margarita' and he is obsessed with it since the time laid hands on it. In American Library Association's READ campaign, Daniel Radcliffe said, that he's "been obsessed with the novel ever since I read it about a year ago. I've always been a huge fan of Magical Realism. It’s an inspiring genre in which writers can just let their imaginations go wild and wonderful." When asked about his favorite Harry Porter book, Daniel Radcliffe said, "My personal favorite is… Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, because it's involved with Harry's...

Kremlin reportedly dispatches contract killer to US to pursue 'traitor' colonel, claims reputable Moscow newspaperA contract killer has been dispatched to assassinate the Russian double agent who betrayed Anna Chapman and nine other spies in the United States this spring, according to reports in Moscow. "We know who he is and where he is," a high-ranking Kremlin source told the reputable Kommersant newspaper. "You can have no doubt – a Mercader has already been sent after him." Ramón Mercader was the KGB-hired Spanish communist who was sent to kill Leon Trotsky with an icepick in Mexico in 1940.

MOSCOW, Russia — Russians love few things better than a good anniversary — any excuse to celebrate the country’s rich cultural history gives rise to festivals and forums, concerts and commemorative films. As 2010 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Anton Chekhov, President Dmitry Medvedev flew to the playwright’s small southern hometown and laid a bouquet of white roses. One hundred years after his death in 1837, poet Alexander Pushkin was celebrated across the country — a city was even named after him. Why, then, the silence in Russia around Leo Tolstoy, widely considered to be one of...

Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev go to Church frequently, kiss precious icons of the Virgin Mary and seek political and moral counsel from the Russian Orthodox Clergy. Furthermore, to the surprise of many Americans, particularly Evangelical Christians, Vladimir Putin wears a Christian cross with him at all times. On ABC's Good Morning America Anchor George Stephanopoulos recently interviewed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you, the American public doesn't know all that much about you personally. But I was fascinated to be-- in reading your biography to learn many of the details. You were brought up in Soviet...

If I weren't getting so used to the inequity of political correctness, I would be stunned at this: http://www.blackpeoplemeet.com/index.cfm The Fresh Prince happened to be on TV while I was surfing the Internet and of course, the commercials are aimed toward the largest audience for such programming, black people. For a moment my jaw dropped as I watched the commercial that caught my attention as soon as I heard "black people meet" in the background. To be sure, I checked http://www.whitepeoplemeet.com/ and was redirected to a dating site for Generation X'ers that never once mentioned race. I don't know why...

The leaders of Moscow's 1.5 million strong Muslim community say they desperately need more places of worship. But a plan to build a new mosque has run into local opposition which is being fuelled by nationalists calling for a "clean Moscow" without Muslims and foreigners. Small trees are supposed to be keeping the Muslims out of Tekstilshchiki, a district in south eastern Moscow. A young man sets to work with his shovel, pushing it into the earth with a determined kick. Then he places a seedling into the hole and sprinkles earth over it. Using her watering can, Maria Sotova...

RUSSIAN President Dmitry Medvedev has handed top state honours to the Russian spies deported from the US in July in the biggest spy scandal since the Cold War, the Kremlin says. "A ceremony took place in the Kremlin today to hand top state honours to a number of Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) employees, including the spies who were working in the United States and returned to Russia in July," Kremlin spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said in a statement on Russian news agencies. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who served as a KGB agent in East Germany, has said that he has met...

Every May, Russia proudly marches its biggest, fiercest-looking military hardware across Red Square in a show of force one might expect from one of the biggest militaries in the world. Tanks, missile launchers and rockets worth billions of dollars thunder across the cobblestones. But in a small field outside Moscow, two men wheel out a small package that could save the Russian military millions and prevent it from needing to deploy that fearsome arsenal. The men fire up an air pump and within minutes there stands a towering S-300 anti-aircraft missile launcher. Russia's Defense Ministry is in talks with a...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Travel Alert U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs Europe October 3, 2010 The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist attacks in Europe. Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions. Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests. U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation...

"People are frustrated, their anxious, they're scared about the future. And they have a right to be impatient about the pace of change. I'm impatient, ... It took time to free the slaves," our Post Racial President Lectures The American People.His disciples from The New Black Panther Party carry the message even further. [VIDEO AT SITE] This is the man, King Samir Shabazz, who has been given a "Do Not Prosecute" pass by the Holder Justice Department and the Obama Administration. This is one of Obama's diplomats for racial harmony: White America, after listening to Shabazz will realize the error...