Free Republic

An unauthorized protest is taking place in Moscow today. “Unauthorized” means that those participating will risk arrest and possibly time in jail. More than 1300 protesters were detained a week ago, during another unauthorized rally. Scores were brutally beaten by the riot police. The authorities have signaled their intention to crack down hard in the hope of deterring citizens from turning up at today’s protest. Let me explain my reasons for going. This is a protest against the government’s decision to prevent independent candidates from running in the local elections. But the elections are not really the issue. When putting...

Ukraine's Constitutional Court has upheld a law that equates communism to Nazism and bans the dissemination of its symbols, a law that has prompted angry protests from Moscow. In the July 16 ruling published on its website, the court said the "communist and Nazi regimes" used similar methods of "implementing repressive state policies." The legislation was passed by Ukrainian lawmakers in May 2015. That law paved the way for the removal of all communist monuments not related to World War II and renaming public places and landmarks bearing Soviet names. Since then, dozens of statues, plaques, and other monuments --...

The much awaited figures for Michele Bachmann’s fundraising in the second quarter of the fiscal year reported today did nothing to burnish her image as the up and coming Republican. Her total of $2 million raised in the last three months plus two million more shifted from her congressional campaign account illustrated that for all of the progress her candidacy has made in the last several weeks, she seems to lack the infrastructure and staff work that more established hopefuls have already put into place. The high expectations her poll figures have produced means pulling in only $2 million has...