Free Republic

Brainchild of the KGB As Ion Mihai Pacepa, onetime director of the Romanian espionage service (DIE), later explained, the PLO was conceived at a time when the KGB was creating “liberation front” organizations throughout the Third world. Others included the National Liberation Army of Bolivia, created in 1964 with help from Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and the National Liberation Army of Colombia, created in 1965 with help from Fidel Castro. But the PLO was the KGB’s most enduring achievement. In 1964, the first PLO Council, consisting of 422 Palestinian representatives handpicked by the KGB, approved the Soviet blueprint for a Palestinian...

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said he is ready to go to war with Europe, accusing EU leaders of sabotaging peace talks with the US. “We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now,” Putin warned.

NATO is weighing a more "proactive" and "aggressive" posture in countering Russia's hybrid-warfare campaign — potentially including "preemptive" actions, said Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone. Dragone, NATO's most senior officer and chair of the alliance's Military Committee, made the remarks in response to myriad attacks at the hands of Russia, including sabotage, cyberattacks, and airspace violations. "We are studying everything. ... On cyber, we are kind of reactive," Dragone said. "Being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about." Dragone added that a "preemptive" strike could be considered a "defensive action," adding that...

Kaja Kallas said that Belgium has legitimate concerns about the risks, but the other member-states have said that they are willing to share those risksBRUSSELS, December 1. /TASS/. The European Commission intends to make the decision on the expropriation of Russian assets at the European Council’s meeting on December 18-19, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas told reporters. "We are not going to leave the Council in December without the result for the financing of Ukraine," Kallas said. "Belgium has legitimate concerns about the risks, but the other member-states have said that they...

Oh, where do I even begin with Sisu: Road to Revenge? This is not merely a movie; it is a transcendent thunderclap of pure cinematic audacity. From the first frame, the film detonates onto the screen with the subtlety of a meteor strike, announcing itself as a masterpiece of gleeful excess. This is the movie that every other action film will envy for the rest of their lives. The landscapes are so gorgeously shot they look like nature itself hired its own personal glam squad. The score doesn’t merely accompany the action; it leaps off the speakers and demands that...

“Down with autocracy” and “Down with war” read the banners of the March 8 (Feb. 17 in the Julian calendar) Women’s Day march in St. Petersberg, Russia that began the 1917 Revolution… Leon Trotsky would later reflect, “The February revolution was begun from below… the initiative being taken by the women textile workers of their own accord, demanding bread for the children.” Besides the desperation of the times, Russia had strong currents of feminism, going back to Catherine the Great who ruled the empire from 1762 to 1796… The Russian Revolution was the first in history to seek women’s emancipation...

Intelligence officer, allegedly speaking with PA chief’s ousted rival Dahlan, laments state of Palestinian leadership, says Abbas ‘has nothing to offer’ A top Egyptian intelligence official is heard mocking Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a newly leaked phone call with a chief rival of the PA leader, characterizing him as old and stupid and saying the Fatah party is “screwed” under his leadership. According to the Middle East Eye, the comments were made by Major General Wael el-Safty, an officer in Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate in charge of Palestinian affairs, during a conversation with Fatah’s Mohammad Dahlan. In excerpts...

The Russian leader noted that the reaction of Western elites on a new interpretation of events was primitive and straightforwardMOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. Western elites spent years teaching Russia about the importance of freedom of speech and competition, and now they are trying to ban and block all of that, President Vladimir Putin said in a speech marking the 20th anniversary of RT. "For years, they [Western elites] taught us how to live, how the media should work, how to understand democracy and what democracy is. What true freedom of speech is. They convinced us of the importance of competition,...

A Russian investment envoy proposed that Elon Musk and The Boring Company build a “Putin-Trump” tunnel connecting Alaska and Russia through the Bering Strait. President Donald Trump said the proposal was “interesting” and he’d have to think about it. Musk has previously held talks with Putin about other matters. President Donald Trump said Friday that a Russian proposal for Elon Musk and his tunneling business, the Boring Company, to build an undersea rail tunnel through the Bering Strait was “interesting” and he’d have to think about it.“That’s an interesting one,” Trump said when asked about the suggested tunnel from...

According to Kirill Dmitriev, the tunnel with a railroad and cargo link, will unlock joint resource explorationMOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. A tunnel crossing the Bering Strait and connecting Russia and Alaska can take less than eight years to build, at the cost that does not exceed $8 billion, Special Presidential Envoy for economic cooperation with foreign countries and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said. "Imagine connecting the US and Russia, the Americas and the Afro-Eurasia with the Putin-Trump Tunnel - a 70-mile link symbolizing unity. Traditional costs are $65bln+, but the Boring Company [tunnel construction...

President Trump has just ousted Sergio Gor, the man many believe to be the Hatchet Man behind the sabotage of the Trump/Musk relationship. Sergio Gor previously served as director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, controlling hiring and firing across the administration — a role that carries significant power. But Gor is now out, being moved to be the Ambassador to India. You gotta love President Trump’s sense of humor…he finds out Gor has been (allegedly) stabbing him in the back and sabotaging his most important relationships to President Trump sends him to go live in that shithole named India...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong-un will attend a military parade in Beijing, marking the first public appearance of the two leaders alongside President Xi Jinping in a show of collective defiance amidst Western pressure. No Western leaders will be amongst the 26 foreign heads of state and government attending the parade next week except for Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, a European Union member state, according to the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday. Against the backdrop of China's growing military might during the "Victory Day" parade on September 3, the three leaders will project a...

In a not-so-subtle act of trolling, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in Alaska on the eve of the US–Russia summit wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with “CCCP”, the Russian initials for the USSR. Once seen in western capitals as a pragmatic and skilled diplomat, the 75-year-old has in recent years mirrored the Kremlin’s radicalised politics, adopting an increasingly combative tone and resorting to trolling and mockery. Lavrov’s choice of attire nods to the Kremlin’s long-running narrative: Putin has repeatedly claimed that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people”, denying Ukraine’s legitimacy and territorial integrity while promoting a broader notion of unity...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as he arrived in Alaska on Friday, said Moscow has “a clear, understandable position” and arguments to support it at the forthcoming meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. -snip- Lavrov arrived in the US state for a meeting with an American delegation wearing a sweatshirt with "USSR" written on it.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived at a hotel in Anchorage, Alaska wearing a sweater, supposedly with the words "СССР"—the Russian version of “USSR”—on it. The respective footage was posted on the Telegram account Izvestia. The video shows the Russian FM getting out of a car. He is wearing a white sweater and a jacket, on the chest of which the word "СССР" appears to be written. Reporters asked Lavrov if he had been to Alaska before, and the minister responded in the affirmative. Earlier, the Russian FM had called for not making any predictions about the Alaska summit between...

On the eve of the 2016 Presidential election, Issue #464 of Revolution announced in its headline, “In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America. . .Rise Up. . .Get Into The Streets. . .Unite With People Everywhere to Build Up Resistance in Every Way You Can. . .Don’t Stop: Don’t Conciliate. . .Don’t Accommodate. . .Don’t Collaborate”.Revolution is an online newspaper published by the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a Maoist group descended from splinters of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In 1969, RCP founder Bob Avakian and fellow Maoist H. Bruce Franklin had cofounded the...

Suzanne Massie first met President Reagan in January 1984, when US-Soviet relations were at their iciest: the previous year Reagan had labelled the Soviet Union the “evil empire”. Massie was not an academic, but she had written a book about Russian culture called Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia that had caught Reagan’s eye, and she was summoned to the Oval Office for a five-minute chat that lasted 25. She proceeded to tell him what his hardline, all-male, fervently anti-communist advisers had not: that there was a huge gulf between the Russian people and their Soviet rulers,...

Vladimir Putin has claimed in a phone call with Donald Trump that Russia played a role in the formation of the United States. Speaking a day before America celebrates Independence Day, the Russian leader reportedly congratulated Mr Trump about its national holiday, held on July 4. According to a report by Tass, a state-owned news agency, Yury Ushakov, the Russian presidential aide, said during the call “it was noted from our side that Russia played an important role in the formation of American statehood including during the War of Independence 250 years ago, and then during the Civil War, which...

Many Ukrainians recall the USSR with warmth and nostalgia, which is not surprising, as it was the time of their youth and prosperity. However, photographs and objective facts show that Soviet life was far from easy and carefree.

Kyrgyzstan has taken down a huge statue of the revolutionary Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, which was thought to be the tallest in Central Asia. First erected when Kyrgyzstan was part of the Soviet Union, the 23m-tall monument towered over the city of Osh for 50 years before it was quietly removed this week. Photos emerged on Saturday showing the communist revolutionary - who features prominently in Soviet iconography - lying on his back on the ground, having been lowered by crane. A statement from City Hall in Osh - the landlocked nation's second-largest city after the capital, Bishkek - said...