Free Republic

If there’s one thing we can say about Joe Biden it’s that he’s a boastful jerk who can’t keep his mouth shut. Over the years, Dems and the media have tried to spin Joe’s arrogance into endearing “gaffes.” Let’s be clear — Joe is not a lovable guy who occasionally misspeaks; he’s an arrogant loudmouth who believes he’s better than everyone else. This character flaw has landed him in hot water multiple times. His blend of pathological lying, rude comments, and excessive bragging always backfires on him. Case in point: his on-camera boast about successfully pressuring Ukraine to fire Prosecutor...

The Maidan coup (pron: My-dan coo) or Ukrainian crisis of 2014 was a violent U.S-backed anti-democratic color revolution which brought the neo-fascist Maidan regime to power in Ukraine. It began when the democratically elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown on February 22, 2014, following months of agitation by the Obama State Department and John Brennan's CIA. It was an extension or continuation into Europe of the Obama administration's failed "Arab Spring" regime change policy and widely seen as Western imperialism. With the overthrow of the democratically elected government at least 6 million Ukrainian refugees fled to Russia for...

A veteran South African official detailed meeting with an unprepared and “desperate” Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, begging for local help rolling back the popular coup in Niger. The recent BRICS conference might give Nuland even more to fret about. When US Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, traveled to South Africa on July 29, her reputation as a blunt instrument of Washington’s hegemonic interests preceded her. According to a veteran South African official who attended meetings with the senior US diplomat in Pretoria, however, Nuland and her team were demonstrably unprepared to grapple with recent developments...

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on Tuesday mocked the United States after a senior U.S. diplomat met with members of the military junta in Niger. "The U.S. is trying to keep the Wagner group out of Niger," Prigozhin said in a message posted on Telegram, according to translations in Russian media. "'Heavy artillery' is being brought in for this. Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland is in a country that defeated colonialism under Russian flags." Prigozhin directly referenced Nuland's quote about the "risks to their sovereignty" in relation to Wagner and praised his fighters. "I am proud of the...

The situation in Niger US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland visiting Niger. Nuland was active as a US State Department official during the 2014 coup in Ukraine that removed an elected pro-Russian government from power. That led to Russian annexation of Crimea and the fighting in eastern Ukraine that ended with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. "extremely frank and at times quite difficult" That is how Nuland characterized her talks with Niger's new leaders. A talking point in Mainstream Media tonight is that Nuland was not allowed to see Niger's ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. Nuland pushing for a transfer...

Donald Trump is a dangerous yahoo who may well destroy what is left of the USA's constitutional government before he is finished. I do not in any way defend him. But there is something almost comically hypocritical about the establishment's shocked reaction to the January 2021 failed putsch which he is accused of inciting. Once again I must point out that the same liberal elite types happily condone a much worse putsch, one which succeeded and has helped to drag Europe into its worst war for more than 70 years. Mr. Trump is alleged to have sought to prevent the...

Kyiv seeks support of publicly neutral countries as China sends envoy and Moscow says it will ‘keep an eye’ on meeting. Talks have started in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukraine and its allies hope this weekend’s meeting of national security advisers and other senior officials from about 40 countries – but not Russia – will reach agreement on principles of how to end the conflict. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office and his main envoy for the talks in Jeddah, said late on Friday in a television interview published...

We live in a bizarre time. Ukrainian and U.S. officials continue to issue public warnings/threats of a looming Ukrainian offensive intended to push Russia out of its recently acquired territories in the Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson. I cannot recall a single historical event when a military force was being steadily pushed back and decimated and the leaders and enablers of that army publicly announced what they were going to do.If you have not read the latest contribution from Simplicius do yourself a favor and click on this link. It is not behind a paywall and is another superb piece. With...

Victoria Nuland, who is at the center of every war, was in Kiev on Thursday. She said that the big Ukraine offensive had been in the planning stage for the past four to five months.On Thursday, the US Secretary of State for political affairs, Victoria Nuland, told an audience in Kiev that Washington has been helping plan the Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russia for almost half a year.The US always planned to keep escalating.She said that even though they are planning the counteroffensive, we are already beginning our discussions with the Ukrainian government and with friends in Kiev, both on the...

The narrative of US non-involvement in the recent drone attack on the Moscow Kremlin comes "only from people who are trying to create a smokescreen, to deceive their allies", Sergey Ryabkov said. MOSCOW, May 5./TASS/. Washington has long became directly engaged in the Ukrainian conflict and its aim is to destroy the sovereignty of Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Russia's Channel One on Thursday. "The United States became a direct participant of this conflict long ago, and they have long been waging a hybrid war against my country. Ukraine is an instrument in their hands, a tip of...

Russia claimed Thursday that the United States was behind an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin that it said was a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. The accusation, made without citing evidence, comes less than 24 hours after Moscow said that it had foiled an overnight drone strike on the building that acts as the heart of the country’s government and Putin’s residence — something Kyiv strongly denied. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov went further Thursday, claiming Washington had masterminded the incident. The U.S. swiftly rejected the accusation, saying it had nothing to do with it. “We are...

KIEV — “I was on the streets for the Orange Revolution when I was in my last year at university in 2004, and I was on the streets again in 2014. So, the 10-year mark of when we tend to mount revolutions is approaching,” said Inna Sovsun, an opposition lawmaker for Ukraine’s liberal pro-European Holos party.And she suspects there’s another political upheaval on its way.And while navigating the tempestuous postwar political waters would be difficult for any leader, according to the former minister, it will be especially so for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as he’s become part of the problem...

Russian, Ukrainian, and Western sources observed on April 1 that the Russian winter offensive has failed to achieve the Kremlin’s goals of seizing the Donetsk and Luhansk oblast administrative borders by March 31. Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov had announced on December 22 that Russian forces were focusing most of their efforts on seizing Donetsk Oblast, and Russian forces launched their winter offensive operation in early February along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna-Lyman line and on select frontlines in western Donetsk Oblast. The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) observed that Gerasimov has failed to extend Russian control over Donbas during...

From the beginning, the United States provided $5 billion to fund the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014. The US-installed interim government launched the civil war against the Donbas on US instructions. Then in 2014, Obama signed a bill authorizing lethal aid to be provided to Kiev. Then in 2015, NATO Commander General Philip Breedlove favors military aid to Ukraine. The US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, John Kerry, and General Martin Dempsey of the Joint Chiefs agreed. The West has been planning war against Russia using Ukraine as cannon fodder from the very start. The Neocons are a third party unto...

Speaking in a YouTube interview with the Consortium News outlet on Friday, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who exposed the CIA’s purported sabotage attempt on the Nord Stream pipeline, accused the Biden administration of making “so many bad mistakes,” that “it’s impossible to believe just how dumb this leadership was.”“It was suicidal to think you can win that war, that Ukraine can win the war [against Russia]. There’s just too much corruption. That was a very, very bad decision. We should have been pushing for peace, we should have made an agreement,” the former Pulitzer Prize winner insisted.US President Joe Biden...

"No matter what the Ukrainians decide about Crimea in terms of where they choose to fight etcetera, Ukraine is not going to be safe unless Crimea is at a minimum, at a minimum, demilitarised," Nuland told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Asked about the dangers of escalation in the Ukraine war, Nuland said Russia had a host of military installations crucial for the conflict. "Those are legitimate targets, Ukraine is hitting them and we are supporting that," Nuland said.

Putin’s reluctance to take risks directly related to his conventional war in Ukraine indicates that he remains highly unlikely to pursue nuclear escalation or war with NATO. ISW previously assessed that Russian conventional war threats against NATO do not correspond with Russia’s capabilities and that Russia uses nuclear threats primarily to intimidate the West.[23] Putin evidently values his domestic status quo and seeks to avoid risky and controversial policies to support his own aims. Putin also continues to demonstrate that he remains a calculated individual who places considerable emphasis on eliminating risks—even while his perception of the situation he faces...

In November the EU proposed to give impoverished Ukraine — with over 80% of its nation without electricity, among other necessities — $18.6 billion in critical humanitarian aid, including support for energy and healthcare facilities.But Hungary has vetoed the transfer of the critical aid package.Budapest has stood out as the only member of the 27 country organization to block the EU package, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban having effective veto power because EU budget rules require the unanimous approval of all 27 member countries.American and European officials have been noting Orban's "persistent pattern" of obstructionism in aid to Ukraine,...

Kyiv relies entirely on its allies for weapons. That’s not a position any country fighting a war for its existence should be in – relying on others for its defense needs. NATO was unprepared for a big war, especially with Russia. ...

The Russian military clearly assesses that Ukrainian forces could cross the Dnipro River and conduct counter-offensive operations in eastern Kherson Oblast, possibly threatening all of the critical ground lines of communications (GLOCs) from Crimea to the mainland. Russian forces have been digging trench lines and concentration areas in eastern Kherson since early October 2022 in obvious preparation for the withdrawal from the west bank of the Dnipro River and Kherson City. Russian troops are preparing either to defend in depth or to conduct operational or strategic delay operations. Russian forces clearly do not expect to be able to prevent Ukrainian...