Free Republic

Estonia is a little nation of 1.3 million people, which was made a member of NATO in 2004. Estonia was once a province of the Soviet Union. It has a Russian minority that is 25 percent of the population, and Russia has vowed to protect ethnic Russians if they are subjected to mass violence by the Estonian majority. Did NATO make a wise decision to bring in itty-bitty baltic nations that were once part of the Soviet Union? I can understand the importance of preventing the Soviet Union from being brought back into existence. But the lives of American troops...

U.S. to trim air, sea and land nuke launchers under U.S.-Russia treaty: officials 11:32am EDT By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will scale back its land, sea and air nuclear missile launchers under a New START treaty with Russia but not retire a ballistic missile squadron as some lawmakers had expected, U.S. officials told Reuters. The U.S. military will disable four missile launch tubes on each of its 14 U.S. nuclear submarines, convert 30 B-52 nuclear bombers to conventional use and empty 50 intercontinental ballistic missile silos, senior administration officials said on condition of anonymity. The plan...

Nato has warned Russia that further intervention in Ukraine would be a "historic mistake" with grave consequences.

In response to claims by the Ukraine government (and the west) that Russia provoking trouble in Eastern Europe - with The White House's Jary Carney even suggesting that pro-Russia demonstrators were paid - Russia's foreign ministry has responded. Posting via their Facebook page, Russia urged Ukraine to halt any interior military preparations which could instigate a civil war. But the kicker, for which we anxiously await a rebuttal, is Russia's comment that they "are particularly concerned that the operation involves some 150 American mercenaries."

Blaise Pascal wrote that man was full of error. “This error is natural,” he explained, “without grace, ineffaceable. Nothing shows him the truth; everything deceives him.” Along similar lines, Frederick the Great said, “Man is made for error; it enters his mind naturally, and he discovers a few truths only with the greatest effort.” Conservatives are especially guilty in this regard when it comes to the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, Russia, and Communism. To understand the complex underlying realities, one must first discover the deceptive quality of the thing itself. A Communist is a human being with the...

Vladimir Putin took part in an expanded meeting of the Federal Security Service board. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, At this expanded meeting today, we will discuss the Federal Security Service’s results over the recent period and outline the priorities ahead (SNIP) Russia’s laws today give us the conditions we need for non-governmental and public organisations to work freely and transparently. But we will never accept for them to be used for destructive purposes. We will not accept a situation such as happened in Ukraine, when in many cases it was through non-governmental organizations that the nationalist and...

VILNIUS, Lithuania -- Latvia is joining Lithuania in banning Russian state television broadcasts because it found that several programs about the Ukraine crisis were tendentious and not in the Baltic nation's security interests. Latvian media council spokeswoman Sanita Blomniece told the AP on Monday that a three-month suspension of RTR Rossiya broadcasts will begin April 8.

Answering the key questions about NATO, PutinÂ’s intentions, and what George Kennan would do.The Obama administration has imposed economic sanctions on Russian officials, and Russia has been suspended from the G-8. Some in the U.S. are calling for stronger punitive measures. Is this a bad idea?Some punitive measures, including the targeted sanctions that have already been applied, may serve a limited purpose in expressing U.S. and European disapproval of the seizure and annexation of Crimea. Stronger measures, such as sector-wide sanctions on Russian finance, have the potential to be very damaging to Europe, Russia, and the global economy as a...

GOOGLE TRANSLATE: Residents are asked to Donbass Turchinova protection against separatists In an open letter urged the representatives of the community , acting President to take the situation in south-east under control and deal with the passivity of security forces Residents are asked to Donbass Turchinova protection against separatists Alexander Turchinov Residents of Donetsk region appealed to the Acting President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov asking to protect them from the separatists and bring the situation in the region under its control. This is stated in an open letter , published Donetsk media. " We, the residents of Donetsk region ,...

The West should take strong action, possibly including sending NATO forces to Ukraine, if Russia tries to annex the eastern part of the country, Czech President Milos Zeman said on Sunday. "The moment Russia decides to widen its territorial expansion to the eastern part of Ukraine, that is where the fun ends," Zeman said in a broadcast on Czech public radio. "There I would plead not only for the strictest EU sanctions, but even for military readiness of the North Atlantic Alliance, like for example NATO forces entering Ukrainian territory," Zeman said. Pro-Russian protesters seized state buildings in three east...

BING TRANSLATION: "And now I write for those talks: "Crimea is also passed, now hand over the South-East, nothing has changed!" explain what has changed. 1. foreign policy positions. Thanks to the courageous resistance of Ukraine in the Crimea has been the introduction of sanctions by Russia against the West in the second degree. Russia has huge economic losses to exceed the loss of Ukraine. Russia is in an economic blockade. At the beginning of the conflict in Crimea have negative forecasts from financial rating agencies, and Russia was a stable and prosperous nation, which wanted to "Save" us. Now...

In February, noting events in Ukraine, we wrote in this space that history seemed to be stirring once again (if it had ever really slept). In Ukraine, at least, the observation “It’s about Russia” is not only accurate but thorough. When The New Criterion began publication, in September 1982, the Soviet colossus still cast its dismal, blighting shadow over Eastern Europe and the countries girdling the Black and Caspian Seas. The sudden disintegration of what Ronald Reagan aptly called “the evil empire” caught most pundits, and most Western politicians, entirely off guard. That eventuality was not part of the script...

In the new war of beliefs, Putin is saying, it is Russia that is on God’s side. The West is Gomorrah.

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- The killings of protesters in the Ukrainian capital during anti-government demonstrations in February took place under the order of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, a report said Thursday. The preliminary report by the Ukrainian government implicated pro-Moscow Yanukovych in the covert planning of a series of sniper attacks in Kiev, backed by Russia, during the rallies that eventually led him to flee across the border. Presenting the findings at a news conference, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said evidence showed Yanukovych had directly ordered snipers to open fire on protesters. Yanukovych, now in Russia, has denied personal responsibility...

Washington (CNN) -- In diplomacy, like in sales, success often depends on making your adversaries believe they proposed the result you wanted. By that measure, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have closed the sale on annexing Crimea from Ukraine. On Monday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited the region that Moscow now claims over international protests, while Russia also said it was withdrawing a battalion of infantry troops from the tens of thousands deployed near the border with eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts focus on defusing the immediate threat of armed conflict and setting up a negotiating process, rather...

When the U.S. began providing army rations to help Ukraine's military, caseloads of them went on sale on Ukrainian websites, raising questions about the country's endemic corruption just as the West begins delivering billions of dollars in aid. Last week, Vladimir Belonog, a military supplies salesman in Kiev, Ukraine, put a new item up for sale, not on his usual website, where he deals in everything from camouflage jumpsuits to paintball guns and ninja stars, but on an Internet auction site he hadn’t used before. The new items were U.S. army rations – known as a meals ready to eat,...

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s Parliament on Tuesday ordered law enforcement agencies to immediately disarm unofficial paramilitary groups, signaling growing resolve in the interim government to confront nationalists and other vigilantes who played a big role in the overthrow of Viktor F. Yanukovych, the country’s pro-Kremlin former president who was deposed more than a month ago. The bill, introduced and passed unanimously, ordered both the Interior Ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s successor to the K.G.B., to disarm the groups because of the “aggravation of the crime situation and systematic provocations on the part of foreigners in southeastern...

Brussels, Belgium (CNN) -- NATO's military chief warned Wednesday that Russian troops could begin moving on Ukraine within 12 hours of being given an order, amid fears that Moscow could seek to invade its eastern region. Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, also told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that with 40,000 troops massed near the border, Russia has all the components necessary to move on Ukraine. These forces are "supported by fixed-wing aircraft, rotary aircraft, all of the logistics required in order to successfully make an incursion if they needed," he said. In terms of deterrence, Breedlove said NATO...

NASA has suspended contact with Russian government representatives, citing ongoing violations of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, FoxNews.com confirmed. "Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation," NASA spokesman Allard Beutel told FoxNews.com. News of NASA's decision came Wednesday afternoon when an internal letter written by a top official was leaked. “This suspension includes NASA travel to Russia and visits by Russian Government representatives to NASA facilities, bilateral meetings, email, and teleconferences or videoconferences,” states the letter, which was written by Michael F. O'Brien, NASA’s...

The White House objected to Russia's increase in natural gas prices for Ukraine on Thursday and said markets should determine prices. White House Spokesman Jay Carney spoke after Russian natural gas producer Gazprom announced it would virtually double the gas price for Ukraine to $485 per 1,000 cubic meters this month, which Ukraine said was politically motivated. “That kind of action taken coercively against Ukraine is something we oppose,” Carney told reporters. “We believe that markets should determine energy prices.”