Free Republic

Russian state deputies have again raised the issue of renaming Sverdlovsk Province, which is currently named in honor of Yakov Sverdlov, who played an important role in planning the October Revolution and is widely believed to have participated in the slaying of the Royal Martyrs on July 17, 1918. The proposal came during a closed meeting of provincial Governor Evgeny Kuyvashev with the federal parliamentary deputies from the region on the preparations for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Ekaterinburg, reports URA.RU. “In his speech, Pavel Vladimirovich [Krasheninnikov],” the head of the Committee for State Construction and Legislation, “among...

An extraordinary bright orange flash has lit up the sky in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region in the Urals. While locals captured the massive ‘blast’ on numerous cameras, both scientists and emergency services still struggle to explain the unusual event. Dark evening skies in the town of Rezh in Sverdlovsk region near Russia's Ekaterinburg turned bright orange for some ten seconds on November 14, with the event being caught on several cameras by the locals. A driver filmed the massive flash with his dashcam, later posting the video on YouTube, with more people commenting they’ve seen it too. Teenagers in the town...

Russian army is embroiled in an embarrassing scandal after 200 of its tanks were found abandoned near a forest in central Russia, unguarded and unlocked. A news website near the city of Yekaterinburg posted a video of the forgotten tanks showing passers-by clambering inside the vehicles and playing with empty ammunition belts. The only items that seemed to be missing were live rounds and the keys to the tanks' ignitions. "There are tanks all over the forest, abandoned," an unnamed reporter on the video says. "If you need one, come and get it." Locals in a nearby village said the...