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The Russian president admitted today that sanctions over his war in Ukraine are having a negative effect on the Russian economy. But Vladimir Putin was also keen to highlight Russia’s nuclear capabilities – announcing that the Americans will no longer be given a warning ahead of a nuclear test launch. Meanwhile in Ukraine, military action in the region around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is increasing, according to the head of the international atomic watchdog, who visited the site today.

((( FreeRepublic is infiltrated by a small minority of pro Neo-commie Kremlin enthusiasts... a great Reagan speech about Russia is good medicine for them. ))) >>>>> View the FULL speech here: https://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3409 Address to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida that would come to represent Reagan's view of the Soviet Union. Reagan defends America's Judeo-Christian traditions against the Soviet Union's totalitarian leadership and lack of religious faith, expressing his belief that these differences are at the heart of the fight between the two nations. March 8th, 1983

After an accident, former World Champion Anatoly Karpov was rushed to the hospital with multiple head injuries in which he was placed in an induced coma. Karpov was put on a ventilator now, and has been diagnosed with cerebral edema, fractures of the right parietal and right temporal bones, multiple head hematomas, and traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. We will update this report as the news trickles in.

A UN official claimed Russia is using rape as its “military strategy” in Ukraine — providing soldiers with drugs to sexually assault civilians. “When you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it’s clearly a military strategy,” Pramila Patten, UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, told the AFP. Patten added that the UN has verified “more than a hundred cases” of rape or sexual assault since the invasion began in February. Victims have largely included girls and women, but boys and men have been raped, too. In September, the head of the organization’s Independent International Commission...

This was originally posted at the Washington Post on February 27, 2004. By David Hoffman In January 1982, President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline, according to a memoir by a Reagan White House official. .... Snip.... Thomas C. Reed, a former Air Force secretary who was serving in the National Security Council at the time, describes the episode in “At the Abyss: An Insider’s History of the Cold...

Russia claimed Friday to have already destroyed four of the long-range rocket systems sent to Ukraine by the US — but Kyiv says Moscow is lying. The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that four US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) had been destroyed in the fighting since July 5, all in the Ukrainian province of Donetsk, part of the Donbas region that has seen the heaviest fighting of the war. Russian Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov told reporters the four rocket launchers and one support vehicle had been taken out by “high precision weapons,” according to Russian state-run news outlet TASS.

The DPR People’s milita provided evidence that despite having signed international treaties banning their stockpiling and their use, Ukraine still possesses and uses anti-personnel mines, especially in the Donbass. For the seventh year, the Donbass residents live in a state of continuous war. The armed forces of Ukraine use heavy artillery, mortars and shooting weapons. The use of anti-personnel mines, which are prohibited by international treaties, by the Ukrainian military is of particular concern. During the briefing of the official representative of the DPR People’ s Militia Eduard Basurin, based on collected photos and video materials, we will show all...

RANCHO DEL CIELO, Calif. — Arriving at the Reagan Ranch in California’s Santa Ynez mountains is like stepping back in time to the 1980s. The 40th president’s Western White House is privately owned by the Young America’s Foundation, which invites high school and college students to visit and learn about the Reagan legacy. There are no exhibits or velvet ropes. Everything remains as it was when the Reagans lived here, from Nancy’s handwritten instructions for operating the TV remote to the jar of “Brim” freeze-dried coffee in the kitchen.

I remain convinced it will take a massive amount of voter fraud to unseat this president. I'm also convinced they will try...hard. Their future depends on it. Donald Trump is at the head of a political crusade, a movement, one of the greatest in our history. Although Donald Trump is at the center, it is not completely about him. It is primarily a push to return to constitutional principles, away from the skulking and stealth of creeping communism and secularism. It is about smoke-filled rooms of evil oligarchs, from both political camps, demanding we live as they say, not as...

ToTok, an Emirati messaging app that has been downloaded to millions of phones, is the latest escalation of a digital arms race. IMAGE: The Aldar Building in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where the Emirates’ signals intelligence agency and Pax AI, a data mining firm linked to ToTok, have their offices.  Photo Credit...Ben Job/ReutersWASHINGTON — It is billed as an easy and secure way to chat by video or text message with friends and family, even in a country that has restricted popular messaging services like WhatsApp and Skype.But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to American officials...

In a meeting with Putin in Moscow, Netanyahu said Persia had made “an attempt to destroy the Jewish people that did not succeed” some 2,500 years ago, an event commemorated through the Jewish holiday of Purim, which Israel will celebrate starting Saturday night and lasting in some places until Monday. “Today there is an attempt by Persia’s heir, Iran, to destroy the state of the Jews,” Netanyahu said. “They say this as clearly as possible and inscribe it on their ballistic missiles.” Adopting a conciliatory tone, Putin said that the events described by Netanyahu had taken place “in the fifth...

Vatican City, Mar 19, 2019 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis declared Tuesday the martyrdom of seven Greek-Catholic bishops killed by the communist regime in Romania in the mid-20th century. Bishops Valeriu Traian Frentiu, Vasile Aftenie, Ioan Suciu, Tito Livio Chinezu, Ioan Balan, Alexandru Rusu, and Iuliu Hossu were declared to have been killed “in hatred of the faith” between 1950 and 1970, during the Soviet occupation of Romania and the rule of Nicolae Ceausescu. Each of the bishops was arrested and held in prisons and camps until he died, often from isolation, cold, hunger, disease, or hard manual labor....

The residents of two more Siberian cities have now lost the right to elect their mayor in the latest restriction of direct elections in the country. Kemerovo and Novokuznetsk, two of the largest cities in the Siberian region of Kemerovo, will now have appointed instead of elected mayors, according to new laws signed by the regional governor earlier this week. Regional lawmakers voted in April 2018 to abolish direct mayoral elections in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg, leading its popular mayor Yevgeny Roizman to resign in protest. Other major cities that have abolished elections in recent years include Petrozavodsk, Novgorod...

Mexico City, 1968. A newly-crowned Olympic champion is about to make the life-changing decision to stage a political protest on the podium. Tommie Smith's Black Power salute, right? Wrong. This 'other protest' came from Czech gymnast Vera Caslavska as a reaction to the Soviet-led invasion of her country two months earlier.

Members of an opposition party running for office outside Moscow have reportedly been beaten and had their cars torched before regional elections scheduled for Sept. 9. Voters in 22 different regions across Russia, including Moscow, will elect mayors and local legislative assembly deputies on Sunday. Seven regions will also be holding special elections for seats in the State Duma. Parnas opposition party member Sergei Balabayev was beaten by a masked assailant who was allegedly plastering Parnas-branded flyers calling for an election boycott, the party said. “As soon as the deputy entered the vestibule, he was immediately kicked and punched in...

European Council President Donald Tusk told U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday to stop berating NATO allies over military investment levels ahead of what is expected to be a fraught alliance summit. […] “Dear America, appreciate your allies, after all you don’t have that many,” Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said after a signing statement on more cooperation between the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. As European Council president, Tusk serves as the chairman when EU leaders meet at summits. Even while in the air, Trump kept up the attack. He said in a Twitter post...

Lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted in favor of a motion supporting NATO, as President Trump continues to criticize the alliance ahead of his summit in Europe. ... NATO members agreed in 2014 to increase their defense spending to 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024.

35 years ago today, Reagan's words from GOD changed the world.

In two articles published online this week, Moscow analyst Aleksandr Nemets details the evidence many have assembled showing that Moscow is heavily involved in both the rocket program of North Korea and Pyongyang’s “aggressive plans” to use it against other countries (see “Зато они ‘делают’ ракеты” and “Системный подход“). It is absolutely essential, he says, that South Korea, Japan and the United States understand that everything that is now brewing in the region is what Moscow or more precisely Putin wants” and not some rogue action by Kim Jong Un as many imagine. In the first of these articles, Nemets...

In its latest Sunday Review section, the New York Times published another anti-Israel article, this time condemning Israel's alleged "occupation" of the West Bank in light of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War. The author, Nathan Thrall, is a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, whose board consists of the anti-Israel and leftist billionare George Soros. Soros accused Israel for "not seeking a political solution but pursuing military escalation — not just an eye for an eye but roughly speaking ten Palestinian lives for every Israeli one."