Free Republic

I don't think Tucker Carlson got what he bargained for in this interview. The interview ran about two hours but most of that was made up of Putin's rambling answers that sometimes went on for 10-20 minutes. To his credit, Carlson started at the most obvious starting point for a discussion with Putin, which is the reasons behind the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Instead of a clear answer he got a 30 minute lecture about the history of the region going back to the 8th century. (snip) Carlson interrupted several times saying he wasn't sure why all of this...

Tucker Carlson has announced he'll be interviewing Vladimir Putin soon in a video designed to garner attention for the effort. But like a lot of things Carlson says these days, some of it is pure and obvious bunk. Take for instance his claim about being the first western journalist to bother interviewing Putin.Speaking of western countries take on the war in Ukraine Carlson said, "Their media outlets are corrupt. They lie to their readers and viewers and they do that mostly by omission." (snip) Having established that it's bad for media outlets to lie to their viewers by omission and...

Last Thursday a temporary pause or ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas was extended for another 24 hours. But even as that happened it seemed Hamas was eager to resume hostilities. Two Hamas militants drove to a bus station in Jerusalem and opened fire on a group of civilians, killing three people. The shooters, who were brothers with a long history of Hamas affiliation, were both killed at the scene. But Hamas claimed credit for the attack and openly celebrated it.Hamas also launched rockets at Israel that day and by Friday Israel announced the ceasefire was over and...

A video released today confirms a story that CNN reported a couple weeks ago. Ukrainian special forces were active in Sudan, attacking the local Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which were trying to overthrow the government with the help of Wagner group mercenaries. The video shows Ukrainian snipers and drone attacks on the RSF. (snip) At this point you may be wondering what any of this has to do with Ukraine and why Ukrainian special forces would bother getting involved in this battle in Sudan. The answer is that Wagner forces aren’t in Sudan just to get paid. They are there...

He really is dead. Today Yevgeny Prigozhin was buried in his hometown of St. Petersburg. There were conflicting reports leading up to the ceremony about where and when it would take place. It seems pretty clear that the Kremlin wanted this to be a very low-key affair with few people allowed so that no images or video showing long lines of mourners would wind up in the media.Prigozhin’s press service said in a brief statement that the last rites for Prigozhin were held in secret Tuesday without offering details of the time and location, or providing photographs of the event...

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard reports like this from Russian conscripts. Every few months we get a fresh glimpse at the Russian front lines from individuals who describe the conditions as “absolute f**king hell” or as an ongoing slaughter. The most recent entry of this type comes from an ex-convict named Aleksandr who has been serving in the Russian Army. (snip) You may remember that last year Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group was allowed to recruit tens of thousands of conscripts from Russia’s prisons. Wagner was eventually cut off from recruiting more prisoners in one of the first signs...

Every time I think Yevgeny Prigozhin has probably reached the end of his leash, he just goes ahead and says something even more surprising. I really thought he’d reached the limit when he refused to allow his mercenaries to sign an agreement with the army even though Putin (seemingly) ordered him to do it. As far as I know, that hasn’t been resolved yet. Wagner forces still haven’t signed an agreement. But this latest public statement goes way beyond that. Now he is undermining Russia’s entire justification for the war in Ukraine, claiming the whole thing was a lie concocted...

There must be something in the water. Back in 2018, New York’s Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman resigned after being accused of violence by at least four women. And then last year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned after being accused of sexual harassment by a series of women.Today, Ibrahim Khan, the chief of staff to current Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, has resigned after allegations of sexual harassment:The longtime chief of staff to Letitia James, the New York attorney general, has resigned amid an investigation into misconduct, and three people with knowledge of the matter said it involved at...

I don’t think we’re about to see Twitter implode but if you’re on Twitter this evening there are a lot of people suggesting everyone who works there has quit. This latest round of departures started yesterday with an email Musk sent to the remaining work force (about half had been fired earlier this month).Early Wednesday morning, the world’s richest man and newly installed Twitter CEO emailed the site’s employees with an ultimatum, obligating them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” work ethic or leaving the company.Musk argued that Twitter must be ready for a more “increasingly competitive world” and therefore...

CNN highlighted this video yesterday which comes from a Ukrainian journalist. They haven’t independently confirmed the contents but the video appears to shows Russian soldiers who are near the front lines complaining about the complete lack of supplies and training. “The sent us here without any training, without anything at all,” the soldier said. He added, “We don’t have any training or supplies and our guys showed up in their own uniforms paid for with their own money.” A second soldier said, “We have no weapons, no ammo bags, no grenades, no belt pouches, no food, no water. It’s absolute...

We all know how this has played out. This summer Russia started monkeying with the natural gas supply to Germany and the rest of Europe, claiming there was some technical problem that required maintenance. Then they cut the gas off completely and not long after that someone blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. The result of all this has been a huge spike in energy prices in Europe and concern that there might not be enough gas to heat homes this winter.But here we are in late October and the situation is looking very different. For one thing, Europe has...

A report published yesterday which documents the routine use of torture in Izium, a small city in eastern Ukraine which was recently recaptured after months of Russian occupation. The Associated Press sent reporters to the city and spoke with residents who identified 10 locations which had been used by Russians to torture both Ukrainian military personnel and civilians.(snip)Russian torture in Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers throughout the city, an Associated Press investigation has found.(snip) Based on accounts of survivors and police, AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town and gained access...

Putin’s partial mobilization continues to look like a disaster. There are reports that some of the new recruits are being sent to the front lines in Ukraine with little or no training or equipment. Mobilized soldiers and their families provide their own equipment and even medical supplies before they ship out.A half-dozen Russian soldiers talk about being shipped to an area of intense fighting in eastern Ukraine just 11 days after their mobilization. Asked about his shooting practice, a bearded conscript says, “Once. Three magazines.”…Elsewhere, scores of relatives of freshly drafted Russian soldiers crowd outside a training center, passing items...

I read Jazz Shaw’s story this morning about Jeffrey Sachs saying it’s likely the US blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. That’s the line being taken by Tucker Carlson as well. And while I agree there’s no definitive proof either way, at least not anything that has been declassified yet, I think it’s still probable that Russia is responsible.Russia had already cut off the supply of gas through Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 was never operational. So there was no real change in the amount of gas going through the pipeline (or the revenue it produced) before or...

As Ed pointed out yesterday, there were indications from Danish and Swedish authorities that the leaks from the Nord Stream pipelines were the result of explosions, i.e. deliberate sabotage not accidents. All eyes immediately turned to Russia who has been playing games with gas deliveries through the pipelines for months. The NY Times created this graph showing the gas supply over time. As you can see, it took a sudden dip in June and then was up and down until this month when they shut it off indefinitely. (snip) Still, with the gas already cut off, why bother sabotaging the...

The NY Times published this report today. The intercepts in question aren’t recent but come from back in March (snip) Still, the content of the calls reveal just how quickly the Russian offensive fell apart. A soldier named Sergey told his mother, “No one told us we were going to war. They told us the day before we left.” Another soldier told his partner, “I didn’t know this was going to happen. They said we were going for training. These bastards didn’t tell us anything.” The soldier’s take on the attempt to take Kyiv was just as blunt. “We can’t...

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a meeting today with fellow autocrat Xi Jinping of China. Putin made a point of siding with China on the issue of Taiwan. Given that many observers have drawn a connection between what Russia is doing in Ukraine now and what China would like to do in Taiwan as soon as possible, you might expect that President Xi would return the favor by offering some support for Russia. But that didn’t happen. On the contrary, Putin himself indicated that China had “concerns” and Xi completely avoided the topic.

As Ed Morrisey pointed out this morning, the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east has been moving faster than anyone expected, including obviously the Russians. A couple of days ago, Ukrainian forces retook the town of Balakliia and another small town called Volokhiv Yar. From there they moved east and took control of Kupyansk.Ukrainian troops already in Kupyansk.Russians basically offered no resistance.pic.twitter.com/4c2UqjEk1w— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) September 10, 2022That was a significant win because it meant Ukraine was in control of the rail lines which supplied Russian outposts to the south, in particular Izyum. Here’s a crude map showing the location...

This falls under the category of too good to check. As Ed Morrisey pointed out this morning, the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east seems to be shaping up as a genuine disaster for Russia. I came across this animation which shows the territory Ukraine has retaken in the past few days.AFU 🇺🇦 counter-offensive in Kharkiv region for the last three days 🔥 pic.twitter.com/8Mpj3fVPqB— Tarmo Juntunen 🇨🇿 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 NAFO (@TarmoJuntunen) September 9, 2022Wednesday there were reports of an even bigger loss for Russia. This has not been confirmed yet but it’s possible that Ukrainian forces have captured a Russian Lieutenant...

Ukraine has launched a new front in the counteroffensive, this time moving east into the Kharkiv region. Yesterday the Guardian reported the town of Balakliia had been encircled by Ukrainian troops. Today, Balakliia is more than encircled. President Zelensky just published this video of Ukrainian soldiers standing on a Russian flag in the city with the Ukrainian flag flying behind them. (snip) And the push east has already moved on to another small town called Volokhiv Yar where the Ukrainian flag has also been raised.