Free Republic

<p>In recent years, President Vladimir Putin has grown increasingly insistent that NATO is encroaching close to Russia's borders, and Moscow last week demanded "legal guarantees" that the U.S.-led alliance will halt its eastward expansion.</p><p>"How can one count on equal relations with the United States and the West in such a position?" Gorbachev told state news agency RIA Novosti on the eve of the anniversary of his resignation as the leader of the USSR.</p>

Whilst Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are rightly hailed as being the first men to step on the moon, it was a stray mongrel named Laika who propelled the space race into new territory. On November 3, 1957, the little part-husky dog – who was also known as Curly – became the first animal to orbit Earth when she flew out of the atmosphere in the Soviet Union's Sputnik 2 spacecraft. At the time, the Russians told the world that, until her air supply ran out, the dog had survived for six days inside a capsule which provided her with...

Cuomo fires back at sheriff, AG James over criminal charges 'At 38,000 feet, we are all you have' - flight attendants are fed up with a growing… President Biden said during a meeting with top German leaders on Saturday that Russia cannot be able to manipulate natural gas for political purposes. iden met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Group of 20 summit in Rome on Saturday and emphasized the importance of working to implement the U.S.-Germany Joint Statement on Support for Ukraine and European Energy Security in an effort to "ensure that Russia...

Russia says the use of Turkish drones near the Line of Contact is a violation of the Minsk Agreement, but Ukraine begs to differ. kraine’s purchase and deployment of Turkish combat drones has reignited the territorial conflict simmering its eastern border, with some warning of the likelihood of further escalation. Kiev is moving forward with plans to procure dozens of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs). The acquisition is part of a larger defense cooperation venture with Ankara involving the production of Bayraktar drones on Ukrainian soil. It was revealed earlier this week that a Ukrainian Bayraktar drone...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is on course to run a budget surplus this year, analysts say, a turnaround after strong half-year data, with high oil prices giving room to cover spending promises from President Vladimir Putin ahead of parliamentary elections. Last month, Putin promised to spend on infrastructure, education and health, seeking to give the ruling United Russia party a boost. The pledges added to social support measures announced in April that will cost the budget around 400 billion roubles ($5.40 billion) over two years. Russia had a budget surplus of 626 billion roubles from January to June, the finance...

In events marking 80 years since Nazi invasion of Poland that started the war, genocide of Jews was swallowed up like it never happened. The right-wing nationalist government in Poland can celebrate a great victory. In the long war over the “culture of memory,” an objective it set for itself upon coming to power in 2015, the last bastion was conquered yesterday. After Israel’s recognition last year of the Polish narrative – which emphasizes the suffering of the Polish nation and minimizes its part in causing suffering to another nation – now Germany and the United States have also been...

Ambassador John Bolton, the President's national security adviser, unveiled the strategy in remarks delivered at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. "Under our new Africa strategy, we will target U.S. funding toward key countries and particular strategic objectives," Bolton said. "We will make certain that all aid to the region—whether for security, humanitarian, or development needs—advances U.S. interests," Bolton said. Currently, the U.S. sends more than $8 billion annually to African countries, though Bolton, citing a "longstanding pattern of aid without effect," indicated that amount may soon be slashed. "Unfortunately, billions upon billions of U.S. taxpayer...

Former Congressman Ron Paul said the US knows ‘more than it is telling’ about the Malaysian aircraft that crashed in eastern Ukraine last month, killing 298 people on board and seriously damaging US-Russian relations in the process. In an effort to inject some balance of opinion, not to mention pure sanity, into the ongoing debate over what happened to Malaysian Flight MH17, Ron Paul is convinced the US government is withholding information on the catastrophe. "The US government has grown strangely quiet on the accusation that it was Russia or her allies that brought down the Malaysian airliner with a...

A Russian hacking campaign against U.S. critical infrastructure has gone on since 2011 and puts hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk. Much of the nation’s critical infrastructure has been compromised by a “Trojan Horse” malware program, which puts everything from nuclear power plants to power grids at risk, national security sources toldABC News on Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security also released a bulletin on the “BlackEnergy” malware, which is connected to Russia’s “Sandworm Team.” In October it was revealed that Russian Sandworm hackers spied on NATO, Ukraine and the European Union since 2009 by taking advantage of a...

U.S. counterterrorism operatives are helping Russian security agents in the hunt for a "white widow" -- the wife of a dead terrorist -- who could already be inside the massive security zone set up for next month's winter Olympics. Ruzanna Ibragimova, the 22-year-old widow of a jihadist killed during the Moscow theater attack, is believed to have traveled from Dagestan to Sochi...

The gunning down of Hajj Hassan Hollo al-Laqqis, a high-ranking Hizballah commander and close crony of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, raised the stakes of the clandestine war running between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two weeks after two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut. The Hizballah officer was killed by five shots to the head and throat in the underground parking lot of his home in the Hadath neighborhood southwest of Beirut, when he returned home from work after midnight Tuesday, Dec. 3. The Hizballah statement, which said: “Israel is automatically held responsible for the crime,” described...

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu fiercely opposes a deal with Iran, but the Israeli military puts a more positive spin on how a deal could bolster regional stability. Tel Aviv Even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his diplomatic offensive against what he calls a "dangerous" compromise on Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s military intelligence seems open to a deal, even one that relaxes the Western sanctions on Iran that Mr. Netanyahu has vocally supported. According to an unclassified assessment shared by a senior Israeli officer, military intelligence is focused on the implications of a potential compromise between Iran and the P5+1...

The worst Christian massacre—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent. The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could feel secure; 600 Christian families had earlier fled there...

Western Investigators: Muslim Brotherhood Assassinated The US Ambassador In Libya James and Joan Moryalti Western Investigators In Libya: The Libyan Security provided documents to Washington which revealed involvement of Morsi Former President of Egypt and Brotherhood Organization for the assassination of ” Chris Stevens US Ambassador in Libya on 11/9/2012.Barack Obama financed Brotherhood terrorist activities in Egypt. James and Joan Moryalti were interviewed on “Voice Of Russia” Radio station and they are Western Investigators who stayed in Libya during the NATO invasion. They are a part of a non-governmental organizations. They are observers and informers of war crimes in Libya....

BELGRADE, November 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and Serbia signed an agreement Wednesday on military cooperation as part of further development of the strategic partnership between the two countries. The deal was overseen in Belgrade by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose visit is being seen as a prelude to a possibly imminent deal on the sale of Russian fighter jets to Serbia. Shoigu said contacts between the countries had recently reached new heights. The agreements reached Wednesday included provisions, among other things, for collaboration in peacekeeping operations under the aegis of the United Nations. Russia and Serbia have agreed...

WASHINGTON, November 13 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has scrapped plans to purchase additional helicopters from state-run Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport amid pressure from federal lawmakers over Russian arms deliveries to Syria, a top US senator said Wednesday. “I applaud the [US] Defense Department’s decision to cancel its plan to buy 15 additional Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboronexport,” US Sen. John Cornyn said in statement, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, has been leading a push in Congress to oppose the Pentagon’s purchase of Russian helicopters for deployment in Afghanistan due to Moscow’s weapons shipments to...

Amply documented the Al Nusrah rebels are in possession of chemical weapons. In an unusual twist, An August 9, 2013 UPI report intimates that the Al Qaeda affiliated Al Nusrah rebels rather than the Syrian government constitute a threat to the security of Israel, an absurd proposition. And that Israel, so to speak, fears that chemical weapons might “fall in the wrong hands”. Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have broken through rebel forces encircling the northern city of Aleppo to secure a major chemical weapons base that, if they can hold it, will be a big help to...

A chemical attack may be launched on Israel by Syrian rebels from government-controlled territories as a "major provocation," multiple sources told RT. The report comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed that Syria puts its chemical weapons arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction in order to prevent a possible military strike against the war-torn country. Moscow also urged Syrian authorities to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The offer has already been passed over to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, who met Lavrov in Moscow for talks on Monday. “We don’t know if Syria will...

"Al Jazeera, Reuters Published the news of Massacre in Syria one day before the Massacre Happened" Here is an item of extreme importance. If the allegation is true that Al Jazeera published photos of the gas attack and massacre the day before it happened, it is strong evidence that the attack is part of a propaganda campaign to smear the Syrian Government with false allegations and to provide a pretext for Western intervention on behalf of the rebels who are clearly losing the war against the Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The timing of the attack is very suspicious just as UN...

Materials implicating the forces of Syrian president Bashar Assad in chemical weapons use near Damascus were prepared prior to the alleged incident on August 21, the Russian foreign ministry said. Moscow continues to monitor closely the event surrounding the “alleged” chemical attack near Damascus, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement. “We’re getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a provocative nature,” he stressed. “In particular, there are reports circulating on the Internet, in particular that the materials of the incident and accusations against government troops had been posted for several hours before the...