Once governments normalize censorship and the punishment of points of view, free expression is firmly stamped with an expiration date. Whenever censorship slithers back into polite society, it is always draped in the mantle of “good intentions.” Fifteenth-century Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola’s “bonfire of the vanities” destroyed anything that could …

Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern For half a millennium, Russian foreign policy has been characterized by soaring ambitions that have exceeded the country’s capabilities. Beginning with the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century, Russia managed to expand at an average rate of 50 square miles per …

Will Ukraine Bring Russia the Superpower Status It Seeks? On Saturday, Russia invaded and effectively annexed Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea. In doing so, Russian President Vladimir Putin shrewdly took advantage of the political uncertainty that arose when Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s former kleptocratic president, took flight last …

Ali Baqeri, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and lead negotiator in the talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, held talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in Moscow. The twitter account of Russia’s diplomatic mission in Vienna said in a post that Baqeri and Ryabkov held a …

For more than four decades, the Iranian regime has been perfecting its strategies for infringing on the sovereignty of foreign nations. It exerts influence and interferes in other countries’ domestic affairs in order to advance its political, revolutionary and ideological interests. This is part of the theocratic establishment’s core principle …

Contrary to Russia’s expectations, the Ukraine war and entailing crises not only did not damage EU-US relations but also improved them to the extent that France proposed “strategic autonomy” for Europe is now consigned to oblivion. As in the Cold War, Russia sought to exploit the rift in transatlantic relations …

Between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the number of Russians classified by the Russian government as poor rose by 8.5 million, according to Russian government statistics, Maksim Blant of Radio Liberty reports (svoboda.org/a/armiya-bednyh-kak-voyna-vliyaet-na-urovenj-zhizni-rossiyan/31895963.html). Russian analysts point to the fact that in the fourth quarter, …

Russia claimed control Sunday over the last Ukrainian stronghold in an eastern province that is key to achieving a major goal of Moscow’s grinding war. The General Staff of Ukraine’s military reported that its forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk in Luhansk province. President Volodymr Zelenskyy acknowledged the withdrawal but said …

Iranian media also examined how the drone threat could lead to a naval conflict with Israel. Hezbollah says the drone attack it launched on Saturday, in which three of its drones were shot down by Israel, accomplished the mission the organization intended. The statement appeared on Al-Mayadeen media, which is …

Gantz warned that Israel is prepared to defend its infrastructure against any threat. The IDF shot down three unmanned aerial vehicles launched by Hezbollah toward Israel’s economic waters over the Mediterranean Sea. One of the three UAVs was shot down by an F-16 and two others were downed by the …