Russia

Happy Death Day, You Miserable Son of a Bitch

Featured image Josef Stalin died on this day in 1953. In his sleep; so, like Lenin, Mao and Castro, and unlike Hitler, Mussolini and Ceausescu, he never paid a price for his crimes. The Victims of Communism remember: Stalin died on this day in 1953. He left behind a legacy of terror, famine, and mass murder. Remember the victims. pic.twitter.com/HUBBYUZMwh — Victims of Communism (@VoCommunism) March 5, 2024 Stalin ranks second only »

Notable and quotable

Featured image In the latest episode of the Hoover Institution’s GoodFellows podcast (with Dan Senor sitting in for H.R. McMaster), Niall Ferguson joined from Jerusalem. He had some advice for Tucker Carlson regarding his misadventures in Putin’s Russia buried at about 43:00 of the video (below). Asked to assess Carlson’s interview with Putin, Ferguson responded: I am beyond disappointed in what Tucker Carlson has become because four years ago he was an »

Yulia, we hardly knew ya

Featured image Yesterday in San Francisco President Biden held what the White House termed a press gaggle. In the event it seemed more of a gag than a gaggle. This is the White House transcript of his remarks: Hello, folks. This morning, I had the honor of meeting with Aleksey Navalny’s wife and daughter. As to state the obvious, he was a man of incredible courage. And it’s amazing how his wife »

Mixed-up confusion illustrated

Featured image Before Bob Dylan really made his name in folk music he recorded “Mixed-Up Confusion” — a rock song that was his first single and that anticipated the direction he would go a few years later. Dylan recorded it in the sessions for Freewheelin‘, but Columbia held the original back from his albums until Dylan included it on Biograph in 1985. The song comes to mind in connection with the video »

Navalny lives

Featured image Alexei Navalny appears to have been manhandled if not murdered in the custody of Vladimir Putin. The Daily Mail updates the story here. The tyrant couldn’t stand Navalny’s dissent from his rule or his mockery of it and Navalny has paid the ultimate price. Putin thus finished the job he started with the poisoning of Navalny in the 2020 underpants operation. Paul Gregory set forth the background and the details »

Nuclear War?

Featured image I believe this article in the Kyiv Independent is the source for stories, some of them rather alarmist, about comments made by Putin crony Dmitry Medvedev: Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, on Feb. 18 threatened to use nuclear weapons against the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Ukraine if Moscow loses all occupied Ukrainian territories. *** “Attempts to restore Russia’s 1991 borders [i.e., Russia’s borders before its »

From glib to stupid

Featured image As part of his celebration of life in Putin’s Russia, Tucker Carlson took a side trip to the grocery store during his visit to Moscow. Like the political pilgrims of old, he was impressed. It somehow “radicalized” him — “against American leaders.” Drawing on NRO, Ed Driscoll has more here. What’s wrong with this picture? Tucker Carlson bragging that Russia is better than America because groceries are cheaper in the »

It Can’t Happen Here

Featured image Via InstaPundit, re today’s absurd order from rogue judge Arthur Engoron: Between the United States and Russia, one country just arbitrarily seized the assets of an oligarch opposed to the regime, and is trying to jail him The other country is Russia — Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) February 16, 2024 There are obvious differences between our regime and Russia’s, starting with the fact that the Biden Administration has not yet actually »

Yulia Navalnaya Speaks

Featured image Alexei Navalny’s widow (assuming the Russian government’s announcement of his death is true) was at a security conference in Germany when she got the news. She delivered these impromptu remarks to that group: Vice president Kamala Harris reportedly was in the audience. It occurs to me that Harris would never have been capable of delivering such a powerful, coherent statement, let alone doing so under such tragic and emotional circumstances. »

The lonesome death of Alexei Navalny

Featured image Alexei Navalny has reportedly died in a Russian prison, a victim of Vladimir Putin’s murderous tyranny. He was 47 years old. Navalny’s death in prison represents one of Putin’s genuine achievements. I don’t believe Tucker Carlson thought to bring up Navalny’s incarceration during his recent interview with Putin. It certainly provides a timely contrast with Carlson’s celebration of life in Putin’s Russia. As Bob Dylan put it, take the rag »

Political pilgrimage revisited

Featured image On his current visit to Moscow Tucker Carlson is repeating the old phenomenon of political pilgrimage. Paul Hollander devoted an entire book to it 40 years ago — Political Pilgrims: Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society (1981). (The original subtitle of the book was Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba.) Hollander’s book was a powerful antidote to the phenomenon, but it did not »

In Re: Tucker v. Putin

Featured image Geez, from the way the left is reacting, you’d think Tucker Carlson was doing an imitation of the New York Times‘ Walter Duranty,  and slobbering over a Russian dictator and whitewashing the scene. Oh, wait. . . It’s pretty clear that the mainstream media is angry at Carlson because he didn’t get their permission to interview Putin, and moreover won’t agree to stick with the approved narrative. I haven’t had »

War Drums In Europe

Featured image Suddenly, there is talk everywhere of war in Europe. On Monday, I wrote about warnings from Germany and Sweden of a possible Russian invasion. The drumbeat continues. The London Times lays out a scenario for a Russian attack: A few years after a break in the fighting for Ukraine, the Kremlin seizes its moment and strikes at the Baltic states. While Nato forces clog up overstretched roads and railways across »

War In Europe?

Featured image The war in Ukraine seems to have settled into a stalemate, and one would think that the Russian army’s mediocre performance in that conflict would dampen any Kremlin aspirations to widen the war. But military leaders in Western Europe are nevertheless sounding an alarm. Thus, Bild magazine has published documents from Germany’s Ministry of Defense about the possibility of a Russian attack. It isn’t clear from the linked story whether »

All the ayatollah’s men

Featured image Cliff May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is a veteran reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor for the New York Times and other publications. Cliff’s current column is “All the ayatollah’s men” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his columns on Power Line. He writes: »

Restoring deterrence

Featured image Cliff May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is a veteran reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor for the New York Times and other publications. Cliff’s current column is “Restoring deterrence” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his columns on Power Line. He writes at year’s »

Trofimov not trying hard enough

Featured image On its news pages the Wall Street Journal’s more or less marches in lockstep with the rest of the braindead media on Israel’s response to the Hamas massacres. Yaroslav Trofimov is the chief foreign-affairs correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. He wrote the Review section’s featured essay “Does the West Have a Double Standard for Ukraine and Gaza?” Beyond the ambit of the news section, it reflects some of the »