Russia

In the mini-documentary below, a urologist turned general surgeon takes you through his week at an Aleppo hospital. He operates on traumatic patients both day and night and has a makeshift room in the back to sleep. In the video below, you will also see the medical staff evacuate patients after the hospital is bombed. The doctor […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has unilaterally declared a 10-hour “humanitarian pause” for Aleppo on Friday, a senior Russian official said Wednesday. “A decision was made to introduce a humanitarian pause in Aleppo on November 4 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. (3 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET),” chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov said […]

A friend of mine, and previous colleague, spent a couple years learning and mastering his Arabic language skills. He honed those skills living in Damascus. He had an interesting experience to say the least. But there were some take aways more profound than others. For one, Assad isn’t universally hated. By some, he’s liked – […]

Amnesty International, a campaign group which has accused the Kremlin of violating human rights with its bombing campaign in Syria, was evicted from its Moscow office on Wednesday. The Moscow city government, from which Amnesty leased the premises in the Russian capital’s center, said the group was behind on the rent, but Amnesty said it […]

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry delivered an impassioned defense of diplomacy Monday, asserting that the nuclear deal he spearheaded with Iran had averted an almost-certain war and vowing to work “to the last moment” to achieve a lasting cease-fire in Syria. In London to accept the Chatham House Prize, given by the prestigious […]

Russia and the USA are two fundamentally different countries in how engage in the world. It seems that we can’t get along and Russia is gaining on us. Maybe, in the long term, we’ll have a more envious position. But, it’s difficult to deny that’s something has gone awry with our Russian policy. We’ve lost […]

Jack Murphy, SOFREP’s Editor-in-Chief, is currently in Syria participating in a conference held by the British Syrian society. Yesterday, Jack was given the rare opportunity to interview President Bashar al-Assad. After being escorted into the atrium of the presidential palace we were told that we could walk upstairs to meet the president. I walked up the white […]

The missile bunkers that dot the verdant hills along Crimea’s southern coast are known locally as Object 100. Until recently, tourists paid $50 to visit the crumbling and abandoned former Soviet sites, which served during the Cold War as a defence against naval attack from the Black Sea. Now the bunkers are coming back online. […]

Reports have emerged claiming that a veteran spy has handed over information to the FBI alleging a Russian operation to cultivate Donald Trump. There isn’t a lot of authority behind this claim and media development. But is there a direct connection, relationship, between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump? Probably not. Trump’s connection to Putin may […]

The Syrian rebels’ assault on regime-held parts of Aleppo keeps getting deadlier, with 84 people killed over the past three days, the Syrian military said Monday. The latest violence also wounded 280 people in western Aleppo, Syria’s General Command of the Armed Forces said. Syrian rebels have intensified attacks on western Aleppo to try to […]

If you invade, don’t expect our people to make it easy for you. That was the message Lithuania sent to Russia Friday as it published a manual for its three million citizens on how to defend their homeland in the event of invasion. Since Russia annexed Crimea two years ago, Lithuanians have been on edge. […]

Her face puffy from lack of sleep, Vivika Barnabas peered down at the springs, rods and other parts of a disassembled assault rifle spread before her. At last, midway through one of this country’s peculiar, grueling events known as patrol competitions, she had come upon an easy task. Already, she and her three teammates had […]