

Silicon Curtain
Jonathan Fink
Become a Paid Subscriber: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/siliconcurtain/subscribe
A podcast about propaganda, digital disinformation, politics, corruption, hybrid warfare, weaponised conspiracy theories, social echo chambers and digital dystopias.
1984, Authoritarian, Autocracy, Autocrat, Big Brother, Brainwashing, Cold war, Cold war propaganda, Communism, Conflict, Conspiracy theories, Control, Cults, Cyber warfare, Deception, Dictator, Dictatorship, Digital dystopia, Digital media, Disinformation, Echo chambers, Economic sanctions, Fascist, Fake news, Foreign correspondents, Foreign policy, Fossil fuel sanctions, George Orwell, History, Hybrid warfare, Industrial disinfo
A podcast about propaganda, digital disinformation, politics, corruption, hybrid warfare, weaponised conspiracy theories, social echo chambers and digital dystopias.
1984, Authoritarian, Autocracy, Autocrat, Big Brother, Brainwashing, Cold war, Cold war propaganda, Communism, Conflict, Conspiracy theories, Control, Cults, Cyber warfare, Deception, Dictator, Dictatorship, Digital dystopia, Digital media, Disinformation, Echo chambers, Economic sanctions, Fascist, Fake news, Foreign correspondents, Foreign policy, Fossil fuel sanctions, George Orwell, History, Hybrid warfare, Industrial disinfo
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 16, 2023 • 54min
251. Anastasiya Shapochkina - Grain. Energy. Fuel. There's Nothing Russia won’t Weaponize in Order to Win
GUEST: Anastasiya Shapochkina - Founder and president of Eastern
Circles, and energy industry expert.
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SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain
https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain
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INTRO:
Grain. Energy. Fuel. There seems to be nothing Russia won’t weaponize to
achieve its imperialistic and expansionist ambitions. But are all these
strategies now failing? Will Russia face a perfect storm of battlefield
losses combined with losses in its hybrid economic warfare?
#AnastasiyaShapochkina #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war
#disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #ussr
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SPEAKER:
Anastasiya Shapochkina is Founder and president of Eastern Circles, she
has 11 years of experience in consulting and energy industry, where she
worked on companies, technologies and market analysis in the renewable
energy, utilities, nuclear energy, and e-mobility. She led development
of international cross-industry partnership research projects on these
subjects and represented business in European industrial and research
associations. Anastasiya is a lecturer on geopolitics in Sciences Po
Paris since 2012, focusing on the role of business in the EU-Russia
relations. Anastasiya is author of articles on the geopolitics and
geoeconomics in the Former Soviet Union, she has regular TV and radio
appearances. Anastasiya graduated from Georgetown University School of
Foreign Service, German, and European Studies Program.
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LINKS:
https://easterncircles.com/en-about
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasiya-shapochkina-96081b5/
https://cges.georgetown.edu/profile/anastasiya-shapochkina/
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Sep 14, 2023 • 53min
248. James Sherr - Russia’s Sovereignty is not Directly Threatened so Why is Putin Embracing Total War?
The international response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is
scaling up, with the expected provisions of ATACMS and F16s, but
remains inadequate to the task of achieving a full victory and often
lags dangerously behind requirements, which causes the war to be more
protracted, resulting in a greater loss of life on the Ukrainian side.
Russia poses a serious threat to the rules-based international order,
but is the West’s response insufficiently robust in defence of the
values it espouses? A recent Chatham House report rang alarm bells and
recommended that Western military support to Kyiv should be redoubled
before it is too late.
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James Sherr OBE has been a senior fellow of the International Centre for Defence & Security in Tallinn since 2019. He also is an associate fellow and former head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House (2008–11). He was a member of the Social Studies Faculty of Oxford University from 1993 to 2012; a fellow of the Conflict Studies Research Centre of the UK Ministry of Defence from 1995 to 2008; and director of studies of the Royal United Services Institute (1983–85). He has published extensively on Soviet and Russian military, security, and foreign policy, as well as energy security, the Black Sea region, and Ukraine’s efforts to deal with Russia, the West, and its own domestic problems. He was awarded an OBE in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List for his services to British interests overseas.
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LINKS:
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/06/how-end-russias-war-ukraine
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Sep 13, 2023 • 56min
247. Dr Jade McGlynn - The Kremlin sees Historical Memory as Potent, Malleable, Controllable & Dangerous.
GUEST: Dr Jade McGlynn - Russia specialist, researcher and author.
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SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:
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https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain
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INTRO:
In just a few years, Russia has moved from a narrative about ‘brotherly
peoples’, to genocidal rhetoric and actions in Ukraine. How was
historical memory manipulated to make this happen?
#jademcglynn #russiaswar #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war
#disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #ussr
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SPEAKER:
Dr Jade McGlynn is a Russia specialist and experienced researcher. She
is Senior Research Associate (Non-Resident) at the Centre for Strategic
and International Studies. She is also a Research Fellow at the
Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Jade is a Polyglot
political analyst with experience of living and working in several
European countries. She has a PhD in Russian from the University of
Oxford, with academic fellowships from Leverhulme, AHRC, Marie Curie,
and Carnegie and has held positions in Russia, the UK, and US. She is
the author of scholarly works as well as media articles and has a new
book coming out in March 2023 – Russia’s War and Memory Makers.
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LINKS:
https://jademcglynn.com/
https://twitter.com/DrJadeMcGlynn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jade-mcglynn-341357209/
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ceelbas/jade-mcglynn-oxford
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/dr-jade-mcglynn
https://www.csis.org/people/jade-mcglynn
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BOOKS:
Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin's Russia (2023)
Russia's War (2023)
Rethinking Period Boundaries:
New Approaches to Continuity and Discontinuity in Modern European
History and Culture (2022)

Sep 13, 2023 • 59min
245. Dr Allyson Edwards - The Red Fortress Returns - Militarisation of Youth and Manipulation of History.
GUEST: Dr Allyson Edwards - Lecturer and expert in Russian militarism
and patriotic education.
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SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain
https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain
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INTRO:
In today’s interview we are exploring the militarisation of youth and
manipulation of history with Allyson Edwards. This is an incredibly
important issue, as rather than seeking a way out of is disastrous and
brutal war in Ukraine, Russia seems to be doubling down, and preparing
its people for future conflicts through patriotic education – for a
society built on eternal warfare and confrontation.
#allysonedwards #militarisation #youtharmy #indocrtrination #militarism #radicalisation #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #ussr #conscription
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SPEAKER:
Dr Allyson Edwards is a Lecturer at Bath Spa University and expert in
Russian militarism, youth, memory & patriotic education.
Specifically, she researches militarism in Post-Soviet Russia. She is
currently working on turning her thesis into book, and her research
interests include militarism, cultural Militarisation in Russia and
Eurasia, the Cold War, as well as the commemoration and use of memory in
politics and educational spaces.
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LINKS:
https://twitter.com/AllysonEdwards1
https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/allyson-edwards/
https://www.fpri.org/contributor/allyson-edwards/
https://ridl.io/auth/allyson-edwards/

Sep 12, 2023 • 23min
Silicon Bites - #17 - Comrade Musk Apparently Intervenes in Favour Russia - will he Prolong the War?
Edition No17 | 08-09-2023
Is Elon Musk collaborating with Russia, and have his actions given then
an advantage in the war?
~~~~~
NEWS LINKS:
Kyiv Independent
https://kyivindependent.com/
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-war-latest-russia-moving-troops-to-southern-front-line-to-strengthen-defense-kyiv-says/
The Moscow Times
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/08/drones-target-russian-microchip-plant-reports-a82397
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/08/vote-fraud-reported-as-russian-local-regional-elections-get-underway-a82399
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/07/advocating-for-war-is-wrong-russian-teachers-resign-over-refusal-to-allow-ukraine-veterans-in-class-a82388
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/07/russia-pressures-migrant-workers-with-raids-military-summons-a82303
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/05/the-wests-reliance-on-russian-nuclear-fuel-funds-moscows-war-a82356
Russian Media Monitor
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews

Sep 12, 2023 • 50min
244. Grigor Atanesian - Putin Believes the Digital Information Space is a Battlefield - That We're at war
GUEST: Grigor Atanesian - investigative journalist at the BBC.
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SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain
https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain
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INTRO:
Vladimir Putin believes that the digital information space is a
battlefield, yet we in the West are perhaps late to realise that fact.
The rise of the internet in the 21st century has been accompanied by
unprecedented levels of polarisation, division, and coercion. At the
same time democracies are being hit by a huge range of different, and
rapidly evolving hostile state activities. Not all of them have their
origins in Russia, though clearly many do, and the scale of the threat
is only likely to increase in future.
#ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war
#disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #ussr
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SPEAKER:
Grigor Atanesian is an investigative journalist with the BBC. He was
producer for the “Trauma Zone” documentary series by Adam Curtis (BBC
Film), and the Associate Producer for “Can't Get You Out of My Head”
documentary series by Adam Curtis (BBC Film). As part of the team that
created the unique and powerful 'Trauma Zone' BBC documentary, he was
awarded a BAFTA for Specialist Factual programmes in 2023.
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LINKS:
Putin’s Influencers: The bloggers selling Russia’s War - BBC News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_8tYjsFKFw
Russian pro-war influencers are generating big advertising revenues from
their social media coverage of the conflict, the BBC’s Global
Disinformation Team has found. Known in Russia as “Z Bloggers”, they
spread fake news about the war by embedding with military units, sharing
exclusive footage from the frontline, and calling upon young Russians
to enlist in the army.
Graphics: Kako Abraham
Film Editor: Ismail Guluev
Narrator: Jack Goodman
Assistant Producers: Sucheera Maguire, Jake Tacchi
Editor: Juliana Gragnani
Executive Editor: Rebecca Skippage
Written & Produced by: Grigor Atanesian
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Sep 5, 2023 • 52min
173. Svitlana Biedarieva - Documentation of War in Ukrainian Art - Decolonisation and Ukrainian Identity.
SPEAKER:
Today I’m speaking with Dr Svitlana Biedarieva is an award-winning art
historian, artist, and curator. She has conducted research on Ukraine's
decolonization, as well as the documentation of the war in Ukrainian
art. Her recent edited books include Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic
Art: Political and Social Perspectives, 1991-2021 and At the Front Line.
Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019 (co-edited with Hanna Deikun). She received
her PhD in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art,
University of London.
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LINKS:
https://svitlanabiedarieva.com/
https://twitter.com/SBiedarieva
https://www.linkedin.com/in/svitlana-biedarieva-55828b45/
https://post.moma.org/decolonization-and-disentanglement-in-ukrainian-art/
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LIST OF WORKS AND ARTISTS:
Dana Kavelina
1-2. Letter to a Turtledove, 2020.
3-4. From the series Communications. Exit to the Blind Spot, 2019.
Vlada Ralko
5-6. From the series Kyiv Diary, 2013-2014.
7. Demarcation Line, 2018.
8-10. From the series Lviv Diary, 2022.
Zhanna Kadyrova
11-12. Palianytsia, 2022.
13. From the series Behind the Fence, 2014.
14. Data Extraction. Irpin, 2022.
Kateryna Lysovenko
15. Untitled, 2022.
16. Propaganda of The World of My Dreams. The Last Day of The Last
Totalitarianism, 2022.
17. Being Under Knowledge, 2022.
18. Woman and Death, 2022.
Svitlana Biedarieva
19-20. From the series The Morphology of War, 2017.
Alevtina Kakhidze
21-22. From the series Through the War with Strawberry Andreevna,
2014-2019.
23. Russian Culture is Looking for an Alibi that It Is Not a Killer,
2022.
24. Bucha. Me. 42 Minutes by Car, 2022.
Maria Kulikovska
25. 254”, 2015.
26. Stardust, 2018.
27. The Forgotten (Recreation of Homo Bulla destroyed by DPR in 2014),
2019.
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WATCH NEXT:
Orest Zub
https://youtu.be/A7MrcwdDvPQ
Aliona Hlivco
https://youtu.be/yGLUBCfTkD8
Olga Tokariuk
https://youtu.be/D5onDse6WJs
Anna Danylchuk
https://youtu.be/5AenntkSxIs
Roman Sheremeta
https://youtu.be/olrTPku8EMM

Sep 5, 2023 • 19min
225. Noel Tock - Animal Rescuer at NOR DOG - Helping Animals that lost Everything during the Ukraine War.
See more of Noel in the Silicon Curtain video recorded in Lviv:
PANEL 1 (11:00-12:00) – Volunteer Society
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SPEAKERS:
Volunteering on a massive scale proved what is possible to achieve.
Ukrainian volunteers play at integral role in resisting agains the
Russian aggression and saving lives.
Noel Tock - Animal Rescuer at NOR DOG
Johnny FD - YouTuber and Digital Nomad
Brooks Newmark - Founder of Angels for Ukraine
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TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:
NOR DOG Animal Rescue - Our mission is to help the animals suffering
from the war in Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/@nordoganimalrescue3564
Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas
https://superhumans.com/en/
UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in
Ukraine
https://unbroken.org.ua/
Come Back Alive
https://savelife.in.ua/en/
Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen
https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine
UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy
https://u24.gov.ua/
Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation
https://prytulafoundation.org
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WATCH NEXT:
Johnny FD
https://youtu.be/9KgJAsIWe5E
Brooks Newmark
https://youtu.be/J1BnzTdF3Ts

Sep 2, 2023 • 50min
235. Olha Honchar - Russia has Failed to Acknowledge the Crimes of its Imperialistic Totalitarian History
Russia’s war against Ukraine has escalated significantly this year, but
did not start in February last year, or even in 2014. Its roots are far
deeper, and more malign than just territorial ambitions. Today I am
exploring how tyranny left unchallenged with continue to fester and
project aggression towards its neighbours. Russia’s attempts to dominate
Ukraine have deep roots in its Soviet and imperialist past and are very
much a result of the failure to acknowledge the crimes of its
totalitarian history.
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Olha Honchar is CEO of the “Museum Crisis Centre” initiative, which
arose in the first days of the Russian war against Ukraine. Co-founder
of the NGO “New Museum” and the Charitable Organization “Cultural
Heritage Fund of Ukraine”. Olha is a culturologist, anti-crisis manager
and Director of the Memorial Museum of totalitarian regimes “Territory
of Terror” in Lviv. Ahe is an internationally recognised curator of
interdisciplinary projects in the field of historical memory and trauma.
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LINKS:
https://museumterror.com/en/publications_category/all/
https://www.instagram.com/honchar_o/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olha-honchar-b7b63374/
https://bookforum.ua/en/participants/13271
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ARTICLES:
https://trafo.hypotheses.org/39379
https://www.frieze.com/article/olha-honchar-ukraine-dossier-232
https://uacrisis.org/en/62144-olha-honchar
https://atmos.earth/ukraine-war-culture-art-musem-loss-destruction/
https://www.csmonitor.com/Daily/2022/20220314/Art-and-the-telling-of-Ukraine-s-story
https://tvoemisto.tv/en/exclusive/we_want_to_survive_not_starve_to_death_and_preserve_the_museum_exhibits_137772.html
https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/ukraines-war-museums-are-documenting-history-as-it-happens/
https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/kultur/krieg-in-der-ukraine-schutz-von-kulturguetern-gibt-es-fuer-ukrainische-kunstschaetze-asyl-in-schweizer-museen-ld.2272530
https://hyperallergic.com/719347/this-group-is-helping-museum-workers-in-ukraine/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/09/ukrainians-in-race-to-save-a-nations-cultural-heritage
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/arts/design/ukraine-museums-art-protection.html
https://artreview.com/art-workers-at-war-how-the-ukrainian-artworld-has-rallied-to-protect-cultural-heritage/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fD--hKZPjQ
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Aug 31, 2023 • 49min
242. Kateryna Busol - Getting Justice and Restitution for Russian War Crimes is Important Part of Victory
GUEST: Kateryna Busol - Ukrainian lawyer, Senior lecturer and Robert
Bosch Stiftung fellow at Chatham House.
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Calls to treat as legitimate the ‘security concerns’ raised by Russia,
and to account for these in a future settlement of the war in Ukraine,
disregard the fact that Moscow’s requirements are fundamentally
incompatible with European security. Proponents of a settlement in the
war on Ukraine often put forward the idea that Russian ‘security
concerns’ must be taken into account in any such settlement, but also in
broader revisions to the European security system.
These proposals echo the Russian information campaign over the past 30
years to persuade European publics that there can be ‘no security in
Europe without Russia’. They provide false support to the argument that
Western security policy after the collapse of the USSR unnecessarily
encroached on core Russian interests by expanding NATO and forcing
Moscow to militarize its foreign policy. In this telling, Russia was
merely challenging what it viewed as an unjust European security order.
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SPEAKER:
Kateryna Busol is a Ukrainian lawyer. She is a senior lecturer at the
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and a fellow at the British
Institute of International and Comparative Law. Kateryna has worked on
various issues relating to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, with a
particular focus on the weaponization of cultural heritage,
conflict-related sexual violence, reparations, and Ukraine’s
transitional justice process. She has worked with the Clooney Foundation
for Justice, UN Women, the Global Survivors Fund and Global Rights
Compliance.
Kateryna has collaborated with Ukrainian NGOs such as the Ukrainian
Helsinki Human Rights Union and Truth Hounds and has advised Ukrainian
prosecutors and judges on war-related proceedings. She was a visiting
researcher at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European
Studies, a Robert Bosch Stiftung fellow at Chatham House, and a visiting
professional at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court.
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LINKS:
https://www.biicl.org/people/kateryna-busol
https://www.ukma.edu.ua/eng/index.php/studies/departments/faculty-of-law/international-law/staff/61-dr-kateryna-busol
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateryna-busol-68b4271a9/
https://twitter.com/KaterynaBusol
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SUMMARY:
Moscow’s war of reconquest against Ukraine has confirmed in the most
brutal terms how Russia rejects the values underpinning European
security – the same values agreed between Moscow and the West at the end
of the Cold War. As a revisionist power, Russia has made itself the
primary obstacle to peace and security in Europe and beyond. For
stability to be restored and protected, it is essential that the outcome
of the war in Ukraine leads to a situation in which – in addition to
the expulsion of occupying forces – the exercise of Russian power is
contained rather than encouraged. Over time, Russia’s leadership must
also be persuaded to renounce its expansionist ambitions.
It’s now or never for Ukraine. A protracted or frozen conflict benefits
Russia and hurts Ukraine, as does a ceasefire or negotiated settlement
on Russia’s terms. If Ukraine is to avoid these outcomes and turn
tenacious defence and incremental battlefield gains into outright
victory, it needs far more ambitious international military assistance
than it has received to date. This report presents the case for an
immediate and decisive increase in such support, seeks to dispel
overhyped concerns about provoking Russia, and counsels against
accommodating Moscow’s demands.
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#katerynabusol #chathamhouse #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda
#war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet
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