Silicon Curtain

Vatnik soup is a Twitter thread series where Pekka Kallioniemi introduces pro-Russian actors and propagandists from around the world. This includes so-called “independent journalists”, politicians, military personnel and of course just regular grifters looking to make money. The series has introductions and deeper insights on how online propaganda and disinformation works and is spread. There are now 200 Vatnik soups, which introduce bad actors along with the strategies they employ to pollute the information space. As Pekka states: the first victim of war is the truth, and Russia considered itself at war with the US, and its perceived vassals, the collective West, EU, and NATO. Pekka Kallioniemi has a PhD in interactive technology and is an expert on social media platforms, algorithms, and disinformation. He is a #NAFO activist, and runs a series on Kremlin assets, agents, and oligarchs, called vatnik soup. LINKS: https://vatniksoup.com/ https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi

Much of Russian history was shaped by the “imperial experience”. Alexander Etkind suggests the process was a simultaneous of internal colonization as well as the more obvious external one. The characteristic phenomena of colonialism, such as missionary work, exotic journeys, and ethnographic scholarship, were directed inwards toward the interior provinces of the Russian empire – villages and timeless peasant lifestyles, as well as outwards and overseas. To an extent Russia is still an ‘undiscovered country’ from the perspective of its urban elites, and we see this starkly in the current war – with the burden of fighting and dying falling on minorities and the impoverished. We also see a radical lack of empathy for other people within the empire experiencing violence, whether that be Belgorod or Buryatia. It even leads us to ask, can Russia even be compared to the modern nation states of Europe? #alexanderetkind #colonisation #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet ---------- SPEAKER: Alexander Etkind is a historian and cultural scientist. Alexander Etkind was born in 1955 in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is a professor at CEU Vienna. He was formerly a professor of history and the Chair of Russia-Europe relations at the European University Institute in Florence. He is fellow of the European Institute for International Law and International Relations. Etkind's research focuses on European and Russian intellectual history, memory studies, natural resources and the history of political economy, empire and colonies in Europe, and Russian politics, novels, and film in the 21st century. His has written many compelling books, including Russia Against Modernity, Rethinking the Gulag and Nature's Evil: A Cultural History of Natural Resources. Links will be added to the video description. ----------   LINKS: Alexander Etkind on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sasha_Etkind Alexander Etkind on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Etkind Alexander Etkind at the Moscow Times: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/author/alexander-etkind-2 ---------- BOOKS: Russia Against Modernity (2023) Rethinking the Gulag: Identities, Sources, Legacies (2022) Nature's Evil: A Cultural History of Natural Resources (2021) Eros Of the Impossible: The History of Psychoanalysis In Russia (2019) Development and Dystopia: Studies in Post-Soviet Ukraine and Eastern Europe (2018) War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (2017) Cultural Forms of Protest in Russia (2017) Warped Mourning: Stories of the Undead in the Land of the Unburied (2013) Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience (2011) Remembering Katyn (2013) ----------

Nolan Peterson is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Centre. He is an independent defence consultant, award-winning journalist, war correspondent, and author who has lived in Ukraine since 2014. As an international correspondent, Peterson has covered conflicts around the world. Apart from his work in Ukraine, he has been embedded with US armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and with the Kurdish Peshmerga during the battle for Mosul in Iraq. Peterson is a former US Air Force special operations pilot and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After leaving the US Air Force in 2011, Peterson completed a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where he was a McCormick Foundation fellow. Peterson's work has been published by numerous news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox News, BBC, Newsweek, the Heritage Foundation, and Coffee or Die Magazine. He is the author of Why Soldiers Miss War: The Journey Home and several fiction collections. ------- LINKS: https://twitter.com/nolanwpeterson https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolanwpeterson/ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/nolan-peterson/ https://coffeeordie.com/nolan-peterson https://ukrainer.net/nolan-peterson/ https://archive.kyivpost.com/author/nolan-peterson -------

GUEST: Nicolas Tenzer - civil servant, academic, writer, and editor. ---------- Ukraine is Fighting for Universal Values, like the Rule of Law, committment to truth as a concept, and democracy; not only its survival, freedom and independence. #nicolastenzer #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet ---------- SPEAKER: Nicolas Tenzer is a French civil servant, academic, writer, and editor. Tenzer is a graduate of the École normale supérieure (1980–1982), Sciences Po (1980–1982) and the École nationale d'administration (1984–1986). He has taught political philosophy at Sciences Po (1986–2004) and since 2014 he teaches Science of Government. As a civil servant, Tenzer is the former head of the Commissariat général du Plan (1994–2002), a former member of the staff of France's minister of Economy and Finance (1987–1988). He is currently the editor of the journal Le Banquet and is the founding president of the Centre d’étude et de réflexion pour l’action politique (CERAP), a position he has held since 1986. He was a director of the Aspen Institute from 2010 to 2015 and has acted as its treasurer and president. Nicolas Tenzer is a member of the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. LINKS: https://tenzerstrategics.substack.com/ https://twitter.com/NTenzer https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-tenzer-07390617/ ----------

GUEST: Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges - Retired United States Army officer ---------- After the incursion by Wagner mercenaries revealed how badly the war is going for Russia, Ben Hodges, former commanding general for the U.S. Army in Europe asks what the future for Vladimir Putin and the Russian Army is likely to be. ---------- SPEAKER: Ben Hodges is a retired United States Army officer, who became commander of United States Army Europe in November 2014, and held that position for three years until retiring from the United States Army in January 2018. He has been Senior Advisor to Human Rights First since June 2022 and also serves as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics. Until recently was the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies, at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, specialising in NATO, the Transatlantic relationship and international security. #benhodges #usarmy #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet ---------- WATCH NEXT: Sir Richard Shirreff https://youtu.be/UMi1Y3iF710 Operator Starsky https://youtu.be/ABIIyNa1AOk Anders Puck Nielsen https://youtu.be/2TJTUuu_cM0 Ben Hodges https://youtu.be/gpzfEVhdNp0 John Spencer https://youtu.be/2lmAOWfQvdE ---------- CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube’s algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Edition No12 | 26-06-2023 Ukraine's Third Front - does Chaos and Insurgency on the Territory of Russia Hold the Key to Ukraine Achieving its Maximalism Aims for Victory in the War ~~~~~ NEWS LINKS: The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/author/anne-applebaum/ ~~~~~ USEFUL LINKS: Vatnik Soup https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi http://www.medbat.org.ua/en/ Real World News https://kyivindependent.com/ https://www.kyivpost.com/ https://english.nv.ua/ https://www.themoscowtimes.com/ https://meduza.io/en https://meduza.io/ https://novayagazeta.eu/ https://www.newsweek.com/topic/russia... Analysis https://www.ft.com/russia https://www.economist.com/ https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ https://cepa.org/ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/ https://www.theatlantic.com/search/?s... YouTube Channels / @timesradio1 / @khodorkovskyru / @popularpolitics / @macknack / @plushev / @tvrain / @fake_news / @feyginlive ~~~~~

Georgijs Ivanovs started the Ukraine Matters channel in 2007, and it has garners 11.5 m views. He started the channel to explain the situation surrounding the war in Ukraine in simple terms. Like myself, he is not Ukrainian, nor is he a military expert. But he has been to Ukraine many times and seen it almost fully (except for Odesa region). He has a lot of good friends in Ukraine, and in fact his wife is Ukrainian, and so feels extremely connected to the invasion that scaled up in February 2022.

Edition No11 | 20-06-2023 A bridge to nowhere - Ukraine targets supply routes into Crimea as part of its offensive ~~~~~ NEWS LINKS: The Moscow Times https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/06/22/russia-accuses-kyiv-of-attacking-bridge-linking-crimea-to-mainland-ukraine-a81586 Russia Accuses Kyiv of Striking Bridge Linking Crimea to Mainland Ukraine June 22, 2023 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/06/23/in-photos-cleanup-efforts-in-kherson-following-kakhovka-dam-breach-a81608 In Photos: Cleanup Efforts in Southern Ukraine Following Kakhovka Dam Breach June 23, 2023 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/06/22/20-russian-volunteer-units-sign-military-contracts-defense-ministry-a81588 Zelensky Claims Russia Preparing Radiation Leak at Nuclear Plant June 22, 2023 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-join-nato-fast-track-britain-vilnius-summit-b2361817.html Britain backs fast-track Nato membership for Ukraine ‘We have seen Ukraine evolve quickly’ says James Cleverly Kim Sengupta - World Affairs Editor https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/06/22/kazakhstan-and-kyrgyzstan-to-share-data-with-moscow-on-anti-war-russians-conscripts-a81594 Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to Share Data with Moscow on Anti-War Russians, Conscripts https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/06/20/moscow-ally-kyrgyzstan-sours-on-russian-anti-war-emigres-a81558 Moscow Ally Kyrgyzstan Sours on Russian Anti-War Emigres Updated: June 20, 2023 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/06/23/prize-winning-author-owen-matthews-on-the-origins-and-future-of-the-war-and-russia-a81610 Prize-Winning Author Owen Matthews on the Origins and Future of the War - and Russia https://www.rferl.org/a/armando-iannucci-interview-putin-russia/32467856.html Armando Iannucci: Putin Is A 'Sad Figure' Who Is Fed 'Facts That Aren't Facts' By Vazha Tavberidze June 20, 2023 ~~~~~ USEFUL LINKS: Vatnik Soup https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi http://www.medbat.org.ua/en/ Real World News https://kyivindependent.com/ https://www.kyivpost.com/ https://english.nv.ua/ https://www.themoscowtimes.com/ https://meduza.io/en https://meduza.io/ https://novayagazeta.eu/ https://www.newsweek.com/topic/russia... Analysis https://www.ft.com/russia https://www.economist.com/ https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ https://cepa.org/ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/ https://www.theatlantic.com/search/?s... YouTube Channels / @timesradio1 / @khodorkovskyru / @popularpolitics / @macknack / @plushev / @tvrain / @fake_news / @feyginlive ~~~~~

Following eight years as a criminal barrister in his home city of Liverpool, Frank worked for a decade in the Balkans and throughout the former Soviet Union in international human rights protection, criminal law reform, and institution building at the highest levels of government. He developed particular expertise in missing persons, human trafficking, and torture prevention. He also served for a number of years as a reserve officer with extensive operational experience retiring as head of his service branch. Later he served as the first ‘Justice Advisor’ to the UK Mission in Helmand Province in 2007-2008 and worked in a similar role at the UK Embassy in Libya during and after the war there (2011-12). He has also worked in Ukraine during the current war. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling 'Losing Small Wars' (2017), which was selected as a 'Book of the Year' by the Times and Amazon UK. His 'Aerial Warfare' book (2018) was placed on the RAF 'Chief of Air Staff's Reading list' and was shortlisted as 'Military book of the Year' by Military History Matters' magazine. LINKS: https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/structure-and-governance/our-people/our-staff/frank-ledwidge https://defenceresnet.org/in-conversation-with-5/ https://www.theguardian.com/profile/frank-ledwidge BOOKS: Losing Small Wars (2017) Aerial Warfare (2018)

GUEST: Olia Hercules - Food writer, food stylist and chef. ---------- Today I’m talking to one of Ukraine’s leading cultural figures and most creative minds, about a very personal and difficult subject – the intentional flooding of, Kakhovka by Russia in an act of monumental depravity and barbarism. We’ll also be talking about how culture and food fortify the Ukrainian identify and strengthen their spirit of resistance against tyranny. #OliaHercules #ukrainiancusuine #borscht #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet ---------- SPEAKER: Olia Hercules is a food writer, food stylist and chef who spent her early childhood in the town of old Kakhovka. She is author of many award-winning cookbooks including Mamushka, Kaukasis, Summer Kitchen and Home Food. She settled in the United Kingdom at the age of 18 to study international relations and Italian at Warwick University. Olia Hercules began working as a chef after completing a course at Leith's School of Food and Wine in 2010. In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hercules raised money to privately send bullet-proof vests to civilian volunteers in the Ukrainian army, including her brother. With her friend, the chef Alissa Timoshkina, she established the #CookForUkraine social media initiative, encouraging businesses and individuals to raise money for UNICEF by cooking Ukrainian cuisine. She has won many awards, include The Observer Rising Star in Food 2015 and was Winner of Fortnum & Mason's Debut Food Book Award 2016. ---------- BOOKS: Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & Beyond (Octopus Publishing (2015) Kaukasis: The Cookbook – A Journey Through the Wild East (Octopus Publishing (2017) Summer Kitchens Inside Ukraine's Hidden Places of Cooking and Sanctuary (2020) Home Food (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022) ---------- LINKS: https://twitter.com/Olia_Hercules https://www.linkedin.com/in/olia-hercules-2097925a/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olia_Hercules ---------- 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 ---------- CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube’s algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.