Silicon Curtain

The land war in Ukraine has occupied most attention among media and analysts since the full-scale war began in February 2022. But what happens in the Black Sea is perhaps where we should focus more. The battle for Snake Island, and the sinking of the Moskva grabbed the headlines for a while, but the Black Sea is an overlooked factor in understanding Russia’s motivations for invading, and for how victory will be defined by Ukraine, including taking back control of Crimea and Black seas ports. ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ Jerry Hendrix is a retired United States Navy captain. He has served as an American defence analyst, an official historian and curator of the Navy and an author. His written work has focused on the composition of the United States Navy force, the structure of the Navy, the role of the aircraft carrier in modern strategic environments and the structure of the carrier air wing. He also publicly supported a recent plan to build a 350-ship Navy. Jerry Hendrix is President of Hendrix and Associates. ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ LINKS: https://twitter.com/MarkHertling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_J._Hendrix https://sagamoreinstitute.org/dr-jerry-hendrix/ https://www.usni.org/people/jerry-hendrix https://www.cnas.org/people/dr-jerry-hendrix https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-hendrix-9599684/ https://www.theatlantic.com/author/jerry-hendrix/ ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were forcibly deported to through Russia from Ukraine territory. They have experienced terrible things like the “filtration” camps on the borders, separation from families, cruel interrogations by Russians, and being forced to live in another country (an enemy country) without money or documents in many cases. Left stranded and struggling to leave Russia by themselves. Some, like children do not even have the option to try to return home or go to Europe. Russia has shamelessly shown children being brainwashed to believe their country is wrong in resisting Russian aggression, and to position Russia as their liberator. Ksenia Turkova is a journalist and a linguist with a Ph.D. in philology (language and literature). She has both Russian and Ukrainian backgrounds and has worked in both countries for private as well as independent media. Her specialist area of research is studying media texts and propaganda. Ksenia is a guest lecturer at American universities and runs a YouTube channel, which offers analysis of current events from the point of view of nuances of language.

The last 9 months has seen a vicious war of attrition unfold in towns like Ugledar, Soledar and Bakhmut. But this should not be interpreted as a stalemate, as those struggles seems to have degraded the quantity of functional Russian equipment and depleted their fighting potential. Will Ukraine’s much-vaunted counter offensive finally bring an end to Russia’s genocidal and pointless war? And how fragile would Russia’s autocratic, vertical system be after a major battlefield defeat? Mark Hertling is a former United States Army officer, who served as the Commanding General of the United States Army Europe and the Seventh Army. Hertling served in Armor, Cavalry, planning, operations, and training positions, and commanded every organization from Platoon to Field Army. He commanded the 1st Armoured Division and Task Force Iron/Multinational Division-North in Iraq during the troop surge of 2007 to 2008. ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ LINKS: https://twitter.com/MarkHertling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hertling https://edition.cnn.com/profiles/mark-hertling-profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-hertling-dba-57987066/ https://www.ausa.org/people/lieutenant-general-retired-mark-hertling ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~

Warning - poor audio quality in this episode. Putin and his armies have proved to be weak at classical warfare, giving rise to the meme that Russia has the second-best army, not in the world but in Ukraine. But Putin’s expertise in hybrid warfare, disinformation, and Active Measures continues to achieve more success, softened responses to Russia, and slowing down the supply of lethal armament that would allow Ukraine to win. How far has the practice of history also been warped by Russian narratives and seen through a Moscow-centric lens? To some extent, Russia has managed to convince itself, and large parts of the non-Western world, that even though it lost the Cold War, it gained a moral victory, and was the victim of Western imperialism and European aggression. We now need to tackle the lies and weaponised mythologies that have supported Russia’s diplomatic and soft power around the world, now through it’s actions Russia has revealed the ages old imperialist doctrine and methods that underpin it as an entity. Roman Horbyk is a Senior Lecturer at Örebro University. He also worked as postdoctoral researcher at Södertörn University and Umeå University. His published studies are interdisciplinary and focus on various aspects of postcolonial theory, gender studies, sociolinguistics, media power, history of representations and ideas. Roman has also extensively worked as journalist, publishing articles in Ukraine, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Brazil. He is active as playwright and screenwriter whose most notable credits include Pryputni (2017). Horbyk’s current research project deals with how mobile phones are used by Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in war. A study based on it received the Top Paper award at International Communication Association’s annual conference in Paris, 2022.

There are two undeniable characteristics of a terrorist state: Killing and kidnapping children. Russia does both. Even on International Children's Day, Russian bombs killed a child in Kyiv. Before invading, Russia prepared a disinformation campaign to justify kidnapping and deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. That says a lot about what this war is actually about. This is genocide according to article II(e) of the 1948 genocide convention, and it’s why the West needs to arm Ukraine to win the war and bring prosecutions against the war criminals. Ukraine needs to have the military power and ability to project power enough to enable it to bring back all its kidnapped children from the occupying state. Yuriy Sak is an Advisor to the Minister of Defence of Ukraine. He is also a Partner at strategic communications firm CFC Big Ideas. He has a master’s degree in international law and legal Studies from the Ukrainian Institute of International Affairs, and a Study and Research Diploma in Public International Law from the University of Oxford.

Worldwide there is an apparent rise in strongmen and authoritarian leaders, and there is no dearth of leaders who encourage personality cults. What issues arise when leaders seek devotees rather than support from citizens? There may be nothing wrong with leaders enjoying a mass following, the danger is when leaders are consumed by and trapped in the image and the mythology, they engineer for themselves, and start to make unwise, destructive decisions that impact their nations, economies, and the world. The risks increase the longer an authoritarian leader remains in power, and the greater their corrosive influence on institutions, the media, and electoral systems. Does reliance on cult-like personalities over reality always end in disaster and what motivates people to revere cult leaders? Steven Hassan is a world-renowned expert on cults, undue influence, and Authoritarian Control. He is the creator of the BITE Model and Influence Continuum. Steven specializes in recovery and strategic intervention for those people within cults. He is a TEDx speaker, the author of 4 books, as well as being a mental health professional, and researcher. ~/~/~/~/~ LINKS: https://twitter.com/CultExpert https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenhassan/ ~/~/~/~/~ BOOKS: Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs by Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Press Combating Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-Selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults by Steven Hassan, Daniel Greenberg, et al. The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control by Steven Hassan and Simon & Schuster Audio ~/~/~/~/~

Oleksiy is 41 years old. On September 30, 2022, he was wounded because of Russian aggression. While performing a combat mission he came under fire and lost both legs. He is now undergoing rehabilitation therapy and trying to rebuild his life, with assistance from his wife, a dedicated medical team, and colleagues. There is a link in the video description to a fund that helps with the rehabilitation of wounded Ukrainian servicepeople – please check it out. ----- LINKS: https://instagram.com/dovzhanskayajulie?igshid=MmJiY2I4NDBkZg== dovzhanskayajulie • Instagram photos and videos https://instagram.com/oleksa1981?igshid=MmJiY2I4NDBkZg== Олексій Притула (@oleksa1981) • Instagram photos and videos CONTRIBUTE: send.monobank.ua/jar/AYtrZGr5XK Fund for Oleksii's rehabilitation, and other soldiers of Ukraine. -----

In Ukraine, as in many other countries, law enforcement and security agencies are closed systems with their own rules and mutual support. In time of war, the number of security-related and military organisations greatly increases, and the number of people in their ranks swell massively. The potential for abuse and infringement of civil rights is huge and is a risk for any country at war. On top of that are the tens of thousands of war crimes being committed by the invaders. My guest today is an expert in the law and judicial reform, who is ensuring Ukraine makes progress on these fronts, to defend individual rights and liberty even in wartime. Olena Sotnyk was a Member of the Parliament of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, is a Human rights defender, lawyer, Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Rasmussen global Senior Representative in Ukraine Millennium Fellow at Atlantic Council. Olena is a well-known legislator and public policy maker in areas such as rule of law, judicial system reform, anticorruption, euro integration and youth policy. She has successfully represented Ukraine in the international arena and is one of the leading the voices of Ukrainians against Russian aggression.

Many Germans view Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union, not only in legal terms but in historical ones and some still refer to WWII as “a war against Russia.” The memory of that period and lingering ‘war guilt’ led many Germans prior to 2022 to seek accommodation with Russia, and to build energy dependence on the country, in the belief that it could avert war. But is this guilt misplaced? Belarus lost 25.3% of its pre-war population in the war. Ukraine lost 16.3%, while Russia lost 12.7%. And the material destruction of cities, infrastructure and the economy were proportionally greater on the territories of Ukraine and Belarus. More than 3.5 million Ukrainian citizens died during the brutal Nazi occupation of their entire territory, so does Germany have a moral obligation to protect Ukraine against aggression and to avoid a new genocide in the 21st Century? Sergej Sumlenny is founder of the European Resilience Initiative Centre and a former Regional Director for Ukraine and Belarus at the Heinrich Böll Foundation. He is based in Berlin, Germany and is an expert in Energy and Security Policy, Human Rights, and International Business Consulting. He is also an expert in the Central and Eastern Europe region, with a Ph.D. in Political Sciences. Fluent or native in German, English, Ukrainian, and Russian. ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ LINKS: https://twitter.com/sumlenny https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergej-sumlenny-4502aa5/ https://european-resilience.org/ https://www.boell.de/en

Many Ukrainians have told me that before February 2022, they could never have imagined that full-scale war would come to their country in the 21st century. But it did, and Ukrainians’ resilience has been extraordinary; they are not just fighting for their lives, families, and liberty, but also for their land, culture, heritage, and language. Today I’m speaking with Mariana Oleskiv the Chairperson at State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine. The work of the SATD is coordinated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine and is responsible for marketing Ukraine as a tourism destination, and with developing tourism infrastructure. Tourism will be an important sector of the economy that helps with reconstruction of Ukraine after victory.