Silicon Curtain

Today I am speaking with a rare and special person – a Russian activist  with an unambiguous, strong voice condemning the crimes and horrors  being committed in Ukraine by Russia, and who is doing it with humour  and passion. It has to be said, that he’s also taking on considerable  risk in doing so. Fortunately, he’s also doing this in English, so you  can follow his views on Twitter and Telegram.      Denis Zakharov is an activist and has a strong, unusually direct, and  outspoken voice within opposition movement. Somehow, although he lives  in Russia, is still free, un-conscripted, vocal, and angry.   LINKS: https://twitter.com/betelgeuse1922

Edition No 2 |  08-02-2023  |  Silicon Bites Don't Fear a Ukrainian Victory  ~~~~~   FEATURED ARTICLES:  Don’t worry about a Russian defeat in Ukraine - Just give Ukraine tools to win the war, ASAP  https://timothyash.substack.com/p/dont-worry-about-a-russian-defeat   Decisive battles are looming in Ukraine  https://timothyash.substack.com/p/decisive-battles-are-looming-in-ukraine?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=601228&post_id=100601775&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email  ~~~~~

Edition #1  |  27-01-2023  |  Silicon Bites Feeding the Crocodile - "Eat me Last"   ~~~~~   LINKS & SOURCES:  ~~~~~  Germany to Crocodile: Eat Me Last   https://cepa.org/article/germany-fails-to-supply-leopards-to-ukraine/   Putin Blasts 'Neo-Nazis' in Ukraine on Holocaust Remembrance Day  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/27/putin-blasts-neo-nazis-in-ukraine-on-holocaust-remembrance-day-a80065   Lavrov's Africa Trip Reveals Limits to Russian Soft Power  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/25/lavrovs-africa-trip-reveals-limit-to-russian-soft-power-a80039   Russia Says Ramping Up Ammunition Production for Ukraine War  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/27/russia-says-ramping-up-ammunition-production-for-ukraine-war-a80061   Ukraine War: Kyiv's Army Says Downed 47 of 55 Russian Missiles  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/26/russian-missiles-kill-11-in-ukraine-after-tank-pledge-a80051   'Final Nail in the Coffin': Activists Lament Moscow Helsinki Group Closure  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/26/final-nail-in-the-coffin-activists-lament-moscow-helsinki-group-closure-a80053   Russia Slaps Independent Media Outlet Meduza With 'Undesirable' Label  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/26/russia-slaps-independent-media-outlet-meduza-with-undesirable-label-a80055   U.S. Deems Russia's Wagner Group 'Transnational Criminal Organization'  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/26/us-deems-russias-wagner-group-transnational-criminal-organization-a80057  ----------

Today I’m speaking with Orest Zub – traveller, blogger, and online  entrepreneur from Lviv. He has been reporting on the war in Ukraine from  the start via his YouTube channels in Ukrainian and English. Before the  war, Orest visited over 120 countries including many regions  experiencing conflict. But as he says, he could never imagine that the  full-scale war would come to his own country. Orest’s aim is to inform  the global community on what is really happening in Ukraine, and to  provide informational resistance to the occupier.

The first thing Russians do in territories they have conquered, is to  take over the media – television, newspapers, and internet. That’s no  coincidence. Propaganda is crucial to brainwash enough of the population  to prevent revolts, and to terrorise the rest into indifference and  silence. Today I am looking at the hybrid threats that have been facing  Ukraine since 2014, and the role of a resilient media in countering  Russian disinformation and aggression.    Iryna Subota is Head of Data Analytics at the Centre for Strategic  Communications and Information Security and is a Ph.D. student of Media  and Communication Studies program at the National University of  Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and lecturer of educational programs on the  development of media literacy and countering information threats. She  researches the topics of information warfare, propaganda,  disinformation, fake news, and media manipulative technologies. Iryna  specializes in fact-checking, information verification, and media  literacy.

Russia seems condemned to repeat the mistakes of history, rather than  learning from them, as shown by Putin’s mass mobilisation of Russian  males into the armed forces, and the shock and panic it prompted earlier  this year in Russia. Konstantin Samoilov is a well-known YouTuber whose  channel ‘Inside Russia’ comments insightfully on Russia’s descent into  authoritarianism over the last few years. But now, like many others,  he’s outside Russia, with no idea of when he can return there.

There was a time when those calling Russia a mafia state, and Putin a  terrorist, were in the minority, and who were even thought of as extreme  voices. My guest today was one of those people, who along with a  handful of other writers and journalists like Edward Lucas and David  Satter called Putin out early on, while his oppressive regime was just  starting to flex its muscles. Luke Harding has observed Russia’s decent  into tyrannical absolutism and terrorism over many years, and charted  the malign influence or that country abroad, as exercised in wars,  energy politics and Active Measures. Luke Harding is a foreign correspondent for The Guardian. He was based  in Russia for The Guardian from 2007 until, returning from a stay in the  UK on 5 February 2011, he was refused re-entry to Russia and deported  the same day. His expulsion was likely linked with his articles critical  to Russia. His 2011 book Mafia State discusses his experience in Russia  and the political system under Vladimir Putin, which he describes as a  mafia state.

As Ukraine prepares for another wave of Russian attacks on the Eastern  front, an EU Ukraine Summit takes place – but is there the courage and  determination in Europe to stay the course, and persevere until, Russia  is comprehensively defeated? What will that take, and how will Russia  try to fight back with terroristic threats, influence, coercion, and  disinformation? What cards has Putin left to play?   Aliona Hlivco is a Former Ukrainian MP. Regular contributor to The  Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, as well as Monocle24,  CapX and is a TEDx Speaker. She is also a Guest Lecturer and Senior  Consultant at Atticus Partners.

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 these saw a significant  scaling up after the 2014 inversion of Donbas.     Today, I am discussing these issues with Carl Miller, an experienced  digital researcher, author and international speaker, Partner, and  Research Director at CASM Technology. We’ll also be exploring the  extraordinary technology and methodology behind Beam: an initiative for  Defending Information, developed by Carl Miller and the team at CASM  Technology. Carl is also a Visiting Fellow at King's and an  International Speaker, as well as author of the fascinating book “The  Death of the Gods – The New Global Power Grab”. Carl is interested in  how technology is changing society and politics. In 2012 he co-founded  the first UK think tank institute dedicated to studying the digital  world at Demos and has been its Research Director ever since. He writes  widely on tech and society, including for The Economist, Wired, New  Scientist, The Sunday Times, the Telegraph, and the Guardian.

From 2007-08 Putin came to believe that the West was in decline,  degenerate and weak. It’s at that moment he pronounced a more assertive  Russia, and started to act accordingly on the world stage, and in  relations to neighbouring countries, with the invasion of Georgia in  2008, and Crimea in 2014. NATO provocation is one excuse given for  Russian aggression and is prominent in domestic Russian propaganda. But  it’s unlikely he saw NATO as a threat and must have known they had  neither the intent nor capability to directly threaten Russian  territory. Afterall, why would they when Europe’s economy depended on  Russian gas and oil? Rather he may have seen NATO as an irritating  barrier to his new imperial ambitions to unite the Russian speaking  world, and former colonial territories.    Dr Fiona Hill is a British-American foreign affairs specialist and author.  She is a former official at the U.S. National Security Council,  specializing in Russian and European affairs, and was a witness in the  November 2019 House hearings during the first impeachment of Donald  Trump. She earned a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University in 1998.  She currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in  Washington and will take up office as Chancellor of Durham University in  England in summer of this year. She recently served as deputy assistant  to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs  on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. From 2006 to 2009,  she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at  The National Intelligence Council. She is author of “There Is Nothing  for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century” and co-author of  “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin” (Brookings Institution Press,  2015). Hill has researched and published extensively on issues related  to Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, regional conflicts, energy, and  strategic issues.