Silicon Curtain

Rahim Rahimov is a Baku-based member of the Management Board the  Tbilisi-based Association of European Studies for the Caucasus.

Putin claims that a belligerent NATO forced his hand to invade Ukraine.  He undoubtedly also feared an independent, democratic, and affluent  Ukraine. But like a classical Greek drama, Putin has by his actions,  created the very conditions here fears. NATO more united than ever, with  new members Finland and Sweden. A resurgent West remembering its values  and rearming. And Ukraine – strong like never before, a nation emerging  from the amnesia of history and from under the yoke of centuries of  imperial domination. Is Putin the architect of his own destruction – and  will his hubris be his undoing, like a Greek tragedy? Edward Lucas was one of the first journalists to raise the alarm about  Putin’s actions and motivations. While most of the world still thought  of Putin as ‘someone we could do business with’, Edward published a  prescient and insightful book in 2008 called “The New Cold War – Putin’s  threat to Russia and the West”. Edward Lucas is now a full-time Liberal  Democrat is a Prospective candidate for the Cities of London and  Westminster constituency, on a platform that includes defending  democracy against dirty money and corruption. He is a columnist for The  Times and has been a Senior Editor on the Economist. Edward is a Senior  Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis.

The war is not going well for Russia. His propagandists on state TV are  making ever more aggressive and genocidal demands against Ukraine –  doubling down on its right to exist; hardliners are making their voices  heard as never before, and Putin is striking out vindictively against  Ukraine. How did we get here, and what is the endgame for Putin’s regime  and his dreams of imperial revanchism? Dr Precious Chatterje-Doody is a Lecturer in Politics and International  Studies at The Open University. She is an expert on Russian foreign and  security policy, soft power, propaganda narratives, The media and  Communication, as well as conspiracy theories. Co author of the RT and  conspiracy theories - people power and politics on RT with Ilya  Yablokov. Dr Precious has also worked as Research Associate at The  University of Manchester, on a major AHRC-funded grant project on  'Reframing Russia for the Global Mediasphere: From Cold War to  “Information War”. She supported Prof. Vera Tolz in undertaking an  in-depth investigation of the broadcast and online output of RT  (formerly Russia Today), using discourse, historical and political  analysis. She has also collaborated with a few people I’ve interviewed  before on this channel, including Prof. Stephen Hutchings, Jenny Mathers  and Ilya Yablokov.

Today I’m speaking with Paul Niland the Founder of Lifeline Ukraine,  which is the country's first, national, professional, 24/7 suicide  prevention and mental health support service. Initially, Lifeline  Ukraine was being set up to address one of the most serious social  questions in Ukraine, the heart-breaking suicide rate in Ukraine's  veterans’ community. But this need is likely to be even greater when  this war is finally over, and Ukraine victorious, as the full extent of  individual trauma comes to light.

Russian’s assault on Ukraine in 2022 presents the most serious  geopolitical crisis since the Second World War, and the first time a  country has sought to expunge a sovereign nation from the map of the  world since the NAZI era. And yet at the heart of the war is a mystery.  Vladimir Putin apparently lurched from a calculating, subtle master of  opportunity to a reckless gambler, putting his regime – and Russia  itself – at risk of destruction. He also thought the ‘regime’ in Kyiv  could be toppled in 10 days through a blitzkrieg operation carried out  from Russian and Byelorussia territory. Why?  Drawing on over 25 years’ experience as a correspondent in Moscow, as  well as his own family ties to Russia and Ukraine, journalist Owen  Matthews seeks to explain this mystery in a first draft of the history  of the Russo-Ukrainian war of 2022-23. With its panoramic view,  Overreach is an authoritative and highly detailed record of a conflict  that has shocked Europe and the Western world to its core.    Owen Matthews is a British writer, historian, and journalist. His first  book, Stalin's Children, was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First  Book Award and the Orwell Prize for political writing. He is a former  Moscow and Istanbul Bureau Chief for Newsweek. Owen is half-Russian,  speaks the language to a native level and studied Modern History at  Christ Church, Oxford. From 2006 to 2012 he was Newsweek's Moscow Bureau  Chief and is now a Contributing Editor at the magazine. In 2014 he  reported for Newsweek on the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and this year  wrote one of the first substantial books on the 2022 full-scale war:  Overreach: Inside Story of Putin's War Against Ukraine.

The Social, Political and Psychological impact of Russia's Mobilisation.  Conscription is capricious, and threatening - causing a huge wave of  flight from Russia, especially among men of military draft age. Russia  seems condemned to repeat the mistakes of history, rather than learning  from them, as evidenced by Putin’s mass mobilisation of Russian males  into the armed forces, and the shock and panic it has prompted within  Russia. Today, I am discussing the political, social, and psychological impact  of mobilisation in Russia with Social Philosopher and popular YouTuber,  Vlad Vexler. His content is created for reflective people who feel the  present resources for making sense of our world are inadequate, and his  content is both informative and entertaining at the same time. Please do  check out his channel on YouTube.

The next generation of cannon fodder - the Militarisation of Youth and  Manipulation of History.    Not only has Russia engaged in an aggressive war in 2022, but it’s also  been ramping up military actions abroad and militaristic education and  propaganda domestically, since the late 90s. In today’s interview I’m  exploring Militarisation of Youth and Manipulation of History with  Allyson Edwards.    Dr Allyson Edwards is Lecturer in Global History at Bath Spa University,  researching militarism in Post-Soviet Russia. Her PhD project was fully  funded by the Wales Doctoral Training Partnership, which is the Welsh  branch of the Economic and Social Research Council. She 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.

Putin has ordered a partial mobilisation in Russia, as a tacit admission  that Moscow's war in Ukraine is not going to plan after nearly seven  months of intense and bloody fighting. Officially 300,000 reservists  will be drafted to support its military campaign, and the chaotic  mobilisation process has incited panic and an exodus of fighting age men  from Russia – does anyone believe the Russian government will stick to  the stated limits? After all, they claim only 5,397 Russian soldiers  have died in the campaign so far, whereas Western and Ukrainian sources  put this number closer to 60,000. Today I’m speaking with Ben Hodges, Former Commanding General, US Army  Europe from 2014-2017. Ben Hodges is now Senior Advisor at Human Rights  First, and 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.

Putin is counting on a loss of cohesion among the Western allies, to  help him win the war in Ukraine. Countries that have been particularly  targeted to weaken their resolve include Hungary and Italy. The Italian  general election that has just concluded was a snap election held after  the fall of the Draghi government in July. The results of the general  election meant the centre-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni's  Brothers of Italy, a radical-right political party with neo-fascist  roots, won an absolute majority of seats in the Italian Parliament. What  are the implications for Italy and for Ukraine? Monique Camarra lives in Siena and is a language instructor at the  Department of Communication at the University of Siena. She runs  language and political communications courses, but has also run for  office in her city, and has been politically active for several years,  and comes from a family with a strong heritage of political activism.  Monique studied International History at the LSE, London. Monique  started podcasting out of a need to educate and inform, and is now  co-host on three channels, including The Kremlin File with Olga Lautman.

It seems that Russia’s main strategy in its war is now attrition and  perseverance. Putin hopes that the commitment of the West to Ukraine  will decline as the horror drags on for months. Russian info ops have  also turned to amplifying terror messages, and underscoring the economic  and social costs for the west of its continuing support for Ukraine’s  military resistance. But how can so-called ‘war fatigue’ be countered  among the allies, and especially the attention of the public engaged  over a long period.    Olga Tokariuk is an independent journalist and non-resident fellow at  CEPA (Centre for European Policy Analysis) based in Ukraine. Her  professional interests include international relations and  disinformation research. Olga has vast experience working with Ukrainian  and international media. Her reports were published and aired by TIME,  The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, NPR, New Lines Mag (USA), Monocle  (UK), EFE (Spain), Il Foglio, ANSA (Italy). She is a former head of  foreign news desk at the independent Ukrainian Hromadske TV and has an  MA in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv.