Silicon Curtain

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 role of a resilient media in  countering Russian disinformation and aggression.    Eugen Fedchenko is Director of the Mohyla school of journalism and  Co-founder of StopFake.org; he is also a former Fulbright prof@ USC  Annenberg. The Mohyla School of Journalism was created on a completely  new basis, different from other Ukrainian schools. It was not a  continuation of tradition but designed to take the best ideas and  techniques from around the world. The goal of the school is to produce  people who will change Ukrainian journalism and help its transition as  an ex-Soviet state to a pluralistic and democratic society.

Propaganda and Information warfare have been at the forefront of  Russia’s efforts to control, dominate and coerce the people of Ukraine.  Disinformation is as much part their offensive arsenal as missiles and  artillery. But Ukraine has been fighting this information assault since  2014, and so has become an expert in developing techniques to counter  Russian propaganda narratives and methods. A whole community of Digital  and news media innovators are fighting back, and Open-Source  Intelligence has evolved rapidly in response to the threat from Russian  aggression.    Olga Tokariuk is an independent journalist and non-resident fellow at  CEPA (Center 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.   Olga worked on several disinformation research projects and was the lead  author of Mythos Labs' reports on Russian disinformation/propaganda  related to invasion of Ukraine, which were featured on BBC, Le Monde,  Huffington Post, Newsweek and other major outlets. She is a former  scholar of the Digital Sherlocks program at the Atlantic Council’s DFR  Lab.  Olga Tokariuk holds an MA in political science and international  relations from the University of Bologna (Italy) and an MA in journalism  from the Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv (Ukraine).

Getting a Ukrainian perspective on the war has never been more  important, as Russian propaganda continues to weaponize information, and  amplify it’s imperialistic, genocidal narratives through Social Media  platforms. Today I am speaking with Maria Romanenko, another strong  voice to explain the Ukrainian point of view, and how her country is  striving to maintain it’s independence and identity. Maria Romanenko is a TV presenter, journalist, and writer from Ukraine  and host of the YouTube show ‘Ukraine in Flames’ for the Ukraine Crisis  Media Centre. She is now living and working in Manchester, contributing  to media outlets such as The Guardian, Reader’s Digest, ITV, and BBC.  Maria runs free Manchester walking tours for Ukrainians and will be  performing on stage in London on 16th January 2023.  ----------   LINKS:  Info and tickets for Crimea 5AM - https://www.dasharts.org.uk/crimea-5am  How We Will Get Crimea Back (project led by Maria Romanenko) - https://nv.ua/project/how-we-will-get-crimea-back-50178473.html  Link to the religious organisation that Russia claims is a terrorist one  and therefore arrests many Crimean Tatars who are members of it. It’s  called Hizb ut-Tahrir and you can find out more information about the  arrests here - https://ctrcenter.org/en/analytics/295-v-okkupirovannom-krymu-89-chelovek-presleduyutsya-po-delu-hizb-ut-tahrir-krc  ----------

Russia’s war against Ukraine has escalated significantly this year, but  did not start in February, or even in 2014. Its roots are far deeper,  and more malign than just territorial ambitions. Today I am exploring  how Russia got to this point, and where is goes next, with the person  perhaps best equipped to answer this question, and a long-standing  critic of The Kremlin – David Satter. Russia’s attempts to control,  coerce and dominate Ukraine have deep roots in its Soviet and  imperialist past, and are very much a by-product of the weaknesses and  internal dynamics its aging, totalitarian regime.    David Satter is a journalist and historian who has written extensively  about Russia and the Soviet Union, especially the decline and fall of  the USSR and rise of post-Soviet Russia. David Satter became the first  American journalist to be expelled from Russia since the Cold War in  December 2013. This was perhaps not a surprising move, given that his  books have covered topics such as the FSB’s role in the apartment  bombings that brought Putin to power, and the criminalization of Russia  under Boris Yeltsin. David’s core theme is why a pluralist and  progressive state did not emerge from the collapse of the Soviet Union,  and how this understanding guides it’s current policies and actions.    From 1976 to 1982 David was the Moscow correspondent of the Financial  Times, and then became a special correspondent on Soviet affairs for The  Wall Street Journal. He is currently a senior fellow at the Hudson  Institute and a fellow of the Johns Hopkins University School of  Advanced International Studies. He has been a research fellow at the  Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a visiting professor at  the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As well as numerous  articles, he is also the author of several books that are essential  reading to help understand the origins of the current crisis, including  the brilliantly named books:  - It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the  Communist Past - Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State - The Less You Know, The Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and  Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

In September 2021, Russian applied a Foreign Agent law to citizens who  report or share information on crime, corruption and especially themes  related to the military and security services. But the origins of the  law go back much further, to 2012, when Russia started to regulate  Public Associations, NGOs and other private financial entities. At first  the law was likened to US legislation that limits the activities of  lobbyists employed by foreign governments. But since its introduction,  the scope of the law has been progressively expanded. Now it can be  described as a blunt and indiscriminate weapon that’s being used to  crush every vestige of civil society and independent media in Russia.   Today, I’m discussing the impact of the Foreign Agent law on journalism,  civil society organisations and political opposition, and we’ll be  looking at the effect it has had on some specific groups and  individuals, such as Echo Moscow, TV Rain, and Navalny’s team, as well  as the work of Memorial.   Jenny Mathers is a senior academic with expertise in Russian politics  and security, gender, and conflict. She has been a Senior Lecturer at  Aberystwyth University since 1992. Jenny Mathers is experienced in  Policy Analysis, Political Science, and lecturing. She is a Doctor of  Philosophy (Ph.D.) focused on International Relations gained from  Somerville College, Oxford University.

We’ve been at war with Russia since at least 2008, but for most of that  time were not aware of it. The financial crash of 2008 unleashed a wave  of instability and change across thew world, and Russian propagandists  started to pour petrol on the flames from the start. Since the troll  factories in Russia have sought to leverage divisions within western  nations, as well as Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. There  has been wave after wave of crisis – growing pains of the 21st century –  Georgia, Maidan, Crimea, Donbas, Brexit, Trump, Ukraine. Although  Russia did not initiate all these crises, they have ceaselessly probed  to gain advantage from them, and sow discord among adversaries. The  techniques they use are disturbing similarities to Nazi propaganda  methods but updated for the Digital age. Even though this propaganda can  seem crude, absurd, and contradictory, it is alarmingly effective,  especially in countries across Africa and the Middle East, Hungary,  Serbia, and Italy.   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. She became  acutely aware of Russia after the financial crash of 2008, when hard  left and right populism took hold in Italian politics. Monique observed  and documented the rise of the 5 Star movement, Salvini, and others  closely. She 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’s easy to forget that modern Russia only came into existence 30 years  ago – from the ashes of the Soviet Union. It had to start from scratch  in creating a rules-based, market economy. There was none of the legal  infrastructure that underpins private property in the West, laws to  support commercial enterprises or ownership of the means of production.  Yet the Soviet Union had a very well-developed criminal class and shadow  economy at the time of its collapse. Apart from criminals there were  few people with the capital resources to take advantage of the changes  when the old system collapsed. Is it any wonder that Russia developed  into the world’s largest kleptocracy?   Today I’m speaking with Mark Voyger, Director of the Master’s Program  American University in Kyiv Ukraine and a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at  the Centre for European Policy Analysis. Mark is an experienced Special  Advisor on Russia, Eurasia and the Middle East, with a distinguished  history of working for the military. He is skilled in International  Affairs, Government and Intelligence. Mark is a Senior army civilian  professional with a double Master’s in International Relations and  Public Administration. He is fluent in Russian, Arabic, French, Spanish,  Italian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Turkish. And significantly for our  conversation today he is a specialist in the area of Russian lawfare  (legal warfare), and how evolution of law contributes to the creation of  a rules-based society.

The streets of Kyiv throb with the sound of generators, keeping  electricity flowing for businesses and homes, despite Putin’s terror and  missile strikes on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Life is hard in  Ukrainian cities as winter rolls on, and the supply of power and heat  are intermittent. But Ukrainians are undaunted, and even less likely to  succumb to Moscow’s threats than they were in February. Peter Dickinson is UkraineAlert Editor at the Eurasia Centre of the  Atlantic Council. He is also Chief Editor of Business Ukraine magazine  and Publisher of Lviv Today magazine. Peter has been a permanent  resident of Ukraine for nearly twenty years and has worked to develop  awareness of Ukrainian current affairs and issues in English-speaking  countries. In 1997, he served as the British Council’s information  manager in West Ukraine, where he worked to facilitate dialogue between  Ukrainian NGOs and academic sectors and promote UK government outreach  in the region. Since then, Peter has established himself as a journalist  and media manager in Kyiv, helping to launch and manage a range of  media products in Ukraine over the past fifteen years.

It’s easy to forget that modern Russia only came into existence 30 years  ago – from the ashes of the Soviet Union. It had to start from scratch  in creating a rules-based, market economy. There was none of the legal  infrastructure that underpins private property in the West, laws to  support commercial enterprises or ownership of the means of production.  Yet the Soviet Union had a very well-developed criminal class and shadow  economy at the time of its collapse. Apart from criminals there were  few people with the capital resources to take advantage of the changes  when the old system collapsed. Is it any wonder that Russia developed  into the world’s largest kleptocracy?    Today I’m speaking with Mark Voyger, Director of the Master’s Program  American University in Kyiv Ukraine and a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at  the Centre for European Policy Analysis. Mark is an experienced Special  Advisor on Russia, Eurasia and the Middle East, with a distinguished  history of working for the military. He is skilled in International  Affairs, Government and Intelligence. Mark is a Senior army civilian  professional with a double Master’s in International Relations and  Public Administration. He is fluent in Russian, Arabic, French, Spanish,  Italian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Turkish. And significantly for our  conversation today he is a specialist in the area of Russian lawfare  (legal warfare), and how evolution of law contributes to the creation of  a rules-based society.

Interview with Chris Windley, Chairman and CEO of the Cyber Security  Association.   Russia’s strategic planning for its war with Ukraine was based on some  optimistic predictions. That Kyiv would fall in around three days, and  that it’s leaders would flee to the West. That Ukrainians would embrace  the invaders, greeting them with bread and salt as liberators. And  ultimately, Putin believed that his system of government could be  imposed upon Ukraine, a criminal kleptocracy based on a power vertical,  rigged elections and courts, elimination of civil society, massive  corruption, and enforced by riot police, informers, and secret police  coercion. To an extent western military planners and media also  anticipated a swift Ukrainian capitulation.    But this did not happen. Tech and communications have been crucial so  far in giving the Ukrainians an advantage despite their numerical  inferiority in men and equipment – compared to the Russians. Today I’m  speaking with Chris Windley about the unfolding conflict, Ukrainian’s  emergence as a tech power and innovator, and of course the hot topic of  logistics and grain transportation.    Chris Windley is a Cyber Security expert and Chairman and CEO of the  Cyber Security Association. He is an educator and evangelist for Cyber  Security and is well connected within the industry across the UK and  globally. He is also an active supporter of UK & US Veterans. Over a  long and highly entrepreneurial career, Chris has heled build and exit  many tech companies. He is an innovator, author, leader, and mentor, as  well as being a highly successful Yachtsman. Chris pioneered the  development of fibre optic networks in the UK. He trained in the Royal  Naval Engineering College, gaining a BSc in Computer Science,  Communications, Electronics; and as a Naval officer of many years, he  can be described as something of a Cold War Warrior.