Silicon Curtain

2026-01-23 | UPDATES #111 | Zelensky blasts Europe’s inaction, in a fiery speech at Davos, as Russia “weaponizes winter” cutting power, light and heat to millions of Ukrainians, in the depth of the worst winter the country has seen in decades. Has the enemy’s “energy genocide” broken his diplomatic posture? Is he justified in calling out the hubris, complacency and lack of urgency amongst Ukraine’...

Jake Broe is a United States Air Force veteran who served for six years as a Nuclear and Missile Operations Officer. But you may know him better as one of the most prominent voices on YouTube throughout the war, someone with absolute moral clarity about who the victim of the war is – spoilers, it’s Ukraine – and who brings direct military experience to his detailed analysis of the unfolding confli...

2026-01-21 | UPDATES #110 | Russia is burning through its gold — is this a sign that Putin’s war economy is getting desperate? The easy money is running out – from hydrocarbons, minerals, from the sovereign wealth fund and from strategic reserves. Now Putin must dig deeper to fuel his war mania and lust for conquest – appropriation of businesses, default on financial commitments to the poor and ma...

Welcome to our monthly conversation with Konstantin, who is one of the most respected voices on YouTube about what is happening Inside Russia. Konstantin Samoilov is a well-known YouTuber whose channel ‘Inside Russia’ comments insightfully on Russia’s decent 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. ----...

Malcolm Nance is an American author, national security commentator, and former U.S. Navy Officer specializing in naval cryptology and intelligence. After serving in the Navy from 1981 to 2001, he became a prominent public analyst on terrorism, intelligence operations, and authoritarian threats — frequently appearing on U.S. television as a counterterrorism and foreign policy voice. In 2022, Nance...

2026-01-20 | UPDATES #109 | The Kremlin’s Coming Economic Squeeze and potential mobilisation prompts whispers of discontent from Russian Oligarchs. In Putin’s Russia, oligarchs don’t speak their minds, and certainty cannot critique power, or the decision that are made by the Tsar. They make noises that approximate dissent, coded signals with critical subtext. But if you read between the lines, the...

Elizabeth Bullock had a career in technology start-ups, including tools for defence intelligence. She has the unique distinction of spending 3 years full time in frontline areas of Ukraine, running an independent British Expeditionary Aid & Rescue operation. It is designed to be a quick-response unit, executing strategic operations to solve acute civic crises. Her intimate experience of the wa...

2026-01-19 | UPDATES #108 | Nothing makes sense. And everything is clear. Trump says he “needs” Greenland to deter Russia… while starving Ukraine of support and now inviting Putin, Orbán, and Lukashenko onto something called the “Board of Peace.” A “peace board” with a $1 billion cover charge. He’s invited Putin, a man who has started more wars than any other leader alive today and been responsibl...

2026-01-19 | UPDATES #107 | Doing the Devil’s Work: Stephen Miller and America’s “Law of the Jungle” Agenda. The 21st century has somehow become entangled with the 20th – an echo of fascistic philosophy, predatory empires and a breakdown in global security and trust, that led to the horrors of the second world war. We can witness the 21st century descending into behaviours that almost destroyed ci...

2026-01-18 | UPDATES #106 | Popcorn in the Kremlin, as the world wonders whether Trump will order his troops to invade Greenland, a fellow NATO member on the one hand, or invade the U.S. instead – Minneapolis. Is the military to be deployed to support ICE thugs in a crisis manufactured by Trump. Two battalions. On alert and could potentially move within hours. From the 11th Airborne Division — the...

2026-01-18 | UPDATES #105 | The Purge Turns Inward: The Kremlin Starts Eating Its “Patriots.” What’s driving it? Fear of rivals and conspiracies? Punishment for incompetence? Or just plain paranoia? The people who cheerlead for a regime typically get rewarded, until that regime metastasizes and gets consumed by grievance, revenge narratives and paranoia. In Putin’s Russia, they get recycled almost...

2026-01-17 | UPDATES #104 | Let’s start with a quote from Yaroslav Trofimov, Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. “We are now at a stage when Trump calls NATO nations putting troops on the territory of a NATO ally a threat to world peace. Actually, he calls Denmark putting troops on Denmark’s own sovereign soil a threat to world peace:“Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Ge...

Livestream with Yuri Rashkinhttps://www.youtube.com/@rashkinreportperspectives/streams ----------Silicon Curtain is a part of the Christmas Tree Trucks 2025 campaign - an ambitious fundraiser led by a group of our wonderful team of information warriors raising 110,000 EUR for the Ukrainian army. https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-silicon-curtainThe Goal of the Campaign fo...

2026-01-17 | UPDATES #103 | If you think the number, the ratio 27:1 sounds obscene, that’s good. It should. Because it tells you two stories at once: the brutal arithmetic of Russia’s infantry-first “meat grinder” tactics, and the way Ukraine is learning to turn Russia’s mass into a liability. It’s a stark riposte to those that endlessly trot out the line that Russia has so many more people, so ma...

2026-01-16 | UPDATES #101 | “We’ll impeach him” — why an attempted invasion of Greenland would be a make-or-break for Trump, for America and its allies in Europe. And it would be a gift for Valdimir Putin. This is the moment that Trump’s dictator cosplay collides with a NATO tripwire. A real red line, that has already triggered an immediate response from Europe, who are sending token forces from a...

2026-01-16 | UPDATES #102 | Kadyrov’s Mafia Dynasty Wobbles. Car crash, failing kidneys and a gunfight in Mariupol – this episode has it all – intriguing, violence and drama. This is a dangerous time for Putin – a failed succession process in Chechnya could cause massive problems for him, and regime instability. The Kadyrov clan is wobbling, their brand is faltering, and Moscow is watching in trep...

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. Until recently he was the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies, at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, specialising in NATO, Transatlantic relationship and international securit...

2026-01-15 | UPDATES #100 | Sergey Karaganov appears on Tucker Carlson — it’s a match made in hell – and they talked about nuclear blackmail, Europe as the enemy, and how the Kremlin may be forced to save humanity and civilisation, by wiping out Europe in a nuclear firestorm. Yes, he said that. Sergey Karaganov — a long-time Moscow foreign-policy heavyweight and nuclear-escalation enthusiast — sat...

2026-01-14 | UPDATES #099 | Trump’s “Two Weeks Carousel” — the circular mechanics of performative pressure, the illusion of strength and purpose, when nothing is being done by the U.S. to compel Putin to the negotiating table in any serious sense. Today, how this political theatre buys Putin time to continue killing Ukrainians and scale up his genocidal ambitions to erase it as a nation. Here’s th...

2026-01-13 | UPDATES #098 | Drones hit Greek-managed oil tankers near Russia’s Black Sea CPC terminal – that is Caspian Pipeline Consortium — today, “kinetic sanctions” and the Russian grey-fleet’s endgame. Early Tuesday January 13, 2026, multiple reports said four Greek-managed oil tankers had been hit by drones near Russia’s key Black Sea loading point for Kazakh crude — the Caspian Pipeline Con...

Silicon Bites Ep284 | 2026-01-13 | Power has been restored in Berlin after the longest blackout since World War Two. An extraordinary coincidence, or the dress rehearsal for something far more threatening? In this episode we try to imagine the inconceivable – a moment when Russia, in the depths of hubris, desperation and resentment – launches a full-scale hybrid war on the continent, unleashing Eu...

2026-01-12 | UPDATES #097 | Another Strategic Catastrophe for Putin? The Quiet Squeeze on Transnistria. A story has been ricocheting across some of the more strategic pro-Ukraine feeds and Signal chats but seems to have made barely a dent in the mainstream media coverage: Ukraine and Moldova “quietly” sealed every remaining supply route into Russian-controlled Transnistria at midnight on New Year’...

Devin Woodall is a photojournalist and documentarian with a focus on long-term, in-depth reporting on wartime society, the ins and outs of adaptation amid the full-scale invasion, and anti-aircraft operations. Originally from a working-class background, he’s now the lead director of the documentary studio East/West FM. He currently writes, photographs, and produces documentaries on life and the hu...

2026-01-11 | UPDATES #096 | The most serious, system-level legitimacy crisis has hit the regime in Iran, since the revolution of 1979. It’s not yet toppled – but is potentially close – and all the ingredients are present for a full-scale revolution. And amidst the massive protests and confrontations, the country has gone dark. The Islamic Republic has hit the switch — cutting internet and communic...

2026-01-10 | UPDATES #095 | Russia grey fleet transporting illicit oil to keep its war machine ticking over, is becoming the Apocalypse Fleet – a transportation route for covert intelligence operations, military equipment and gear for dictatorial regimes, and potentially illegal nuclear materials, as well as platforms for launching hybrid operations against Russia’s adversaries. It must be stopped...