Silicon Curtain

Philip Obaji Jr. is a Nigeria-based correspondent for The Daily Beast, covering sub-Saharan Africa. He fearlessly and relentlessly uncovers stories about Russian crimes in Africa, including those perpetrated by the Wagner Group. He was awarded Int. Journalist of the Year in 2023. He won the Future Awards Africa Prize in Education in 2014, and the Future Awards Africa Prize for Young Person of the...

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. ----...

Kevin Leach is the main director for Sabre Training Advisory Group, a professional military training non-profit. Their aim is to give Ukrainian defenders the skills to come home alive. Kevin is a Canadian Armed Forces veteran, with a long history of working in Ukraine and in military affairs. He served as a sergeant from 2008-2018, specialising in armoured reconnaissance. He leads a weekly segment...

Liubov Velychko is a Ukrainian investigative journalist with over 15 years of experience uncovering corruption, crime, and human rights violations. She Specializes in exposing disinformation campaigns, and has conducted numerous investigations into Russian propaganda, revealing the networks behind its spread and dismantling the information operations orchestrated by Russian intelligence agencies....

“It's time to make a deal.” Announces incoming President of the US, Donald Trump. If he does not end Russia’s war against Ukraine war soon, Trump implies that Putin will face punitive tariffs and sanctions, on top of those already imposed. Trump also says he’ll ask NATO allies to raise defence spending to 5 percent of GDP, which is far beyond the current spend, and even higher than current US...

The Lychakiv military cemetery opened in Lviv at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine already contains hundreds of graves, with a capacity ten times greater. Tragically, it's area has grown considerably since I was last there in August 2023. ---------- At relatively short notice, we're organizing two events in Ukraine in the last week of January. Lviv (part 2) and Kyiv. The eve...

Edition No84 | 21-01-2025 - Today’s episode is recorded with the notorious NAZI death camp of Auschwitz in the background. It seems relevant to be here, where levels of anxiety build around the world, following the inauguration of Trump, and the impromptu fascistic style salute given by Elon Musk yesterday. Combined with growing support for the aFD in Germany and a boisterous Tommy Robinson in the...

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...

Charlie Gammell is an historian and former diplomat who was on the Iran desk at the Foreign Office. He has written for publications such as The Spectator ---------- LINKS: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-pearl-of-khorasan/ https://www.spectator.co.uk/writer/charlie-gammell/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-g-280116266/ https://catholicherald.co.uk/author/charlie-gammell/ https://shows....

Edition No83 | 18-01-2025 - This is an update of an episode I put out while the US election was still in full swing. Now, the Trump team are having to tackle the issue of Russia, its interference with and sabotage against Western powers, and its imperial war in Ukraine, there is far more nuance and realism in the pronouncement and comments coming from key figures. It seems timely to put out a revi...

Edition No82 | 17-01-2025 - Russia is a terrorist state. We’ve been saying this for three years on the channel. But Russia constantly reminds of this fact. The latest is an allegation that Russia plotted terror attacks on airlines around the world. According to Polish PM, Donald Tusk this bombshell news has come from US intelligence sources. "I can only confirm that Russia planned acts of air...

Oleksandr Mykhed is a Ukrainian writer. Until March 2022, he lived in Kyiv; he is now enlisted in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He is the author of nine books; selected essays and excerpts from his books have been translated into ten languages. He has participated in literary residencies in Finland, Latvia, Iceland, the USA and France, and a virtual residency at Oxford University. He has written fo...

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 o...

Cormac Smith has worked in Public Relations and Corporate Communications for over three decades. In 2016 he travelled to Ukraine to take up a special appointment as the ‘Strategic Communication Advisor’ to Pavlo Klimkin, then the Foreign Minister of Ukraine. He was attached to the British Embassy in Kyiv but was embedded in Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the first foreigner to hold such a...

Edition No81 | 15-01-2025 - Ukraine has steadily been increasing its strikes against targets deep within Russia since the conclusion of the US election. But before we get into the details of the latest strikes over the weekend, let’s review how this started last week with the huge, 'multi-day’ targeting of Russia's Engels airbase infrastructure. ---------- At relatively short notice, we're organis...

https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras At relatively short notice, we're organising two events in Ukraine in the last week of January. Lviv (part 2) and Kyiv. The event we ran in August 2023 was a huge success, and had a great impact. Now our aim is even more ambitious. Two cities. Two events. Multiple panels consisting of the best experts, and all filmed in high definition for the channel...

https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras At relatively short notice, we're organising two events in Ukraine in the last week of January. Lviv (part 2) and Kyiv. The event we ran in August 2023 was a huge success, and had a great impact. Now our aim is even more ambitious. Two cities. Two events. Multiple panels consisting of the best experts, and all filmed in high definition for the channel...

One of President Joe Biden's final decisions in office was to grant Ukraine permission to use ATACMS on Russian territory, but with geographical restrictions. One of then Trump teams first decision may be to allow long range, or deep strikes. Will this turn the tide of the war or force Putin to negotiate? ---------- Ben Hodges is a retired United States Army officer, who became commander of United...

Edition No80 | 13-01-2025 - We cannot say when the Russian economy will ‘collapse’, or even if it’s cave in single a dramatic moment. But what’s not under doubt is that pressure on Putin’s economy is building – it was even terms a ‘house of cards’ in a recent article in the Financial Times. All this pressure makes Putin’s war economy less sustainable, his regime more brittle, and the outcome of ev...

Friends and acquaintances who are traditional republicans of the Reagan era try to reassure me there is a gulf of difference between what Trump says, and what he’ll do. I have some doubts. ---------- David DeBatto is host of the ‘No Delusion Zone’ podcast @NoDelusionZone He is a retired U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent, a geopolitical analyst, writer, and podcaster. David is an Iraq war...

Edition No79 | 11-01-2025 - This channel has been warning for over a year of the threats to marine ecologies from Russia’s rust-bucket fleet of clapped-out illegal tankers, transporting its blood oil to unscrupulous buyers around the world to fuel Putin’s genocidal war. And now another one of them is threatening disaster, as a shadow fleet vessel carrying 100,000 tonnes of oil breaks down and is a...

Russia Is Losing the War in Ukraine, says a former senior US diplomat. In today’s interview I’m honoured to be joined by Ambassador James Gilmore, who explains the broader consequences of Russia’s actions and what’s at stake if the international community fails to push back against Putin’s aggressive imperialist and expansionist ambitions. As a Trump-era diplomat James Gilmore has had firsthand ex...

Liubov Velychko is a Ukrainian investigative journalist with over 15 years of experience uncovering corruption, crime, and human rights violations. She Specializes in exposing disinformation campaigns, and has conducted numerous investigations into Russian propaganda, revealing the networks behind its spread and dismantling the information operations orchestrated by Russian intelligence agencies....

Edition No78 | 09-01-2025 - Musk and Trump are shaking things up, and the inauguration of Trump 2.0 has not even begun. The four years following Trump’s election in 2016 felt like drinking from a fire hydrant of toxic nonsense. Somehow, though, the madness was largely contained to US domestic issues and pollution of the informational sphere – Trump did not instigate any major wars. It’s quite poss...

Glen Grant worked as a defence and reform expert in Ukraine working for the Ukrainian Institute for the Future. He is also a Senior Fellow in the UK Institute for Statecraft on Building Integrity Initiative countering Russian influence. Glen graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the Junior Staff Course Warminster and the Joint Staff Defence College at the Royal Naval College Greenwi...