Silicon Curtain

Yaroslav Riabukha is the host of a YouTube channel that does an extraordinary job examining and demolishing Russian propaganda narratives. He’s creating materials which I think are super important to gain a wide audience and should really be watched by those spreading or amplifying Russian propagandistic lies. It’s especially relevant now, in the wake of Tucker Carlsons craven and weak so-called i...

Mariia Zolkina is a Ukrainian Researcher and Public Policy Analyst, who joined London School Economics and Political Science as DINAM Research Fellow in 2022. She has been also working as Head of Regional Security and Conflict Studies at one of most authoritative Ukrainian think tanks, the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF), and is Co-Founder of the Kalmius Group. Mariia is focu...

The ongoing war in Ukraine continues to take a toll on the lives of millions of women who have fled Ukraine and on those displaced within the country. My guest today is a Ukrainian civil society leader, who has spoken out about the need to restore a faith in humanity that Ukrainian women and children have lost in the war. Russia not only tries to strip Ukraine of its sovereignty, but the country’s...

Gregory Terry has worked in Ukraine for 26 years, facilitating the delivery of aid to frontline areas of the country. Like me, he uses YouTube as a tool to advocate for Ukraine and demonstrate the amazing work of his team on the ground. Greg has always been fascinated by the cultures, history, and languages of the region, growing up in an era which saw the opening up of the Soviet Union. I’ll let...

Scott Lucas is a political analyst with more than 30 years’ experience including a wide range of interests from academic expertise to journalism, and public media, as well as digital engagement. Scott is a regular contributor to international TV, radio, and electronic outlets. He is currently a Professor at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin, and Professor Emeritus at the University...

'Political technology' is a Russian term for the professional engineering of politics. It has turned Russian politics into theatre and propaganda – and now transformed the country into spectacle of blood, circuses, fear, and hatred. But once developed, these techniques for mass manipulation, that build parallel universes of alternative political reality, can be shared by authoritarian regi...

Together with Jakub Kalenský, Roman Osadchuk is the author of a fascinating paper, “How Ukraine fights Russian disinformation: Beehive vs mammoth,” This detailed and compelling work forms the basis of today’s interview. ---------- Roman Osadchuk is a research associate for Eurasia at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab). Roman Osadchuk research disinformation narratives an...

Edition No34 | 01-02-2024 Unable to break the so-called deadlock on the frontlines of the conventional war, Ukraine is engaging in ‘smart warfare’ to attack the enemy’s oil and gas supply lines. Over the past three weeks, Ukraine has wreaked havoc with Russia’s energy infrastructure. Soon after the new year, someone attached explosives to train carriages in the Urals city of Nizhny Tagil. A blast...

Brandon Mitchell is a Canadian who is deeply involved and invested in the Ukraine war. As a member of the Hospitaller crew, he has been evacuating people and the wounded since the beginning of the war. Brandon was born in a small Canadian town near the Atlantic Ocean. At the age of 17, he joined the army, and served first in Canada and then in the UK. When the full-scale war began in Ukraine, Bran...

Russia has been hit be a perfect storm, that may affect the outcome of the war. Crumbling infrastructure combined with a cold winter. Strikes on strategic military energy infrastructure by Ukraine, and growing war fatigue among the domestic population. The move to a war economy, rampant inflation, and a growing deficit of some staple goods. ---------- Welcome to our monthly conversation with Konst...

First in a new series of monthly conversations on Silicon Curtain, about how Ukrainians are redefining the ideas of freedom and democracy, and why Ukraine must not be allowed to fall under Russian control. Politicians across the political spectrum are not taking the threat to the international order seriously enough. The war in Ukraine, despite it scale and intensity is still being classed as a re...

Professor Darin Gerdes provides in-depth analysis of the Russo-Ukrainian war on his popular YouTube channel, 'Professor Gerdes Explains'. Channel - @Professor-Gerdes He tries to provide unique insights that help his audience to understand the context of the war, and grounds his analysis in facts. LINKS https://www.youtube.com/@Professor-Gerdes/videos https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dr.gerdes...

GUEST: Anna from Ukraine - Anna Danylchuk ---------- Anna Danylchuk has been creating a war diary since the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. Anna Danylchuk aims to tell the truth about Ukraine and Russia’s war and cut through the noise and propaganda. Anna is passionate about the beauty and independence of her country, and communicates this powerfully in her vide...

Ilya Ponomarev is a Russian-Ukrainian politician who was a member of the Russian State Duma from 2007 to 2016. After the 2022 Russian invasion, Ponomarev joined Ukraine's Territorial Defence Forces, and categorically denounced the invasion. While a member of the Russian State Duma, he was the only deputy not to vote in favour of the Russian gay propaganda law and to vote against Russia's a...

Andrew Mercado is a U.S. Army Veteran who served both on active duty and in the reserves as an 88M motor transport operator from 2012 - 2020 with one tour overseas. His journey into journalism began when George Floyd was murdered in his home city of Minneapolis in 2020 and I had the desire to report on the subsequent riots, unrest, and protests. It’s a journey that led him to Ukraine, where he’s b...

The Russian government’s deniable use of rogues, businessmen, enthusiasts, mercenaries, and political technologists confounded policymakers as Moscow waged a covert invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Did the war in Crimea and Donbas reveal the Kremlin’s ‘hybrid war’ playbook – or did Moscow quickly lose control over the forces it had unleashed? What’s clear, is that the international community dramatica...

This episode is dedicated to Serhiy Korolyov, the genius who launched humanity into space, born in Zhytomyr and who studied in Odesa & Kyiv. Three of the most significant achievements at the dawn of the space era were masterminded by him. Sputnik. Gagarin. And Leonov’s first-ever spacewalk. Korolyov was the genius behind the technology that made these and many other leaps possible. By his cont...

Edition No33 | 17-01-2024 Russia plans Belarus 'absorption' by 2030 — according to media reports. A Russian presidential document was obtained, in February 2023, by a group of international journalists who believe it to be authentic. It reportedly dates back to the summer of 2021. ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain...

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Yaroslav Trofimov has spent months on end at the heart of the conflict, very often on its front lines. In this authoritative account, he traces the war’s decisive moments—from the battle for Kyiv to more recently the gruelling and bloody arm wrestle involving the Wagner group over Bakhmut—to show how Ukraine and its allies have turned the tide against...

Christopher Miller is an American journalist covering foreign affairs, national security, global conflicts, crises, and politics, with a special focus on Ukraine, where he’s lived and worked since 2010. Author of the book, “The War Came To Us: Life And Death In Ukraine,” published by Bloomsbury in July 2023. Christopher Miller is the Ukraine Correspondent for the Financial Times. ---------- When R...

Since February 24, 2022, Ukraine has enjoyed bipartisan support from the United States, and for that entire time, Russia has been looking for cracks in this support. Russia failed to achieve any downsizing in aid through military and diplomatic means. The Kremlin is now seizing the opportunity of the fractious upcoming election period to refresh another time-tested tactic: information-psychologica...

Edition No32 | 11-01-2024 Central heating pipe laid down in 1974 ruptured and flooded in Novosibirsk, Russia. Multiple districts without heating nor hot water in -25°C (-13°F) night temperature. Is Russia falling apart? ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ~~~~~ KYIV INDEPENDENT https://kyivindependent.com/russia-attacks-khar...

Guest: Tetyana Denford (Бісик) Ukrainian author - ‘Child of Ukraine’ & ‘The Soldier’s Child’. Translator, ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ and ‘Battle for Ukraine’. Writing courses on Substack. YouTube host. As the Russian invasion began, a team of Ukrainian journalists were trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol. The searing and harrowing film 20 Days in Mariupol documents their struggle to continue w...

For more than a decade Russia has pumped poison into the bloodstream of our civilisation, in the form of hypnotic lies and myths, that Stephen Douglas calls Disinfolklore. These human-crafted, mythical falsehoods are a form of simplistic, yet impactful fairytale nonsense. They have fooled many foreign policy professionals, politicians, diplomats, as well as lay people, into repeating patently absu...

This year has been mentally exhausting for Ukraine and those that have been helping Ukraine, but only Ukrainians have the right to be tired, and they are not. ---------- Jaanika Merilo is an Estonian-Ukrainian reformer, IT innovator, and philanthropist. Since October 2019, Merilo has been an advisor to Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhaylo Fedorov. She se...