Edition No43 | 06-05-2024 ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ~~~~~ KYIV...

Viktoras Bachmetjevas is a philosopher with an interest in ethics, especially the intersection of ethics and the philosophy of religion. Today we’ll be discussing issues as diverse as the threat from autocracy and oligarchy, corruption, and nepotism, and well as Forgiveness, contrition, and...

Anna Nemzer is a Broadcast Journalist at the Russian oppositional news network TV RAIN. She has produced an extraordinary series of documentary videos on key moments in Russia’s return to autocracy under Putin, and stages in the consolidation of his power over society and the media. ---------- LINKS: https://pen.org/user/annanemzer/ https://twitter.com/tvrain_english ---------- BOOKS: Prisoner, Hardcover and Kindle (2016)...

Ivan U. Kłyszcz is an analyst and researcher specializing in core issues of international security, notably great power competition, the grand strategy of major powers, and Russian foreign policy. In recent years, the research of Dr Klyszcz has focused on Moscow’s engagements with the countries of the so-called ‘Global South’, with particular focus on Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. His research has been extensively cited in international media (Al-Jazeera, BBC, Deutsche Welle,...

Vladimir Putin's regime has increasingly been accused of embracing fascism, in its annexation of Crimea, its historical revisionism, attacks on liberal democratic values, and its support for far-right movements in Europe. These tendencies have accelerated with the full-scale war in Ukraine. So, does Russia now meet the diverse criteria for historic fascism, or it’s off-shoot, German Nazism? Russia has successfully muddied the waters, by branded itself as the world's preeminent...

Natalie Sabanadze is Senior Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program, at Chatham House. Natalie was Georgia’s Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the EU and head of the Georgian mission to the European Union in May 2013. Prior to assuming her current position, Sabanadze worked as the senior adviser to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in The Hague. She held a number of posts with the OSCE HCNM, including head of Central and Southeast Europe section and more recently,...

Illia Ponomarenko is a Ukrainian journalist, war reporter and defence analyst formerly writing for The Kyiv Independent. In January 2023, given his prominent role in reporting from the conflict, he was described by Der Spiegel as "likely the best-known Ukrainian after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy". He has written an account of his experiences reporting on the war – I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv (to be released in August 2024). ---------- BOOK SUMMARY: In late...

Ukraine will not succeed in liberating its lands without the provision of long-range missiles, argues Colby Badhwar. For Kyiv, the ability to strike operational and strategic targets deep inside enemy territory — i.e. inside Russia itself — is not a whim, but a crucial necessity. But are allies framing their strategy and aligning their production and logistic capabilities accordingly? The manufacturer of German TAURUS missiles has halted production due to a lack of orders. Meanwhile,...

Jen Stout is a journalist, writer, and radio producer from Scotland, frequently working in Ukraine. Originally from Shetland she has lived in Germany and Russia. Her reports are often found in the Sunday Post and on BBC Radio. And she’s written a fabulous book: Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia's War, which we’ll be discussing today....

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 annexation of Crimea in March 2014. In 2015, while in the US, Ponomarev was formally charged in...

Dr Taras Kuzio is a British academic and Professor of Political Science at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, and an expert on politics, crime and security in Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. Taras Kuzio is of Ukrainian descent and received a BA in economics from the University of Sussex, an MA in Soviet studies from the University of London and holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Birmingham; he was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. His most...

GUEST: Anders Puck Nielsen - YouTuber and military analyst. ---------- Today I’m speaking with Anders Puck Nielsen, military analyst and influential YouTuber based in Denmark. He specialises in naval warfare and strategy; in today’s video we are going to be talking about Ukrainian successes against Russia’s Black Sea fleet and state of the ground war in Ukraine. ---------- LINKS: https://www.youtube.com/@anderspuck...

Fears of Russia’s collapse in Biden’s and Scholz’s administrations run deep and can't be changed by telling stories of Russian war crimes alone. Advisers and analysts have been conditioned by decades of Soviet nuclear threat and memory of the chaotic and rapid collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. But what can turn politicians that cling to security blanket of escalation management, into leaders that imagine a Ukrainian victory, a triumph of pluralistic, democratic values, and...

Edition No42 | 23-04-2024 ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ~~~~~ KYIV...

Disinformation continues to be a threat to Ukrainian sovereignty and is also targeted at Western democracies and allies of Ukraine. Around the world aggressive information warfare threatens information security and social stability, especially in states which Russia seeks to destabilise or coerce into supporting it. As we saw in the 2016 US elections, it can potentially threaten results of voting, place undue influence on voters’ decisions and undermine democratic processes. This is...

Yuliya Ziskina is a Policy and advocacy attorney specializing in information policy and public international law from Ukraine. She is based in the New York City Metropolitan...

The approach to supporting Ukraine which Western leaders have been taking so far has been „as long as it takes“. The lack of a clearly defined end goal impacted the pace and scale of the assistance, as well as raised questions on its efficiency. It cannot last this way in the protracted war as Ukraine’s mobilisation potential and resources are shorter than Russia’s. Instead, a clear commitment of the West to aid Ukraine with „whatever it takes for a fast victory“ is the only way to...

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 videos, in a clear and honest...

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. ---------- LINKS: INSIDE RUSSIA is a source of current news on Russia - Konstantin carefully...

Edition No41 | 16-04-2024 ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ~~~~~ KYIV...

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 him tell the story of his family, and how he came to be connected to Russia and Ukraine....

With the vote on Ukraine on the cusp, the Pro-Putin wing of the American Far right is pushing a specific narrative designed to enrage Americans and call the Christianity of Speaker Johnson into question. How is Moscow influencing the Right and is there narrative taken seriously in the American political landscape? ---------- DW Phillips is a documentary filmmaker and constitutional attorney with Ukraine Story, a nonprofit foundation for journalism and documentary reporting in Ukraine....

Edition No4 | 10-04-2024 ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ~~~~~ KYIV...

James Ker-Lindsay is an academic and analyst with internationally recognised expertise on Southeast Europe (Balkans, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus). He has extensive experience working across Government, Private Sector, Higher Education, and Think Tanks. He is also a regular commentator for the international media, including the BBC, CNN and Reuters and was formerly Co-Editor of the Cyprus Review. From 2000-2005, he covered Greek and Cypriot politics for the Economist Intelligence...