Silicon Curtain

Edition No17 | 08-09-2023 Is Elon Musk collaborating with Russia, and have his actions given then an advantage in the war? ~~~~~ NEWS LINKS: Kyiv Independent https://kyivindependent.com/ https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-war-latest-russia-moving-troops-to-southern-front-line-to-strengthen-defense-kyiv-says/ The Moscow Times https://www.themoscowtimes.com/ https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/08/drones-target-russian-microchip-plant-reports-a82397 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/08/vote-fraud-reported-as-russian-local-regional-elections-get-underway-a82399 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/07/advocating-for-war-is-wrong-russian-teachers-resign-over-refusal-to-allow-ukraine-veterans-in-class-a82388 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/07/russia-pressures-migrant-workers-with-raids-military-summons-a82303 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/05/the-wests-reliance-on-russian-nuclear-fuel-funds-moscows-war-a82356 Russian Media Monitor https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews

GUEST: Grigor Atanesian - investigative journalist at the BBC. ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- INTRO: Vladimir Putin believes that the digital information space is a battlefield, yet we in the West are perhaps late to realise that fact. The rise of the internet in the 21st century has been accompanied by unprecedented levels of polarisation, division, and coercion. At the same time democracies are being hit by a huge range of different, and rapidly evolving hostile state activities. Not all of them have their origins in Russia, though clearly many do, and the scale of the threat is only likely to increase in future. #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #ussr ---------- SPEAKER: Grigor Atanesian is an investigative journalist with the BBC. He was producer for the “Trauma Zone” documentary series by Adam Curtis (BBC Film), and the Associate Producer for “Can't Get You Out of My Head” documentary series by Adam Curtis (BBC Film). As part of the team that created the unique and powerful 'Trauma Zone' BBC documentary, he was awarded a BAFTA for Specialist Factual programmes in 2023. ---------- LINKS: Putin’s Influencers: The bloggers selling Russia’s War - BBC News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_8tYjsFKFw Russian pro-war influencers are generating big advertising revenues from their social media coverage of the conflict, the BBC’s Global Disinformation Team has found. Known in Russia as “Z Bloggers”, they spread fake news about the war by embedding with military units, sharing exclusive footage from the frontline, and calling upon young Russians to enlist in the army. Graphics: Kako Abraham Film Editor: Ismail Guluev Narrator: Jack Goodman Assistant Producers: Sucheera Maguire, Jake Tacchi Editor: Juliana Gragnani Executive Editor: Rebecca Skippage Written & Produced by: Grigor Atanesian ----------

SPEAKER: Today I’m speaking with Dr Svitlana Biedarieva is an award-winning art historian, artist, and curator. She has conducted research on Ukraine's decolonization, as well as the documentation of the war in Ukrainian art. Her recent edited books include Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives, 1991-2021 and At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019 (co-edited with Hanna Deikun). She received her PhD in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. ---------- LINKS: https://svitlanabiedarieva.com/ https://twitter.com/SBiedarieva https://www.linkedin.com/in/svitlana-biedarieva-55828b45/ https://post.moma.org/decolonization-and-disentanglement-in-ukrainian-art/ ---------- LIST OF WORKS AND ARTISTS: Dana Kavelina 1-2. Letter to a Turtledove, 2020. 3-4. From the series Communications. Exit to the Blind Spot, 2019. Vlada Ralko 5-6. From the series Kyiv Diary, 2013-2014. 7. Demarcation Line, 2018. 8-10. From the series Lviv Diary, 2022. Zhanna Kadyrova 11-12. Palianytsia, 2022. 13. From the series Behind the Fence, 2014. 14. Data Extraction. Irpin, 2022. Kateryna Lysovenko 15. Untitled, 2022. 16. Propaganda of The World of My Dreams. The Last Day of The Last Totalitarianism, 2022. 17. Being Under Knowledge, 2022. 18. Woman and Death, 2022. Svitlana Biedarieva 19-20. From the series The Morphology of War, 2017. Alevtina Kakhidze 21-22. From the series Through the War with Strawberry Andreevna, 2014-2019. 23. Russian Culture is Looking for an Alibi that It Is Not a Killer, 2022. 24. Bucha. Me. 42 Minutes by Car, 2022. Maria Kulikovska 25. 254”, 2015. 26. Stardust, 2018. 27. The Forgotten (Recreation of Homo Bulla destroyed by DPR in 2014), 2019. ---------- WATCH NEXT: Orest Zub https://youtu.be/A7MrcwdDvPQ Aliona Hlivco https://youtu.be/yGLUBCfTkD8 Olga Tokariuk https://youtu.be/D5onDse6WJs Anna Danylchuk https://youtu.be/5AenntkSxIs Roman Sheremeta https://youtu.be/olrTPku8EMM

See more of Noel in the Silicon Curtain video recorded in Lviv: PANEL 1 (11:00-12:00) – Volunteer Society ---------- SPEAKERS: Volunteering on a massive scale proved what is possible to achieve. Ukrainian volunteers play at integral role in resisting agains the Russian aggression and saving lives. Noel Tock - Animal Rescuer at NOR DOG Johnny FD - YouTuber and Digital Nomad Brooks Newmark - Founder of Angels for Ukraine ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: NOR DOG Animal Rescue - Our mission is to help the animals suffering from the war in Ukraine. https://www.youtube.com/@nordoganimalrescue3564 Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org ---------- WATCH NEXT: Johnny FD https://youtu.be/9KgJAsIWe5E Brooks Newmark https://youtu.be/J1BnzTdF3Ts

Russia’s war against Ukraine has escalated significantly this year, but did not start in February last year, or even in 2014. Its roots are far deeper, and more malign than just territorial ambitions. Today I am exploring how tyranny left unchallenged with continue to fester and project aggression towards its neighbours. Russia’s attempts to dominate Ukraine have deep roots in its Soviet and imperialist past and are very much a result of the failure to acknowledge the crimes of its totalitarian history. ---------- Olha Honchar is CEO of the “Museum Crisis Centre” initiative, which arose in the first days of the Russian war against Ukraine. Co-founder of the NGO “New Museum” and the Charitable Organization “Cultural Heritage Fund of Ukraine”. Olha is a culturologist, anti-crisis manager and Director of the Memorial Museum of totalitarian regimes “Territory of Terror” in Lviv. Ahe is an internationally recognised curator of interdisciplinary projects in the field of historical memory and trauma. ---------- LINKS: https://museumterror.com/en/publications_category/all/ https://www.instagram.com/honchar_o/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/olha-honchar-b7b63374/ https://bookforum.ua/en/participants/13271 ---------- ARTICLES: https://trafo.hypotheses.org/39379 https://www.frieze.com/article/olha-honchar-ukraine-dossier-232 https://uacrisis.org/en/62144-olha-honchar https://atmos.earth/ukraine-war-culture-art-musem-loss-destruction/ https://www.csmonitor.com/Daily/2022/20220314/Art-and-the-telling-of-Ukraine-s-story https://tvoemisto.tv/en/exclusive/we_want_to_survive_not_starve_to_death_and_preserve_the_museum_exhibits_137772.html https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/ukraines-war-museums-are-documenting-history-as-it-happens/ https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/kultur/krieg-in-der-ukraine-schutz-von-kulturguetern-gibt-es-fuer-ukrainische-kunstschaetze-asyl-in-schweizer-museen-ld.2272530 https://hyperallergic.com/719347/this-group-is-helping-museum-workers-in-ukraine/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/09/ukrainians-in-race-to-save-a-nations-cultural-heritage https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/arts/design/ukraine-museums-art-protection.html https://artreview.com/art-workers-at-war-how-the-ukrainian-artworld-has-rallied-to-protect-cultural-heritage/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fD--hKZPjQ ----------

GUEST: Kateryna Busol - Ukrainian lawyer, Senior lecturer and Robert Bosch Stiftung fellow at Chatham House. ---------- Calls to treat as legitimate the ‘security concerns’ raised by Russia, and to account for these in a future settlement of the war in Ukraine, disregard the fact that Moscow’s requirements are fundamentally incompatible with European security. Proponents of a settlement in the war on Ukraine often put forward the idea that Russian ‘security concerns’ must be taken into account in any such settlement, but also in broader revisions to the European security system. These proposals echo the Russian information campaign over the past 30 years to persuade European publics that there can be ‘no security in Europe without Russia’. They provide false support to the argument that Western security policy after the collapse of the USSR unnecessarily encroached on core Russian interests by expanding NATO and forcing Moscow to militarize its foreign policy. In this telling, Russia was merely challenging what it viewed as an unjust European security order. ---------- SPEAKER: Kateryna Busol is a Ukrainian lawyer. She is a senior lecturer at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and a fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Kateryna has worked on various issues relating to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, with a particular focus on the weaponization of cultural heritage, conflict-related sexual violence, reparations, and Ukraine’s transitional justice process. She has worked with the Clooney Foundation for Justice, UN Women, the Global Survivors Fund and Global Rights Compliance. Kateryna has collaborated with Ukrainian NGOs such as the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and Truth Hounds and has advised Ukrainian prosecutors and judges on war-related proceedings. She was a visiting researcher at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, a Robert Bosch Stiftung fellow at Chatham House, and a visiting professional at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. ---------- LINKS: https://www.biicl.org/people/kateryna-busol https://www.ukma.edu.ua/eng/index.php/studies/departments/faculty-of-law/international-law/staff/61-dr-kateryna-busol https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateryna-busol-68b4271a9/ https://twitter.com/KaterynaBusol ---------- SUMMARY: Moscow’s war of reconquest against Ukraine has confirmed in the most brutal terms how Russia rejects the values underpinning European security – the same values agreed between Moscow and the West at the end of the Cold War. As a revisionist power, Russia has made itself the primary obstacle to peace and security in Europe and beyond. For stability to be restored and protected, it is essential that the outcome of the war in Ukraine leads to a situation in which – in addition to the expulsion of occupying forces – the exercise of Russian power is contained rather than encouraged. Over time, Russia’s leadership must also be persuaded to renounce its expansionist ambitions. It’s now or never for Ukraine. A protracted or frozen conflict benefits Russia and hurts Ukraine, as does a ceasefire or negotiated settlement on Russia’s terms. If Ukraine is to avoid these outcomes and turn tenacious defence and incremental battlefield gains into outright victory, it needs far more ambitious international military assistance than it has received to date. This report presents the case for an immediate and decisive increase in such support, seeks to dispel overhyped concerns about provoking Russia, and counsels against accommodating Moscow’s demands. ---------- #katerynabusol #chathamhouse #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet ----------

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 way. ---------- Although this is my fourth conversation with Anna on my channel, it’s the first in what I hope will be a series of monthly conversations with influential YouTubers and experts on Ukraine and Russia. ----------

100 years ago, nobody cared about Ukraine – or its disappearance as an independent state – swallowed up as the newly born tyranny of the USSR flexed its imperial muscles; but that has now changed. Putin’s Russian World revanchism and violence have accelerated the evolution of Ukrainian identity and increased the pressure for social, political, and economic change. Perhaps the most perverse Russian invasion narrative, is that Ukraine is not old, and is not distinct from Russia in any case. But Ukraine is not just a footnote to Russian imperial history. As a nation, it is old, different, and diverse. And at the end of this war, Ukraine could prove to be the rock upon which the decrepit, brittle hull of the Russian imperial ship tears itself apart and sinks from history. ---------- Olha Mukha is a culturologist, academic editor and compiler, project manager and curator in the sphere of culture and education, civil rights and freedoms activist. She was born on 31 March 1981 in Lviv. Olha has been the curator of congresses, committees and new centres of PEN International (London, UK) since 2018. Chairwoman of the Lviv: UNESCO’s City of Literature Office (2014–2017), co-founder of Ukrainian Association of Culturologists in Lviv (Program Director since 2019) and Academic Religious Studies Workshop (since 2004). Member of the British Society of Aesthetics. She taught at the Franko National University (2003–2011) in Lviv and Drahomanov National Pedagogical University (2011–2018) in Kyiv. Since 2008 she has been curator of a number of academic and cultural projects (i.a.,Religious Scholar’s Handbook, Human in Contemporary World, Narrative War, Tolerance in Theory and Practice, Kitsch Angels, History of Ukrainian Culture in Achievements and Victories, Basia in the City of Literature multiplication series, and others). She is expert counseling at Territory of Terror Museum (since 2017) and member of editorial board at Religious Essays Journal. Olha Mukha is the author of over 80 academic publications, numerous articles and columns. Compiler and co-author of the illustrated literary encyclopedic guide "Lviv: An Inspirational City. Literature" (Old Lion Publishing, 2017). ---------- LINKS: https://pen.org.ua/en/members/muha-olga https://www.linkedin.com/in/olha-mukha-67a443211/ https://twitter.com/OlhaMukha https://twitter.com/pen_int ----------

Calls to treat as legitimate the ‘security concerns’ raised by Russia, and to account for these in a future settlement of the war in Ukraine, disregard the fact that Moscow’s requirements are fundamentally incompatible with European security. Proponents of a settlement in the war on Ukraine often put forward the idea that Russian ‘security concerns’ must be taken into account in any such settlement, but also in broader revisions to the European security system. These proposals echo the Russian information campaign over the past 30 years to persuade European publics that there can be ‘no security in Europe without Russia’. They provide false support to the argument that Western security policy after the collapse of the USSR unnecessarily encroached on core Russian interests by expanding NATO and forcing Moscow to militarize its foreign policy. In this telling, Russia was merely challenging what it viewed as an unjust European security order. ---------- SPEAKER: Keir Giles is a senior consulting fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. Keir has supported Chatham House in its Russia-focused research since 2013 and previously worked with the BBC Monitoring Service and the UK Defence Academy, where he wrote and advised on Russian military, defence, and security issues – including human factors influencing Russian security policy, Russian strategy and doctrine, the Russian view of cyber and information security, and Russia’s relations with its neighbours in northern Europe. Keir is the author of multiple publications explaining the Russian approach to warfare. These include NATO’s Handbook of Russian Information Warfare; and Moscow Rules: What Drives Russia to Confront the West. He examined consistent patterns of Western success and failure in deterring Russian aggression. His most recent book is Russia’s War on Everybody: And What it Means for You, which describes the human impact of Russia’s campaigns to acquire power and influence around the world. ---------- BOOKS: Russia's War on Everybody: And What it Means for You (2022) Moscow Rules: What Drives Russia to Confront the West (2019) The Turning Point for Russian Foreign Policy (2017) The State of the NATO-Russia Reset (2011) Potential Challenges to Public Order and Social Stability in the Russian Federation (2011) ---------- LINKS: https://twitter.com/KeirGiles https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/06/how-end-russias-war-ukraine ----------

Andriy Ivanovych Sadovyi is a Ukrainian politician, and Mayor of Lviv. Lviv is a vibrant, highly cultured, and tech-savvy city, the administrative centre of the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. Andrei was prominent in the revolutions that transformed Ukraine and is Leader of the Self Reliance party. --------- LINKS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andriy_Sadovyi https://w4ua.com/?speaker=andriy-sadovyi https://twitter.com/AndriySadovyi Unbroken - rehabilitation centre, Lviv, Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ ---------