Silicon Curtain

In today’s conversation, I’ll be speaking with Olga Solovyeva about Yandex (the Russian Google), and technology, politics, censorship, and leadership. The founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, condemns Russia's war in Ukraine. He's the second Russian business leader to go public with his criticism. Yandex is a unique IT business which managed to stay afloat throughout the years of authoritarianism, and despite an occasional compromise with the state maintained the reputation of the most liberal company in Russia.--------- Olga Solovyeva is a social researcher with experience in higher education, business, and civil society organisations. Her areas of expertise areas include communication, technology, and society. She works on issues of data ethics, IT business regulation, and the relationship between the state and tech in Russia and writes on these topics for academic, professional, and general audiences.--------- LINKS: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olga-solovyeva-b20124b1/ --------- ARTICLES:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/a-political-leader-goes-political-founder-yandex-arkady-solovyeva/https://globalvoices.org/2023/04/19/why-tech-companies-can-no-longer-ignore-their-role-in-shaping-politics-and-society/https://blogs.helsinki.fi/russianmedialab/2023/02/24/digital-authoritarianism-and-it-business-in-russia-online-talk-on-russian-media-in-march/?fbclid=IwAR3InY7bLXK_1hBjio2hpDbE4HIWy_lm1YriXxT47wDcPAm1kxt7vvi_y2ohttps://advox.globalvoices.org/2022/07/06/disinformation-2-0-should-we-bring-the-notion-of-propaganda-back-into-public-discourse/https://globalvoices.org/2022/03/25/keeping-fakes-under-control-how-legislation-on-disinformation-turns-into-a-censorship-tool/---------

Silicon Curtain Panel Discussion - Live in Lviv, Ukraine on 10th August 2023 PANEL 4 (16:30-17:30) - Freedom and Victory ---------- SPEAKERS: Anna Danylchuk - YouTuber and Academic Olena Halushka - Co-founder of the International Center for Ukrainian Victory Joe Lindsley - Daily Ukraine correspondent, WGN Radio ---------- Ukraine would fall in 3-10 days; that’s what Russia and many in the West seemed to think. Now Russia has the 2nd best army (in Ukraine) and is staring down defeat. What counts as a sustainable victory for Ukraine? #AnnaDanylchuk #OlenaHalushka #JoeLindsley #lviv #victory #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare ---------- WATCH NEXT: Olena Halushka https://youtu.be/W3Z5tCst0oY Anna Danylchuk https://youtu.be/vPT6oZ1FOAw https://youtu.be/5AenntkSxIs https://youtu.be/r0PNxM7Xyow Oleksandra Romantsova https://youtu.be/ADR627guqJc https://youtu.be/ZPApjtQdn9g ----------

One year after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Nobel Peace Prize winning organisation Centre for Civil Liberties has documented more than 30,000 war crimes in the country. Their aim is for an eventual “Tribunal for Putin” that will hold the criminals accountable. But how does documenting Russian crimes by the Centre for Civil Liberties and others help this process? While fighting against Russian aggression, Ukraine is defending not only its independence, but European security and the principles of democracy and open society. What can the international community do to hold Russia accountable? This interview will explore this vital topic, and how Russia’s versions of the Nuremberg trials could be established. ---------- SPEAKER: Oleksandra Romantsova is a Human rights activist, and since May 2014 has been working at the Centre for Civil Liberties. As Executive Director, she learned that the Centre for Civil Liberties had become the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 2022. From 2016 she coordinated a project observing the human rights violations and war crimes in the east of Ukraine, and political persecution in occupied Crimea. As a leading figure within the Centre for Civil Liberties she has been actively engaged in advocacy, seeking international support for Ukraine and to bring those responsible for war crimes in Ukraine to justice. ---------- LINKS: https://ccl.org.ua/en/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2022/center-for-civil-liberties/facts/ https://twitter.com/ccl_ua?lang=en https://twitter.com/SashaRomantsova https://twitter.com/avalaina

GUEST: Orysia Lutsevych, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House ---------- Russia’s attempt to destroy Ukraine as an independent country cannot be allowed to succeed. This is not solely for the sake of Ukraine. At stake are the future of global security and the preservation of the core principles of international relations embodied by the United Nations. ---------- SPEAKER: Orysia Lutsevych is deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Programme and head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House. Orysia’s research focuses on social change, the role of civil society in democratic transition in Eastern Europe and, most recently, democratic resilience to foreign encroachment. She is the author of several Chatham House research publications, including – Resilient Ukraine: Safeguarding Society from Russian Aggression. Her media work includes contributions for BBC, CNN, Guardian, The Times, Financial Times, and New York Times. ---------- LINKS: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/06/how-end-russias-war-ukraine

Headline guests of our event discussing how to achieve victory and secure freedom for Ukraine. Details - https://siliconcurtain.co.uk/lviv/

GUEST: Oleksiy Goncharenko - politician, activist and YouTube host. ---------- https://siliconcurtain.co.uk/lviv On August 10th we shall be moderating and filming a panel event in Lviv. Thus we aim to show our solidarity with Ukraine and generate awareness of its struggle for survival and liberty against Russian aggression. Through YouTube, social media, and press coverage we aim to get a million people to view the content, and focus on how Ukraine can win this war, and what support it needs in order to do so. The event will feature some of the most accomplished journalists and experts on Ukraine. ---------- Oleksiy Goncharenko was born in Odesa, and is a Ukrainian politician, member of the Ukrainian parliament, member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Vice President of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, founder of a Ukrainian network of educational and cultural centres. In 2014, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the party list of Petro Poroshenko Bloc. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Goncharenko was re-elected as an independent candidate. He also runs a hugely popular YouTube channel and is a very effective communicator through digital media channels.

GUEST: John Lough - Associate fellow of the Russia & Eurasia Programme, 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: John Lough is an associate fellow of the Russia & Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. He began his career as an analyst at the Soviet Studies (later Conflict Studies) Research Centre focusing on Soviet / Russian security policy. He spent six years with NATO and was the first Alliance representative to be based in Moscow (1995–98). He gained direct experience of the Russian oil and gas industry at international affairs TNK-BP as a manager in the company’s international affairs team (2003–08). From 2008 to 2016, he ran the Russia & CIS practice at BGR Gabara, a public affairs and strategy consulting company. Alongside his work with Chatham House, John is a consultant with Highgate, a strategic advisory firm. ---------- LINKS: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/06/how-end-russias-war-ukraine

GUEST: Simon Smith - Ukraine Forum chair of steering committee, Chatham House ---------- Any territorial concessions by Ukraine in a peace agreement with Russia will reward crimes and aggression. They will encourage, not end, Russia’s attacks on countries in its neighbourhood and elsewhere in Europe. The belief that Russia and Ukraine need to strike a deal (see preceding chapter) is frequently accompanied by the belief that a settlement has to include some Ukrainian territory being conceded to Russia, because Russia won’t settle for an outcome that does not include territorial gains. In this view, Crimea is often presented as the least problematic potential concession for Ukraine: supposedly a post-Soviet ‘grey area’ in terms of recognized borders. ---------- SPEAKER: Simon Smith chairs the steering committee of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House. He retired in January 2022 from a 35-year career in the UK diplomatic service. He served in London, Tokyo, Moscow, Vienna as the UK Governor at the IAEA, was the Perm Rep to UN in Vienna and HM Ambassador to Austria, in Kyiv as HM Ambassador to Ukraine and in Seoul as HM Ambassador to South Korea. He has also served as Director, Russia, South Caucasus, and C Asia, at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as Head of NE Asia & Pacific Department at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. ---------- LINKS: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/06/how-end-russias-war-ukraine

Today I’m speaking with Dr Tracey A. Parnell, a Medical Doctor providing frontline medical care in Ukraine. She has treated both combat related wounds and provided primary care for those in the battle zones, alternating with immigration and refugee work. In her native Canada she delivers primary care in, also as a part of the BC Rural Locum Program, providing coverage to rural communities. Links https://www.gofundme.com/f/medicteam4ukraine https://medicteam4ukraine.com/ https://www.instagram.com/mullee23/ https://baseua.org/ https://adventrelief.org/ https://ctomsinc.com/

Russia’s attempt to destroy Ukraine as an independent country cannot be allowed to succeed. This is not solely for the sake of Ukraine. At stake are the future of global security and the preservation of the core principles of international relations embodied by the United Nations. ---------- SPEAKER:James leads the Russia-Eurasia programme at Chatham House, and his principal expertise concerns the relationships between Russia and the other post-Soviet states. He has published papers and articles in books and journals and commented extensively in the national and global media. He has also organised hundreds of private expert roundtables on Russian and Eurasian affairs while at Chatham House. Publications include The Long Goodbye: Waning Russian Influence in The South Caucasus and Central Asia, Putin Again: Implications for Russia and the West, and many others. ----------LINKS: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/06/how-end-russias-war-ukraine https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/our-people/james-nixeyhttps://twitter.com/jamesnixey?lang=enhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/james-nixey-3621a710/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/author/james-nixey ----------