Silicon Curtain

Edition No14 | 20-07-2023 Russian Violence on a Massive Scale in Ukraine and Terror at Home Mark a Return of the Worst Echoes of History ~~~~~ NEWS LINKS: The Moscow Times https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/07/18/for-russias-elites-kremlins-failure-to-protect-crimean-bridge-no-longer-shocks-a81876 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/07/18/kremlin-warns-of-ukraine-export-risks-after-exiting-grain-deal-a81878 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/07/18/russian-health-minister-slams-pursuing-a-career-before-childbirth-as-improper-practice-for-women-a81882 https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/07/18/wagner-announces-closure-of-russian-base-a81877 https://t.me/moscowtimes_ru/14349 https://t.me/moscowtimes_ru/14340 Ground News https://ground.news/article/russia-targets-key-ukraine-black-sea-port-of-odesa-a-day-after-halting-grain-export-deal_462824 Kyiv Independent https://kyivindependent.com/ The Economist https://www.economist.com/ukraine-crisis The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jul/18/russia-ukraine-war-live-updates-airstrikes-crimea-kerch-bridge-explosions-reopens-latest-news Russian Media Monitor https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews ~~~~~ USEFUL LINKS: Vatnik Soup https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi http://www.medbat.org.ua/en/ Real World News https://kyivindependent.com/ https://www.kyivpost.com/ https://english.nv.ua/ https://www.themoscowtimes.com/ https://meduza.io/en https://meduza.io/ https://novayagazeta.eu/ https://www.newsweek.com/topic/russia... Analysis https://www.ft.com/russia https://www.economist.com/ https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ https://cepa.org/ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/ https://www.theatlantic.com/search/?s... YouTube Channels / @timesradio1 / @khodorkovskyru / @popularpolitics / @macknack / @plushev / @tvrain / @fake_news / @feyginlive ~~~~~

Fighting for Ukraine by supporting heroes on the front. Fundraising for frontline supplies and fighting vatniks with NAFO. A volunteer helping UA Defenders on the front --- A member of #NAFO and a Big Fan of #InternationalLegionofUkraine ------- DONATE: https://savelife.in.ua This is "Come Back Alive" foundation one of the most impactful charities. https://prytulafoundation.org Prytula fund which absolutely all Ukrainians love. ------- LINKS: Insta: @appelle_moi_nina https://twitter.com/ninaselyna https://choko.link/standWithUkraine -------

Dan Kaszeta is a specialist defence and security consultant and is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and the author of 'Toxic'. he has held positions in the US Secret Service and White House Military Office. Dan is of Lithuanian ancestry and has long studied Baltic history. He is experienced in many aspects of physical, technical, and operational security, and has 20 years of experience in every aspect of CBRN defence, across both military and civil sectors. He is also a Liveryman of London, supporter of NAFO, and outspoken critic of the current UK government – which we’ll talk about more in the interview, because that has caused some political controversy recently. --------- LINKS: http://strongpointsecurity.co.uk/resources/downloads/ https://twitter.com/DanKaszeta https://www.linkedin.com/in/dankaszeta/ https://rusi.org/people/kaszeta https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/dan-kaszeta-end-blacklisting/ --------- ARTICLES & NEWS: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66180552 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/23/dan-kaszeta-banned-from-uk-government-event-for-tweets-criticised-tories https://muckrack.com/dan-kaszeta/articles --------- BOOKS: Toxic: A History of Nerve Agents, from Nazi Germany to Putin's Russia (2020) The Forest Brotherhood: Baltic Resistance Against the Nazis and Soviets (2023) CBRN and Hazmat Incidents at Major Public Events: Planning and Response (2012) ---------

Timothy Ash, who has been professional economist for more than 30 years, with two thirds of that in the banking industry. Timothy’s specialism is emerging European economics, and he writes and blogs extensively on economic challenges for leading publications such as the Kyiv Post, Atlantic Council, the Financial Times, and the United Business Journal. He is also an Associate Fellow in the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House and has advised various governments on Ukraine-Russia policy and specifically on the impact of sanctions. --------- LINKS: https://timothyash.substack.com/ --------- ARTICLES: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/06/how-end-russias-war-ukraine/about-authors ---------

GUEST: Konstantin Samoilov - Well-known YouTuber and outspoken opponent of the war ---------- Russia has no borders. This was the expansive and imperialistic idea behind the Russian World philosophy. But Ukraine has turned the tables on this idea and shown that Russia’s vast border regions are undefended, and in some ways undefendable. From the ‘little blue men’ appearing in Belgorod, to the drone strikes deep in Russian territory, the theatrical explosion about the Kremlin roof, and the mysterious fires happening at strategic facilities all over Russia, it seems that Putin’s war to secure Russia’s borders has actually had the effect of stripping Russia of any safety and security. ---------- SPEAKER: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.

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. ---------- SPEAKER: Dr Sasha Dovzhyk is a London-based author from Zaporizhzhia and a special projects curator at the Ukrainian Institute London. She holds research affiliations with Goldsmiths and Birkbeck, University of London. Since February 2022, she has been dividing her time between London and Ukraine. Sasha has written on topics as diverse as the legacies of Chornobyl, transnational decadent aesthetics, and Ukrainian literature for various publications, including Los Angeles Review of Books, The Guardian, CNN, The Ecologist, openDemocracy. Sasha regularly gives public talks, interviews, and moderates events on the topics of Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion and Ukrainian traditions of resistance. #SashaDovzhyk #ukrainianinstitute #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet ---------- LINKS: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-dovzhyk-3a907b25/ https://twitter.com/sasha_weirdsley https://www.sashadovzhyk.com/ https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/people/olexandra-dovzhyk https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/author/sasha-dovzhyk/ ---------- ARTICLES: https://www.londonukrainianreview.org/ https://theecologist.org/profile/dr-sasha-dovzhyk https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sasha-dovzhyk https://lareviewofbooks.org/contributor/sasha-dovzhyk/ https://newlinesmag.com/writers/sasha-dovzhyk/

The July 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania was a chance to end the ambiguity and incrementalism that has left Ukraine vulnerable to Russian aggression and continues to feed Putin’s delusions that he can win the war and beat the Western alliance. The NATO summit, Ukraine's summer counter-offensive, and the recent instability between Russia and the Wagner Group have ensured that the Russo-Ukrainian war remains in the headlines. But what discussions are happening behind closed doors and what events on the ground may be influencing the direction of the war and its aftermath? Will the clear moral stance of supporting Ukraine in wartime, descend into messy compromises in peacetime, and ethical trade-offs with the pariah terror state, Russia? ---------- SPEAKER: Mark Temnycky is a Ukrainian-American freelance journalist, based just outside of New York City, and is a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Centre. He has covered Eastern European affairs and energy security matters for seven years, with articles published in The New York Times, Forbes, Daily Mail, EUobserver, Kyiv Post, Atlantic Council, Wilson Centre, and other US and European news outlets and think tanks. His works have been cited and shared by European Parliament, NATO, Helsinki Commission, RAND Corporation, Transparency International, and other government institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and been widely interviewed in UK, US, and EU media. ---------- LINKS: https://twitter.com/MTemnycky https://www.linkedin.com/in/marktemnycky/ https://bylinetimes.com/author/mtemnycky/ https://cepa.org/author/mark-temnycky/ https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/mark-temnycky https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/mark-temnycky/ ---------- ARTICLES: https://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/16845 https://bylinetimes.com/2023/05/09/ukraine-and-georgia-should-be-welcomed-into-nato/ https://cepa.org/article/weapons-and-ammunition-need-to-be-higher-on-nato-agenda/ https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/series/the-doorstep/ukraine-next-move-mark-temnycky

The July 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania was a chance to end the ambiguity and incrementalism that has left Ukraine vulnerable to Russian aggression and continues to feed Putin’s delusions that he can win the war and beat the Western alliance. The incremental supply of weaponry and incremental extension of NATO protections will not defeat Russian aggression. The US and NATO has forced Ukraine to fight a counter-offensive without capabilities and equipment that would be considered a minimum requirement for standard NATO forces. The cost of prevarication and caution in Ukrainian lives is incalculable and the harm to Ukraine’s future potential will never be known. ---------- SPEAKER: Hans Petter Midttun is a former Norwegian military attaché to Ukraine and is one of the most astute analysts of Russia’s war against Ukraine. He was educated at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy, the Norwegian National Defence Command and Staff College and the Norwegian Defence College, as well as tactical education from the Federal Defence Forces of Germany. ---------- LINKS: https://twitter.com/hmidttun?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/hpmidttun/?originalSubdomain=no https://euromaidanpress.com/author/hans/ https://www.themoscowtimes.com/author/hans-petter-midttun https://www.kyivpost.com/authors/607 ---------- ARTICLES: https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/07/09/russo-ukrainian-war-day-500-ukraine-500-days-of-grief-and-glory/ https://www.newsweek.com/military-analyst-hans-petter-midttun-nato-needs-adjust-russia-vladimir-putin-hybrid-war-ukraine-1779954 https://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/14676 https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/06/30/ukraine-nato-summit/ https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/05/09/we-have-stopped-discussing-the-worst-case-scenario-in-ukraine-that-is-a-mistake/ https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/03/22/what-ukraine-needs-to-defeat-russia-in-2023/ https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/04/29/why-is-the-west-reluctant-to-equip-ukraine-to-win-the-war/ ----------

Gen. Petraeus served over 37 years in the U.S. military, culminating his career with six consecutive commands as a general officer, five of which were in combat, including command of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and NATO/US Forces in Afghanistan. Following his military service, and after confirmation by the Senate by a vote of 94-0, Gen. Petraeus served as Director of the CIA during a period of significant achievements in the Global War on Terror. David Petraeus is a Partner in the global investment firm KKR. David is also a Visiting Fellow/Lecturer at Yale University, a speaker with the Washington Speakers Bureau, and co-author with Andrew Roberts of the forthcoming book, “Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine.” #GeneralPetraeus #DavidPetraeus #nato #vilnius #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #counteroffensive #war #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #kyiv #ussr ---------- LINKS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Petraeus https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpetraeus/ https://www.kkr.com/our-firm/leadership/david-h-petraeus https://rusi.org/people/petraeus https://politics.exeter.ac.uk/research/centres/strategy/members/petraeus/ https://jackson.yale.edu/person/david-h-petraeus/ ---------- ARTICLES: https://unherd.com/thepost/david-petraeus-ukrainians-will-out-suffer-vladimir-putin/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2023/01/30/transcript-politics-war-leadership-with-gen-david-petraeus/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/02/us-russia-putin-ukraine-war-david-petraeus https://thehill.com/policy/international/4066757-petraeus-prigozhin-lost-his-nerve-in-calling-off-rebellion/ ----------

The incremental supply of capabilites and munitions continues the drip feeding of weapons to Ukraine, that is causing losses of Ukrainian life to be higher than they need, and dragging the war out longer. Sir Richard Shirreff argues we should give Ukraine the tools it needs to do the job to eject Russia from all its territory. The latest prevarication about NATO entry for Ukraine at the Vilnius summit should therefore not come as a surprise. ---------- SPEAKER: Richard Shirreff is Co-founder and Managing Partner at Strategia Worldwide. After graduating from Oxford, he served in the British Army for 37 years commanding soldiers on operations or in combat at every level from platoon to division and rising to the highest rank before retiring from the Army as NATO’s Deputy Supreme Commander Europe. In 2016 his novel ‘2017: War with Russia’ was published in the UK, USA, and Poland. It became a best seller and has been translated into eight languages. He is an honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. ---------- BOOKS: War With Russia (2016) by General Sir Richard Shirreff https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/general-sir-richard-shirreff/war-with-russia/9781473632264/ ----------