Silicon Curtain

The Putin regime has been widely exploiting the vulnerabilities of  global social media platforms, using bots and trolls to promote specific  stories and narratives. Now there seems to be an increase in their  activity of trolls, agents, fellow travellers, useful idiots and  grifters who post lies and distortions online in support of Kremlin  narratives. Is this uptick in activity real, and what is it’s strategic  purpose?     Pekka Kallioniemi has a PhD in interactive technology and is an expert  on social media platforms, algorithms, and disinformation. He is a #NAFO activist, and runs a series on Kremlin assets, agents, and oligarchs, called #vatnik soup. There are now 70 entries, and it’s some of these that we’ll be discussing today.    LINKS:  https://vatniksoup.com/  https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi

***** Please note, the sound quality is not great because of an echo. I  hope the quality of the content means that you'll persevere! *****  ----------   Russia used energy as an economic weapon against Ukraine in 2007. But it  seems that it has now fully played the gas and oil cards, and Russia is  losing the energy war. Has Vladimir Putin’s winter gas attack  backfired, as Moscow has been frozen out of lucrative European energy  markets? Or will the terroristic threats against nuclear facilities  re-emerge if Russia starts to lose badly on the battlefield?   ----------  SPEAKER: Anastasiya Shapochkina is Founder and president of Eastern Circles, she  has 11 years of experience in consulting and energy industry, where she  worked on companies, technologies and market analysis in the renewable  energy, utilities, nuclear energy, and e-mobility. She led development  of international cross-industry partnership research projects on these  subjects and represented business in European industrial and research  associations. Anastasiya is a lecturer on geopolitics in Sciences Po  Paris since 2012, focusing on the role of business in the EU-Russia  relations. Anastasiya is author of articles on the geopolitics and  geoeconomics in the Former Soviet Union, she has regular TV and radio  appearances. Anastasiya graduated from Georgetown University School of  Foreign Service, German, and European Studies Program.

Today I am speaking with a rare and special person – a Russian activist  with an unambiguous, strong voice condemning the crimes and horrors  being committed in Ukraine by Russia, and who is doing it with humour  and passion. It has to be said, that he’s also taking on considerable  risk in doing so. Fortunately, he’s also doing this in English, so you  can follow his views on Twitter and Telegram.      Denis Zakharov is an activist and has a strong, unusually direct, and  outspoken voice within opposition movement. Somehow, although he lives  in Russia, is still free, un-conscripted, vocal, and angry.   LINKS: https://twitter.com/betelgeuse1922

Edition No 2 |  08-02-2023  |  Silicon Bites Don't Fear a Ukrainian Victory  ~~~~~   FEATURED ARTICLES:  Don’t worry about a Russian defeat in Ukraine - Just give Ukraine tools to win the war, ASAP  https://timothyash.substack.com/p/dont-worry-about-a-russian-defeat   Decisive battles are looming in Ukraine  https://timothyash.substack.com/p/decisive-battles-are-looming-in-ukraine?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=601228&post_id=100601775&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email  ~~~~~

Edition #1  |  27-01-2023  |  Silicon Bites Feeding the Crocodile - "Eat me Last"   ~~~~~   LINKS & SOURCES:  ~~~~~  Germany to Crocodile: Eat Me Last   https://cepa.org/article/germany-fails-to-supply-leopards-to-ukraine/   Putin Blasts 'Neo-Nazis' in Ukraine on Holocaust Remembrance Day  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/27/putin-blasts-neo-nazis-in-ukraine-on-holocaust-remembrance-day-a80065   Lavrov's Africa Trip Reveals Limits to Russian Soft Power  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/25/lavrovs-africa-trip-reveals-limit-to-russian-soft-power-a80039   Russia Says Ramping Up Ammunition Production for Ukraine War  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/27/russia-says-ramping-up-ammunition-production-for-ukraine-war-a80061   Ukraine War: Kyiv's Army Says Downed 47 of 55 Russian Missiles  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/26/russian-missiles-kill-11-in-ukraine-after-tank-pledge-a80051   'Final Nail in the Coffin': Activists Lament Moscow Helsinki Group Closure  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/26/final-nail-in-the-coffin-activists-lament-moscow-helsinki-group-closure-a80053   Russia Slaps Independent Media Outlet Meduza With 'Undesirable' Label  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/26/russia-slaps-independent-media-outlet-meduza-with-undesirable-label-a80055   U.S. Deems Russia's Wagner Group 'Transnational Criminal Organization'  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/26/us-deems-russias-wagner-group-transnational-criminal-organization-a80057  ----------

Today I’m speaking with Orest Zub – traveller, blogger, and online  entrepreneur from Lviv. He has been reporting on the war in Ukraine from  the start via his YouTube channels in Ukrainian and English. Before the  war, Orest visited over 120 countries including many regions  experiencing conflict. But as he says, he could never imagine that the  full-scale war would come to his own country. Orest’s aim is to inform  the global community on what is really happening in Ukraine, and to  provide informational resistance to the occupier.

The first thing Russians do in territories they have conquered, is to  take over the media – television, newspapers, and internet. That’s no  coincidence. Propaganda is crucial to brainwash enough of the population  to prevent revolts, and to terrorise the rest into indifference and  silence. Today I am looking at the hybrid threats that have been facing  Ukraine since 2014, and the role of a resilient media in countering  Russian disinformation and aggression.    Iryna Subota is Head of Data Analytics at the Centre for Strategic  Communications and Information Security and is a Ph.D. student of Media  and Communication Studies program at the National University of  Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and lecturer of educational programs on the  development of media literacy and countering information threats. She  researches the topics of information warfare, propaganda,  disinformation, fake news, and media manipulative technologies. Iryna  specializes in fact-checking, information verification, and media  literacy.

Russia seems condemned to repeat the mistakes of history, rather than  learning from them, as shown by Putin’s mass mobilisation of Russian  males into the armed forces, and the shock and panic it prompted earlier  this year in Russia. Konstantin Samoilov is a well-known YouTuber whose  channel ‘Inside Russia’ comments insightfully on Russia’s descent 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.

There was a time when those calling Russia a mafia state, and Putin a  terrorist, were in the minority, and who were even thought of as extreme  voices. My guest today was one of those people, who along with a  handful of other writers and journalists like Edward Lucas and David  Satter called Putin out early on, while his oppressive regime was just  starting to flex its muscles. Luke Harding has observed Russia’s decent  into tyrannical absolutism and terrorism over many years, and charted  the malign influence or that country abroad, as exercised in wars,  energy politics and Active Measures. Luke Harding is a foreign correspondent for The Guardian. He was based  in Russia for The Guardian from 2007 until, returning from a stay in the  UK on 5 February 2011, he was refused re-entry to Russia and deported  the same day. His expulsion was likely linked with his articles critical  to Russia. His 2011 book Mafia State discusses his experience in Russia  and the political system under Vladimir Putin, which he describes as a  mafia state.

As Ukraine prepares for another wave of Russian attacks on the Eastern  front, an EU Ukraine Summit takes place – but is there the courage and  determination in Europe to stay the course, and persevere until, Russia  is comprehensively defeated? What will that take, and how will Russia  try to fight back with terroristic threats, influence, coercion, and  disinformation? What cards has Putin left to play?   Aliona Hlivco is a Former Ukrainian MP. Regular contributor to The  Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, as well as Monocle24,  CapX and is a TEDx Speaker. She is also a Guest Lecturer and Senior  Consultant at Atticus Partners.