Shaun Pinner is a former British soldier and Ukrainian Marine. He has written an extraordinary first-hand account of the war in Ukraine, his capture, imprisonment, and torture by the Russian invaders. Shaun was a retired and decorated British soldier, living peacefully in Mariupol with his Ukrainian family. But the full-scale war began, and after fighting alongside Ukrainian army colleagues, he found himself imprisoned in Russian-occupied Ukraine, and embarking on an unexpected and unimaginable ...
Nov 20, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 294
Bohdana Neborak is Editor in Chief at The Ukrainians. She is host of an award-winning video project about decolonization («Наразі без назви»). Bohdana is ex-Head of the Translation Department at the Ukrainian Book Institute, and had a seven-year career in journalism, writing about culture and the creative industries. ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- LINKS: https://theukrainians.org/ https://twitter.com/B...
Nov 19, 2023•53 min•Season 2Ep. 292
Ukraine has been transformed into a society with the most active volunteer groups in the world - and has a dynamic civil society and donation culture. In addition, Ukraine’s diaspora of professionals and refugees are playing an extraordinary role in support Ukraine, both materially, but also by raising awareness of it’s cause in their host countries and within the international community. Today I am speaking with Julia Tymoshenko, who is Fighting for Ukraine on the informational front – running ...
Nov 19, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 293
Edition No24 | 18-11-2023 In order to avoid criticism of its handling of the war, the Kremlin tries to prevent conscripts from ever returning to Russia. Only martyrs required - No Russians get out of this war alive. ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ~~~~~ WARNING - Graphic and distressing content https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1725220710220521767 https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1724546144712184275 https://twit...
Nov 18, 2023•41 min
INTRO: There are many scenarios of what a post-Putin Russia would look like, especially following a substantial defeat in Ukraine. The obvious one, is to assume that a humiliated Russia would blame the West for its defeat and seek revenge, forcing the collective West to rearm and prepare for the next act of aggression by the Russian imperium. But reality has a way of throwing surprises, and we can’t discount the scenario of a weak and fragmented Russia actually embarking on reforms and changes t...
Nov 17, 2023•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 291
GUEST: Henry J. Hendrix - Retired US Navy captain, defence analyst, historian and curator. ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- SPEAKER: Henry J. Hendrix is a retired United States Navy captain. He has served as an American defence analyst, an official historian and curator of the Navy and an author. His written work has focused on the composition of the United States Navy force, the structure of the Navy, t...
Nov 16, 2023•54 min•Season 2Ep. 290
Dr Benjamin Tallis is a research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. He runs the project “Action Group Zeitenwende” on the transformation of Germany’s security and foreign policy, and where he hosts the podcast "Berlin Inside Out". He previously worked for the EU on security missions in Ukraine and the Balkans and was policy officer at the European Centre of Excellence for Civilian Crisis Management in Berlin. Benjamin spent five years at the Institute of International Relations P...
Nov 15, 2023•51 min•Season 2Ep. 289
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has reached a transition point – not a point of failure, as it has been labelled by some commentators and media sources. We are 20 months into a war that Gen. Mark Milley said would last three days. Russian planners estimated 10 days. A Ukrainian military once considered inferior to Russia’s has militarily defeating Russians on every battlefield in Ukraine. They have killed more than 300,000 Russian soldiers, and according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “recaptu...
Nov 14, 2023•55 min•Season 2Ep. 288
“As the world watches two Russian thugs fight it out, it’s important to remember that both of them have been, and still are, implicated in Russia’s ongoing genocide in Ukraine.” This is taken from an article written by Alexander Motyl in The Hill, dated 28th June 2023. ------- Alexander Motyl is an American historian, political scientist, poet, writer, translator, and artist. He lives in New York and is a professor of political science at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. Alexander is a ...
Nov 14, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 287
Edition No23 | 11-11-2023 Russia returns to terror threats, as it flaunts its Nuclear capabilities to intimidate the Allies supporting Ukraine militarily. ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ~~~~~ NEWS ITEMS: https://metro.co.uk/2023/11/08/russian-singer-shaman-simulates-a-nuclear-attack-during-concert-19781777/ https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-russia-post-video-simulation-nuclear-attack-us-1841172 https://www.theguardi...
Nov 12, 2023•34 min
Gustav Gressel is a senior policy fellow with the Wider Europe Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Berlin office. His topics of focus include Russia, Eastern Europe, and defence policy, Russia, armed conflict missile defence and proliferation. Before joining ECFR, Gressel worked as a desk officer for international security policy and strategy in the Bureau for Security Policy of the Austrian Ministry of Defence, and as a research fellow of the Commissioner for Strategic Studi...
Nov 11, 2023•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 284
GUEST: Robin Horsfall, soldier, writer, campaigner and keynote speaker. ---------- The existence of the USSR over many decades unfortunately shows that tyranny can be tenacious, and the extreme barbarism it deploys to suppress freedoms can last a long time and exact a huge toll of human suffering. That is why our weak strategy towards a decisive Ukrainian victory and complacency in the face of a revanchist, totalitarian (even fascistic) Russian World ideology is so very dangerous. We underestima...
Nov 10, 2023•55 min•Season 2Ep. 285
This week Russia attacked Odesa with missiles and drones, seriously damaging the Odesa National Art Museum building, a designated UNESCO monument (which was 124 years old yesterday). Missiles also hit the city centre damaging several multi-story residential buildings. Eight people were injured by shrapnel wounds. Night after night, Russia hits vital infrastructure, residential building, transport links and cultural objects. Russia is exacting an ever-greater toll on Ukrainian heritage and lives,...
Nov 09, 2023•59 min•Season 2Ep. 283
In this episode, we explore how the “black box” of Chinese politics operates. How Xi Jinping seized power, and how he maintains control. We examine China's soft authoritarian power and the apparatus of the absolutist state. Does Xi's iron grip over the CCP and China come at a cost - is it stifling innovation and economic growth? ---------- ABOUT THE GUEST: Michael Sheridan is the Author of a new history of Hong Kong and China, and a long-time foreign correspondent in Asia, Middle East, and Europ...
Nov 06, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 279
Elina Beketova is a Democracy Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). She has experience of working as a journalist, editor, and TV-anchor for news stations in Kharkiv and Kyiv. Elina is originally from Crimea. At CEPA, Elina Authored – Behind the Lines – a project about the latest developments in the temporarily occupied and recently liberated territories of Ukraine. For that study, she interviewed a wide range of Ukrainian voices – policymakers, activists, and officials. ----...
Nov 05, 2023•57 min•Season 2Ep. 280
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 recent boo...
Nov 05, 2023•59 min•Season 2Ep. 277
Ben Hodges is a retired United States Army officer, who became commander of United States Army Europe in November 2014, and held that position for three years until retiring from the United States Army in January 2018. He was most recently a Senior Advisor to Human Rights First, until summer 2023, and serves as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics. Until recently was the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies, at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, specialising in NATO, the Transatlantic relations...
Nov 03, 2023•55 min•Season 2Ep. 278
Lesia Dubenko is a political scientist and an Alumna of Lund University, with an Msc in European Affairs. She has eight years of experience in political and social journalism and has been published in the Financial Times, Politico Europe, New Eastern Europe, Atlantic Council, KP. In August 2018 she entered the Ukrainian NGO sector, and has been cooperating with different Ukrainian NGOs, including “Europe without Barriers”, “Internews Ukraine”, “European Pravda” and more. ---------- SUPPORT THE C...
Nov 02, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 276
Edition No22 | 31-10-2023 Russia opens Pandora's box - as a Pogrom unfolds in Dagestan. ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ~~~~~ Russia opens Pandora’s Box https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/10/30/it-felt-like-an-eternity https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/10/30/without-prevention-you-end-up-with-a-fire https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/10/29/throwing-stones-and-setting-fires?utm_source=email&utm_medium=briefly&utm_...
Nov 01, 2023•38 min
100 years ago, few in Western Europe 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 a...
Oct 29, 2023•49 min•Season 2Ep. 275
Edition No21 | 28-10-2023 The Hamas attacks on Israel seem to have divided Russian propagandists. Are some of them starting to realise the high price of siding with a genocidal regime, that sponsors terrorism? ~~~~~ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ~~~~~ NEWS LINKS: Russian Media Monitor https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews ~~~~~ The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/27/pro-moscow-ukrainian-politician-oleg-tsa...
Oct 28, 2023•37 min
Sir 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. Richard is co-Founder and Managing Partner of Strategia Worldwide. In 2016 his novel ‘2017: War with Russia’ was published in the UK, USA, and Poland. It be...
Oct 27, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 274
In his extraordinary and unique, life Jack Barsky spent 10 years in the United States spying for the Russians. But his story began in his birthplace, East Germany, where he became a chemistry professor and was eventually recruited by the KGB. ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Jack Barsky was born Albrecht Dittrich, on 18th May 1949. He is a German American author, IT specialist and infamously a former sle...
Oct 25, 2023•52 min•Season 2Ep. 273
Ukrainian CrisisCare Telehealth Service "It's infinitely easier to take a life, than save a life” --------- ABOUT GPNOW UKRAINE Today, we hear from Robert Hicken – President of the PII Foundation who will provide an update on their GPNow Ukrainian CrisisCare “hospital in the cloud” Telehealth Service which provides free medical advice, comfort and care for thousands of Ukrainian citizens to provide FREE medical advice, comfort care for thousands of Ukrainian families in Ukraine (including occupi...
Oct 24, 2023•50 min•Season 2Ep. 272
Today I’m speaking to David Satter, journalist, and historian with unique insights into how the deformation and repression of the past, is having terrible consequences for present day Russia. David has written extensively about Russia and the Soviet Union, especially the decline and fall of the USSR and rise of post-Soviet Russia. David Satter became the first American journalist to be expelled from Russia since the Cold War in December 2013. This was perhaps not a surprising move, given that hi...
Oct 24, 2023•57 min•Season 2Ep. 271
The Putin regime has been widely exploiting the vulnerabilities of global social media platforms, using bots and trolls to promote specific stories and narratives. But they are not alone once developed the same techniques can be used by other powers, international and local to subvert democratic institutions and to warp public perception of the news and politics in their countries. But hybrid digital warfare is not limited to propaganda – it also includes cyber-attacks, hacking and stealing inte...
Oct 22, 2023•52 min•Season 2Ep. 269
Zakhar Protsiuk is Chief Operating Officer at The Kyiv Independent and co-founder at The Fix Media. Zakhar is an innovator in the media industry and is helping to shake up the technologies and practices of modern journalism. His role at The Kyiv Independent was pivotal for its success, and it’s become an important voice for democracy, transparency, civil society, and human right throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion. After being established just a few months before the full-scale invasion of U...
Oct 21, 2023•50 min•Season 2Ep. 268
Aliona Hlivco is Managing Director at The Henry Jackson Society and Advisory Council Member at Coalition for Global Prosperity. Aliona 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. ---------- LINKS https://twitter.com/aliona_hlivco https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliona-hlivco/ https://twitter.com/HJS_Org https://henryjacksonsoci...
Oct 20, 2023•47 min•Season 2Ep. 270
GUEST: Operator Starsky - Ukrainian National Guardian and blogger ----- Today I’m speaking with Operator Starsky, a Ukrainian National Guardian, blogger, and inspiration for everyone who is following the war, and supporting a Ukrainian victory. He has created one of the most popular and original YouTube channels dedicated to the international community. I’m not sure you need an introduction – I’m sure most people watching this channel will have seen your videos! ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: h...
Oct 20, 2023•59 min•Season 2Ep. 267
0900, Thursday, July 25, 2019: President Trump called Ukraine's President Zelensky, supposedly to congratulate him on his recent victory. In the months that followed, the American public would only learn what happened on that call because Alexander Vindman felt duty-bound to report it up the chain of command: that the President of the United States had extorted a foreign ally to damage a political challenger at home. Vindman's actions and subsequent testimony before congress would lead to Trump'...
Oct 18, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 266
