Edition No162 | 18-06-2025 - Russia is not just a malignant adversary of the West, an aggressive actor on the world stage, full of animosity and venom. We are not just dealing with a state that has delusions of imperial and even superpower grandeur. We are dealing with a country that collectively acts in a stupid manner, frequently against its own national interests. Russia has been described as a failed state, and there is a compelling case to make that there has been significant and steep decl...
Jun 18, 2025•25 min
Edition No161 | 17-06-2025 - Trump has fled the G7, where it seems like his only significant contribution was to whine about how unfair it was that his fiend Vald has been kicked out of the club. He then repeated a total fantasy story, about how it was Justin Trudeau’s fault Russia was kicked out and that Putin would never have gone to war if 1) he had been president and 2) Trudeau and pals had not been so mean to Putin. The reality of course, is that Russia was ejected from the G8 precisely bec...
Jun 17, 2025•13 min
Edition No160 | 16-06-2025 - Is the regime in Iran on the brink of collapse, as Israel continues to target strategic military and regime objects in Iran? Regime change is more openly being talked about as the key objective of the Israeli strikes, but have they bitten off more than they can chew? Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister has urged ordinary Iranians to seize the moment and overthrow Khamenei, his clerics and the theocratic elite that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution. A top aid...
Jun 16, 2025•16 min
Rear Admiral (ret.) Michael Hewitt is a native of Norfolk, Virginia, son of a career naval aviator. Michael holds a master’s degree from the National Defence University. Hewitt served as deputy director for Global Operations, Operations Directorate, Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington D.C. He was responsible to the director for Operations and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for oversight and coordination of worldwide operational matters. This includes Global Reconnaissance Operations...
Jun 16, 2025•55 min•Season 4Ep. 473
Daryna Shevchenko is CEO of The Kyiv Independent newspaper. She worked for the Kyiv Post, an English language newspaper until 2017. Following the invasion of Ukraine the Kyiv Independent attracted two million followers and achieved tremendous success in crowdfunding to support its operations and expansion. When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Shevchenko remained in Kyiv for ten days. She then moved west but continued to lead the newspaper. The Kyiv Independent is notable for its fear...
Jun 15, 2025•50 min•Season 4Ep. 741
David DeBatto is host of the ‘No Delusion Zone’ podcast @NoDelusionZone He is a retired U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent, a geopolitical analyst, writer, and podcaster. David is an Iraq war veteran who served as Team Leader of a Tactical Human Intelligence Team (THT) in operations within Iraq and is also a former police officer. David is considered too conservative for the progressive left and too independent minded for the radical right and seeks to challenge political dogma and the ...
Jun 14, 2025•41 min•Season 4Ep. 743
Edition No159 | 13-06-2025 - Summary- Friday 13th superstitions – unlucky for some, auspicious for others? - Wide-scale attack to ‘decapitate serpent’- Partial evacuations were a signal of impending strike - Was US talk of deal with Iran a smokescreen, or genuine? - Oil price spike in reaction – long term? - Diversion of air defense missile component to Iran- Iran distracted from supporting Russia in Ukraine- Transfer of Shaheed manufacturing already complete? - Spectacle of Western military def...
Jun 13, 2025•21 min
Edition No158 | 12-06-2025 - Russia’s war against Ukraine has achieved not only a horrifying milestone, but an extraordinary conjunction of symbolic dates and numbers. On the Russian National Day public holiday, the grim figure of one million Russians lost in Putin’s senseless war has been reached. We’ll get into the casualty numbers, and their potential implications in a minute. First though, we need to reflect on the obscene act of sycophancy just unleashed by Mr. Rubio on 12th June. In an ann...
Jun 12, 2025•19 min
Nataliya Gumenyuk (Наталія Петрівна Гуменюк) is a prominent Ukrainian journalist, specialised in foreign affairs and conflict reporting. She is a co-founder and CEO of the Public Interest Journalism Lab, and a co-founder of the independent media Hromadske. Nataliya is Lead Journalist at The Reckoning Project. She is the author of several documentaries and books, including The Lost Island: Tales from the Occupied Crimea (2020). Gumenyuk regularly writes for The Guardian, The Washington Post, The ...
Jun 12, 2025•46 min•Season 4Ep. 735
Denver Lee Riggleman III is an American businessman and former politician from Virginia who served as the United States representative for Virginia's 5th congressional district from 2019 to 2021. Riggleman is the only member of the Republican party to speak on the House of Representatives floor against QAnon "Condemning QAnon and rejecting the conspiracy theories it promotes". Since leaving Congress in January 2021, Riggleman has been working with experts and academics at the Network Contagion R...
Jun 12, 2025•46 min•Season 4Ep. 740
Welcome to our monthly conversation with Konstantin, who is one of the most respected voices on YouTube about what is happening Inside Russia. 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. ----------INSIDE RUSSIA is a source of current news on Russia - Konstantin carefully selects 9 news stor...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 4Ep. 739
The Kremlin has been using freelancers to carry out dirty deeds across Europe with increasing frequency — and those freelancers can be anyone. The strategy is as sinister as it is effective. It’s also a law enforcement nightmare. But do our governments have the will to tackle the issue, and the leadership qualities that will be required to fully mobilise resources, and be frank with electorates? ----------Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic council. She is also a columnist with For...
Jun 10, 2025•42 min•Season 4Ep. 737
Edition No157 | 10-06-2025 - Putin has ordered and executed one of the largest attacks on Ukraine's capital since the full-scale war began. Why? Because he can. Kyiv and Odesa came under massive bombardment in the early hours of June 10. Explosions were heard across the capital as air defence systems were activated, engaging targets that included ballistic missiles and drones. The full toll is not known, but four people have been reported injured in Kyiv, according to local authorities. In the s...
Jun 10, 2025•17 min
Edition No155 | 08-06-2025 - Russia has a fascist ideology. It may be incoherent when it comes to doctrinal details, but it is clear on one thing. If you are part of the democratic world, it intends to destroy you. Russian propagandists and ideologies are clear on this point at least. It’s time to face this ideology for what it really is: aggressive, intolerant, extreme, calculated, premeditated and completely nihilistic. Modern Russian fascism is built for export, and is fundamentally opposed t...
Jun 09, 2025•25 min
The United Nations has confirmed what residents of Kherson, and Zarina Zabrisky, revealed nearly a year ago: Russia’s drone attacks on civilians were systematic, premeditated and intended to instil terror and forcibly displace the population. A deliberate war crime. ----------Zarina Zabrisky is an American writer based in the Bay Area, California. She is the author of the novel, We, Monsters, several collections of short stories, including Explosion, A Cute Tombstone and her debut work, Iron, an...
Jun 09, 2025•43 min•Season 4Ep. 738
Edition No155 | 08-06-2025 - Let’s forget for a moment there are such things as Republicans and Democrats, one side and the other. Let’s simply look at the authoritarian timelines of regime such as those in Russia, Georgia, Hungary and Germany in the 1930s and others. At some point, regimes looking to consolidate their power, and limit democratic expression move from muzzling or coopting the press to tackling the people. They manufacture crises and provocations to crack down hard on liberties. F...
Jun 08, 2025•14 min
Denys Ganzha joined CFC Big Ideas in 2019 and advanced rapidly from an intern to become Co-CEO now. Denys founded an NGO “Public Diplomacy Platform” which worked closely with the Ukrainian government on youth policy projects. The NGO set up more than 20 projects in nearly all regions of Ukraine and cooperated with such international partners as USAID.In 2021-2023 Denys served as Ukrainian Youth Delegate to the UN and participated in Ukraine’s diplomatic efforts at the UN. Also, Denys served as a...
Jun 08, 2025•55 min•Season 4Ep. 736
Edition No154 | 07-06-2025 - Trump was asked a simple question. One which any man with empathy, leadership qualities, or any human dignity would find simple to answer. His instinct was to reach for a classic rapists’ response, or defense. Ukraine was asking for it, he basically said. Trump was asked: Do Ukraine's strikes against Russian airfields change your view of the cards Zelenskyy has? ----------Links: https://kyivindependent.com/operation-spiderweb-gave-putin-a-reason-to-bomb-the-hell-out-...
Jun 07, 2025•19 min
Edition No153 | 06-06-2025 - Steve Bannon has launched an attack on Elon Musk, with absolute glee and viscous energy. “We’re going to go to f—ing war,” he exclaimed, following the feud between President Trump and the tech billionaire and world’s richest man. “The president treated him almost like a son. He invited his family to Christmas dinner. He let him sleep over. He let him walk in and out of meetings,” Bannon said. He’s been a long-time Musk sceptic, and he sees the chance to really stick ...
Jun 06, 2025•18 min
SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initi...
Jun 05, 2025•34 min•Season 4Ep. 718
Co-founder and head of the Frontier Institute – Ukrainian expert in long-term strategies and communications. Hlibovytsky is part of the Nestor and Univ interdisciplinary expert groups and serves on the Supervisory Board of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine. With experience as a journalist, TV host, and media manager, he now teaches communication to media, business, and non-profit organizations. His research explores how cultural factors shape Ukraine’s development path. Yevhen ...
Jun 05, 2025•22 min•Season 4Ep. 716
Edition No152 | 05-06-2025 - Tensions between Elon Musk and Donald Trump seem to have been bubbling below the surface for days and have now erupted into the public realm. Not just a few traded barbs, but full-scale war (by social media) seems to have broken out, and it’s getting real ugly, real quickly. Buckle up, crack out the mega bucket of popcorn and let’s five into the MAGA civil war that’s just kicked off in loonyland. Relations between President Trump and techbro billionaire Elon Musk see...
Jun 05, 2025•14 min
Edition No151 | 05-06-2025 - Trump is apparently annoyed with both Putin and Zelenskyy, according to aides, but his approbation and ire is especially reserved for Zelenskyy, who Trump is said to consider “a bad guy”, “who will lead the world to the brink of nuclear war.” This is a narrative likely planted in his head by Vladimir Putin, who has once again apparently exerted an extraordinary amount of influence over Trump’s words and action, after ‘another’ of their infamous phone calls. This spec...
Jun 05, 2025•18 min
Edition No150 | 03-06-2025 - We’ll come to the extraordinary strike on the Kerch Bridge in a minute, but there has also been significant development in the so-called peace process. Or rather the mask has slipped, and Russia’s true purpose in engaging in the Istanbul process has been made abundantly clear by vodka-soaked political thug, Medvedev, Russia’s former one-term president. Russia has a talent for undermining its own cause and position. Just as Ukraine’s daring attacks may have led to it ...
Jun 04, 2025•14 min
Edition No149 | 03-06-2025 - Finland is ‘preparing for the worst’ as Russia expands military presence near border. Finland has said it expects Russia to further build up troops along their shared border when the war in Ukraine ends, after reports that Moscow had strengthened its military bases near the NATO frontier. Head of strategy of Finnish defense forces says they are monitoring Moscow’s maneuvering ‘very closely’. Of all countries in Europe, Finland seems to have the healthiest dose of cyn...
Jun 03, 2025•10 min
Bohdan Nahaylo, Chief Editor of Kyiv Post since December 2021, is a British-Ukrainian journalist, author and veteran Ukraine watcher based between Kyiv and Barcelona. He was formerly head of Amnesty International's Soviet Union unit, a senior United Nations official and policy adviser, and Director of Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service.----------LINKS:https://www.kyivpost.com/authors/12https://www.linkedin.com/in/bohdan-nahaylo-716a935b/https://archive.kyivpost.com/author/bohdannahaylohttps://hro...
Jun 02, 2025•41 min•Season 4Ep. 733
Your support is massively appreciated! SILICON CURTAIN LIVE EVENTS - FUNDRAISER CAMPAIGN Events in 2025 - Advocacy for a Ukrainian victory with Silicon CurtainNEXT EVENTS - LVIV, KYIV AND ODESA THIS MAY AND JUNE.https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasOur first live events this year in Lviv and Kyiv were a huge success. Now we need to maintain this momentum, and change the tide towards a Ukrainian victory. The Silicon Curtain Roadshow is an ambitious campaign to run a minimum of 12 events ...
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr 28 min•Season 4Ep. 734
Edition No148 | 01-06-2025 - 41 Russian strategic bombers have been hit with an operation taking well over a year to plan. At least 5 Russian air bases hit. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has just struck aircraft at the Olenya airbase, including A-50s, Tu-95MS, and Tu-22 bombers. "A black day for our strategic aviation" - Russian milblogger Alexander Kots.Russia may have lost a nuclear submarine in today’s attack by Ukraine. Ukraine just did more to make the world a safer place than 40 years o...
Jun 02, 2025•12 min
Ilya Lozovsky and the co-authors of his research article investigated nearly 50,000 internal emails obtained from a Russian foundation that pitches itself as offering legal aid to Russian "compatriots" abroad. In fact, "Pravfond" also helps numerous spies, criminals, and blatant propagandists, works hand-in-glove with intelligence services, and builds networks of Russian influence around the world. Today we will discuss this detailed look at the inner workings an influence machine that seeks to ...
Jun 01, 2025•51 min•Season 4Ep. 731
Sergey Radchenko is a Soviet-born British Russian historian. He is the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Centre for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and visiting professor at Cardiff University. He is an historian of the Cold War, mainly known for his work on Sino-Soviet relations and Soviet foreign policy. He also works on Russian and Chinese foreign and security policies, and is a frequent contributor to Foreign Affairs, ...
May 29, 2025•52 min•Season 4Ep. 730
