Cormac Smith has worked in Public Relations and Corporate Communications for over three decades. In 2016 he traveled to Ukraine to take up a special appointment as the ‘Strategic Communication Advisor’ to Pavlo Klimkin, then the Foreign Minister of Ukraine. He was attached to the British Embassy in Kyiv but was embedded in Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the first foreigner to hold such a position. While in Kyiv, he also advised and provided training for five other government ministries and worked directly with three other cabinet ministers: Health, Education and the Deputy Prime Minister. ----------LINKS:https://defencebrink.uk/https://x.com/CormacS63https://x.com/philipingmbe----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Car4Ukrainehttps://car4ukraine.com/en-US/campaignsDzyga's Pawhttps://dzygaspaw.com/projectsSuperhumans - 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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/----------PLATFORMS:Substack: https://substack.com/@siliconcurtainTwitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSiliconLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm----------

Silicon Bites Ep424 | 2026-10-16 | Musk says Trump did it. Trump says nobody did it. Reuters says the White House did it. The Telegraph says they did it together — while jet-powered shaheeds hit Kyiv and the interceptors went blind. People died. Could those deaths have been prevented? It’s impossible to say, but certainly Ukraine’s ability to defend itself was seriously hampered. ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:Reuters (via US News) — Exclusive: Order to limit Starshield for Ukraine came from inside White House, sources say (15 Oct 2026). Kyiv Independent — "They were both in on it": Musk suggested Trump restrict Ukraine's Starlink service, Telegraph reports (16 Oct 2026)The Telegraph — Musk approached Trump with idea of slowing down Starlink in Ukraine (16 Oct 2026)CNBC — Trump says White House didn't order Starlink restrictions in Ukraine (16 Oct 2026)CNBC — Elon Musk says Trump is "ultimately" responsible for any curbs on Ukraine's Starshield systems (15 Oct 2026)Al Jazeera / AFP / Reuters — Musk says US military controls Starlink's limits after Ukraine outcry (14 Oct 2026, updated 16 Oct)Al Jazeera — "Massive" Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least 9, damages power sites (14 Oct 2026)Kyiv Independent — Order limiting Starlink access for Ukraine's military came from within White House, Reuters reports (16 Oct 2026)Kyiv Independent — No one's owning up to throttling Ukraine's military Starlink, and that's telling (15 Oct 2026)Kyiv Post — White House ordered restrictions on Ukraine's Starshield, disrupting drone defense – Reuters (16 Oct 2026)Ukrainska Pravda — White House ordered restrictions on Starshield in Ukraine – Reuters (16 Oct 2026)Ukrainska Pravda — Former defence minister Fedorov reports partial resumption of Starlink operations (14 Oct 2026)Euromaidan Press — White House ordered limits on Ukraine's military satellite service — Reuters; Wadephul and Streeting reactions (16 Oct 2026)Euromaidan Press — Musk pushed Trump to slow Starlink in Ukraine – The Telegraph (16 Oct 2026)----------

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. ----------LINKS: @INSIDERUSSIA https://www.patreon.com/insiderussiaINSIDE RUSSIA is a source of current news on Russia - Konstantin carefully selects 9 news stories that are important and really matter, with commentaries and analyses by Konstantin delivered daily to channel patrons at Patreon.comGet your access to daily news updates at patreon.com/INSIDERUSSIA----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Car4Ukrainehttps://car4ukraine.com/en-US/campaignsDzyga's Pawhttps://dzygaspaw.com/projectsSuperhumans - 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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/----------PLATFORMS:Substack: https://substack.com/@siliconcurtainTwitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSiliconLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm----------DESCRIPTION:Ukraine’s Strikes Push Russia Toward a Digital Dark Age | Inside Russia with Konstantin SamoilovJonathan interviews Konstantin Samoilov (Inside Russia), now in Luxembourg recovering from illness, about how Ukrainian strikes are exposing the brittleness of Putin’s regime and setting up Russia for its first of many difficult winters. Samoilov says many Russians long ignored the war but are now reaching out in fear as shortages and uncertainty grow, yet still think only in short horizons. They discuss a shift from refinery attacks to strikes on digital infrastructure, including Yandex data centers and a Sber data center, warning that outages could disrupt cloud services, payments, records, and trust in the financial system in unprecedented ways. Samoilov argues Putin has exhausted money as a tool of control and increasingly relies on violence, empowering security services, deepening chaos, and accelerating an engineered power struggle over succession.----------CHAPTERS:02:11 Putin's Last Gamble03:33 Russians Wake Up07:57 Short-Term Survival Mode09:09 New Target Data Centers10:21 Sberbank Monopoly Backstory15:12 Yandex Under State Control19:21 Digital Disruption Spreads21:39 Financial Records at Risk24:20 Digital Dark Ages26:10 Power Over Russia26:58 Short Term Corruption28:07 Arrests and Gold30:51 Strength as Currency32:22 Back to Stalinism35:03 Money to Violence36:17 Losing Control41:56 Chaos and Succession----------

Silicon Bites Ep423 | 2026-10-15 | ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:----------

David DeBatto is host of the ‘No Delusion Zone’ podcast @NoDelusionZone 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 naked self-interest of politicians. ----------LINKS:@NoDelusionZone https://www.protectingtherepublic.com/podcasthttps://www.protectingtherepublic.com/https://x.com/ddebattohttps://www.kyivpost.com/authors/743----------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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyślhttps://kharpp.com/NOR DOG Animal Rescuehttps://www.nor-dog.org/home/----------

Silicon Bites SW26-230 | 2026-10-14 | Russia is working its way through the horses of the apocalypse. War has been waged on Ukraine since 2014, and Putin’s modern wars started even before he was president, in 1999. Death is something Putin has exported on an industrial, historical scale, and brought substantial excess and unnecessary death to his own people. Famine will likely follow the shutting down of Ukraine’s ability to sow, harvest and export grain. Then there’s plague, which is now rocking Russia, in the Irkutsk region. So, what’s happening with that horseman of the apocalypse, which has returned to the world courtesy of Putin’s Russia?----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:World Health Organization — Disease Outbreak News: Pneumonia of undetermined etiology, Russian Federation (10 Oct 2026)Al Jazeera / Reuters — WHO says no plague case registered after Russian lab worker's death (10 Oct 2026)Al Jazeera — Russia dismisses reports of second plague case as "false information" (8 Oct 2026)Al Jazeera — Russia denies imposing anti-plague measures after lab worker death (6 Oct 2026)Kyiv Post — Russia lifts quarantine; WHO says it lacks information (Oct 2026)Kyiv Post — Irkutsk contacts transported to quarantine; hospitals affected (Oct 2026)Kyiv Independent — Russia lifts quarantine in Irkutsk region (8 Oct 2026)Meduza — Siberian governor announces "all-clear" (8 Oct 2026)Meduza — Officials in Irkutsk region advised against travel to Shelekhov, then deleted the post (5 Oct 2026)Meduza — Hospitals in Irkutsk impose quarantines (5 Oct 2026)Meduza / Lyudi Baikala — A 28-year-old plague researcher died in Russia (6 Oct 2026)Meduza — Hospital in Irkutsk region quarantined; Tsydenov post edited (2 Oct 2026)----------

Silicon Bites Ep422 | 2026-10-15 | Ukraine Hits Russia's Digital Fuel. Trump Said Leave the Fuel Alone. So, Ukraine Hit the Data. Refineries are a slow burn, but Data centres are a spark that could ignite the whole Russian economy and collapse Putin’s regime. Certainly, the implications for his war economy are huge and devastating. Trump told Ukraine to leave Russia's fuel alone. Ten days ago, he said Zelensky had "better damn well stop" hitting Russian refineries. So overnight on the fourteenth of October, Ukraine went after a different kind of fuel. Not diesel. Data. Perhaps a far more combustible accelerant of chaos? ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:Sber confirmation, Vedyakhin statement, complaint surge, 100m+ customers, gov e-services: Yahoo/AFP, 14 Oct 202682 MW, 120,000 servers, 650 km, supercomputer due 2027, Yandex strike dates: Ukrainska Pravda, 14 Oct 2026122.2bn roubles, construction ongoing: Militarnyi; entrance damage, causation not established: Odessa JournalGigaChat / Samokat outages: Militarnyi. Mail.ru, VK, Ozon, Tochka, Rosselkhozbank: social-media reports only, unverified900+ drones: AFP citing Russian MoDSasovo, two of three supercomputers, Kaluga: DCD / Reuters; Ukrainian data centres hit: DCDEnergy ceasefire = refineries only, Ukraine one refinery: Axios via Ukrainska Pravda. 'Better damn well stop', diesel deal: Reuters/AFP. 'We will burn refineries', ~60% capacity: FT via Liga.netOther Sber sites (Yuzhny port, Skolkovo): DCD----------

Silicon Bites Ep422 | 2026-10-14 | Trump is leaning on the scales, in favour of Putin and Russia. It’s overt. It’s in plain sight. It’s disgusting and reprehensible. Despite having many American friends, and know many fine Americans who are fighting tooth and nail for Ukraine’s survival, I have to declare that the U.S. which is implementing Trump’s policies is now the enemy of Ukraine, or Europe and freedom. ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:France 24 — Kyiv power plant hit without warning from alliesUkrainska Pravda — CHPP-4 strike, Zelenskyy statementEuronews — Ukraine received no intelligence from partnersCNN — Overnight energy strikes, 600,000 without powerReuters via AOL — SpaceX limits Starlink operationsKyiv Independent — 'This cannot be a coincidence'CNN via Yahoo — US threatens intel/weapons suspensionKyiv Post — Explainer on the threat; PURL 95% Patriot figureKyiv Independent via Yahoo — calls to top military officialsMilitarnyi — Axios report, Zelenskyy's refinery-for-grid offerWashington Examiner — Trump denies stopping intelFree Malaysia Today (AFP) — Zelensky accuses Putin of disrespecting TrumpTAG24 (AFP) — silent sirens, alternative explanationsNV — Zelenskyy: no ballistic detection without US intel (2025)----------

David DeBatto is host of the ‘No Delusion Zone’ podcast @NoDelusionZone 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 naked self-interest of politicians. ----------LINKS:@NoDelusionZone https://www.protectingtherepublic.com/podcasthttps://www.protectingtherepublic.com/https://x.com/ddebattohttps://www.kyivpost.com/authors/743----------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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyślhttps://kharpp.com/NOR DOG Animal Rescuehttps://www.nor-dog.org/home/----------

Silicon Bites Ep421 | 2026-10-13 | Russia was one of the most developed digital countries in the world - an early large-scale adopter of mobile communications and online shopping - and with extensive range of government services moved online. Ukraine could end not only the digital economy in a few weeks (that's happening) but could crash the entire economy with just a few targeted strikes.----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------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 initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:Reuters / Daily Sabah — Drone hits data center of Russia's 'Google' in 1st for Ukraine war Reuters / The Star — Drones hit Yandex site in first major attack on Russian data hub Reuters / The Star — Russia's Yandex says second data centre hit by drone attackMeduza — Ukraine strikes Yandex data center housing two of the company's supercomputers Meduza — How vulnerable is Russia's internet to further drone attacks? (Sarkis Darbinyan / RKS.global) Kyiv Post — Several modules at Yandex Kaluga data center disabled Newsweek — Ukraine strikes second data center of Russia's Google in two days (military-blogger reaction)Charter97 / Meduza — Yandex unable to give timeline for restoring the "iron heart" The Moscow Times / NV — Payments fail, cash dries up as outage cripples Russia's biggest banks (April 2026 Sber/VTB/Alfa/T-Bank outage)Bank of Russia via Finance.Mail — Household bank deposits reach record 67 trillion rubles NAND Research — Memory & NAND Flash Crisis: 2026 Update (server DRAM +90% QoQ; Goldman Sachs) Al Jazeera — Ukraine takes aim at Russia's AI data infrastructure Cybernews — Ukrainian attacks force Russia to deploy counter-drone tech at data centersComNews / sk.ru — Sberbank data centres: Yuzhny Port, Skolkovo (background on Sber's mirrored sites) ----------