Summarize the following text after “GO” to 400 words but do not output anything saying it is a summary or the number of words. do not mention the video creator or author or the word video, just write the summary like it is an short article in first person. GO welcome to Silicon bites episode 44 and so much has happened over the last couple of days it is difficult to cram it all in to a single episode so by necessity we’re going to be looking in at quite a high level at these stories but we hope to dive into some of them in a lot more detail in the coming days in F length interviews with experts on the different subjects now normally we start these videos by looking at Ukraine because ukra Remains the main focus of this channel however there’s a lot happening in Georgia and of course over the weekend there has been some extraordinary changes in Moscow so we’re going to start with that story because of its significance and of course examine what the implications for Ukraine’s Victory may be we start with the Kiev independent that talks about Putin’s firing of his defense minister shyu and the appointment of a new person to that role but that’s not the only change there seems to be a whole raft of changes going on in Moscow and at the moment it’s highly speculative as to the reasons and logic behind these changes Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on May the 12th proposed firing the defense minister Sergey Shu and nominated Andre bov to replace him according to the telegram channels of the federal Council the Russian parliament’s Upper House Putin appointed shagu as Secretary of Russia’s Security Council this is perhaps a move that no one saw coming because he replaces the longtime Confidant and close advisor to Putin Nikolai pev it’s not clear yet what Ro pter if any will be moved into now we know that Shu has faced massive criticism internally including from Zed Patriots and Russia’s proar Hawks for mishandling the war effort in Ukraine however it is not at all clear if his dismissal is a demotion since the position of the security Council secretary is considered to be amongst the most powerful in the country and who is B USV well he’s known as a supporter of boosting military spending and mobilizing Russ ‘s economy for the war effort Bill OV is also a technocrat and an economist by training so this may well be an effort by Vladimir Putin to gear up for the long War a marathon rather than a Sprint well we’re already three years into this so we are already into that sort of marathon in any case but Russia’s military-industrial complex and indeed its civilian economy is coming under more and more strain so pointing a technocrat to this role may be a way of focusing on Logistics and making Russia fit enough to be able to slog this war out for more years to come and it’s also important to note and this actually was stressed by Demitri pesov the habitual liar and Kremlin spokesman he said that Putin had decided to appoint a civilian as defense minister since the ministry should be open to Innovation and aggressive ideas but this is perhaps also repeating the mistake of having Shu again someone with absolutely no military experience at all in such a senior position within the defense Ministry Shu and it’s likely bill of know nothing at all about military strategy so what’s the implication here for Ukraine well they may be able to improve Logistics they may be able to through this change downgrade the impact of corruption on supply lines and so on then again maybe they won’t but what they won’t be doing by this change of role is introducing new strategic skills in terms of the battlefield because it’s unlikely that b Lov really understands anything about that there has also been other commentary that maybe the firing of shyu was something to do with his massive corruption and how that corruption has hollered out the Russian military and and contributed towards its failures in Ukraine well that criticism is based on the idea that somehow corruption is the exception to the role in the Russian system and that is absolutely not the case corruption is a feature not a bug it is highly unlikely that shyu would have been dismissed through corruption it’s highly unlikely that anyone internally really will care that much because everybody has their hands in the till the entire system is constructed so that people can fleece money out of that economic vertical and the higher you are in that hierarchy the higher the pecking order you are then you have the right to take more money not to each according to his skill but the Russian system is all about to each according to his loyalty and seniority if you’re closer to the Zar you can legitim Ely steal more so this is unlikely to be the real reason for his dismissal and it may well be that a new defense minister coming in someone who is moving into that senior Position will take this as a green light that he can start thieving on a grander scale let’s hope that these Russian Traditions continue because it’ll mean that Russia will not fundamentally change enough in order to have a victory in Ukraine or to fundamentally alter the balance of power on the battlefield bsv however is not new to politics he was Russia’s economy minister in 2012 to 13 and an aid to Putin in 2013 to 2020 he was the first Deputy Prime Minister in 2020 to 24 so of course he is extremely close to Putin and the Kremlin and at this point in time it is not surprising that Putin would appoint somebody who is a loyalist or perceived to be one now let’s turn to Georgia because this is getting a little bit of coverage in the mainstream media but not nearly as much as I think it deserves we are seeing a history defining set of events in Georgia which more and more takes on the characteristic of a second maidan revolution this is from the Moscow times thousands rally into bissi against the foreign influence Bill thousands of protesters marched through Central tii on Saturday at a rally against a controversial foreign influence Bill backed by the Georgian government and likened to Russia’s laws that have been introduced silencing descent and of course similar laws have been appearing all over the place in the so-called Russian sphere of influence this seems to take on the character of a concerted effort by Russia to assist autocrats everywhere and would be autocrats to entrench their power and fight back against what they would see as color revolutions and CIA interference but what most normal people would see as the emergence of real genuine organic politics massive rallies have gripped the Black Sea Caucasus country for almost a month after the ruling Georgian Dream party revived the bill that was dropped last year because of the huge backlash that that engendered demonstrators converged on TI’s Central Europe Square on Saturday evening in the latest protests and as this has been going on we have seen the government deploy not just police but irregular thugs as well onto the streets and they have Unleashed cruel and extraordinary violence on protesters but also on many opposition spokespeople on professors and those in the intelligencia and there are hor iic pictures of the beatings they sustained and the injuries that that has caused under pouring rain protesters chanted no to the Russian law and no to the Russian dictatorship waving red and white georan flags and bleed and blue EU Flags in a sea of umbrellas on the large Square we are protecting our European future and our freedom said one of the protesters Mariam munia and who works for a German company adding that she fears her country is going in the direction of Russia we do not want to return to the Soviet Union said another protester the European Union and the United States United Nations have spoken out against the legislation and have also voiced concern about the violence against protesters but really the West needs to be doing more we need to see that this is an existential struggle for democracy around the world and emerging democracies in the backyard of Russia the former territory of the USSR we need to understand that Russia is going to be doing everything it can to destroy and crush the ability of people to decide their own fate and take charge of their own destiny we need to be lending them more support rather than sending thoughts prayers and concern now let’s turn to Ukraine because one of the significant developments in the last week is the new Russian offensive in the har Direction this is from the Kev independent this is dated May the 11th Russian forces in the KH oist are contained but fighting continues Russian forces have been involved in a new offensive operation targeting the Hur of orist they are apparently contained and have not Advanced deep into Ukrainian territory and this was announced on 11th of May the situation is changing we’ll come to the latest battle news in a second Ukraine’s defense Ministry reported that Russian forces had launched an attempt to break through in the H of oblas we can only assume that their target is to try and attack the huge City Ukraine’s Second City of KH the general staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces later that day reported that Ukrainian troops were fending Russian forces in the litsky and vchan directions in the north of har oblast as Moscow deployed infantry and heavy equipment many people are voicing doubts about whether Russia has the numbers of troops or the equipment or indeed the Strategic plans or skill to actually mount an attack on kiv itself let alone take it if you remember the period of time it took to take out divka bahmut solidar ugar and others hariv is on an alog together different scale it would be like a thousand bah muts it’s highly unlikely that Russia has the resources to take that on and that is echoed by a phrase from Alexander Pena who is the commander of Ukraine’s National Guard Russia would need years to occupy AR in its entirety he said but Russia’s incursion has caused Terror destruction and will must assume a terrible suffering from the civilian population of the area in fact civilians have been fleeing vunk which has come under heavy Russian bombardment as that ground offensive rolls out we’ve also been getting reports from correspondents on the ground that Russia is sending Glide bombs on mass into that town and of course we know the scale of Destruction those can unleash which means that vchan like many other Ukrainian towns will probably be turned into a shell into a pile of charred bricks and Timbers over the next couple of days and weeks vunk is Crown zero for Russia’s new offensive in harv oist the first time a serious push has been made to take territory across the border since the area was liberated from Russian occupation in Ukraine’s lightning offensive in September 2022 now the town is on the brink of becoming the first major settlement to be occupied by Russia for a second time since it was liberated but the prospect of a new and larger offensive on the scale of the hariv one uh has loomed for months and now it comes at a time when Ukrainian forces are reported to be overstretched and are starting to lose ground not just here but also in the danet oist now it remains to be seen whether this is a full offensive in its own right or whether this is intended to create a distraction to divert Ukrainian forces away from the hotspot of denit and give the Russians a chance to break through there the strategy is not clear at the moment by the time these articles came out yesterday and this morning Russian forces had reached the outskirts of the town of V Chans and the unfolding situation is not clear and civilians fleeing the area have been quoted as saying it is now impossible to live there and coaches buses evacuation teams have been mobilized to help civilians get out of that area and get to safety and finally in a comment on this the general staff of the Ukrainian Army has said that the battle for V Chans is ongoing this is the latest story from this morning but it has admitted that Russia is achieving some quotes tactical successes now the key of independent writes in some details about the successes of Russian forces in the denit oist and its a defensive on aerin as Ukraine’s Defenders and allies display a constellation of weakness Russian forces are taking advantage and pushing forward in denet oist says the publication the Russians have begun their assault on chesar while a complimentary flanking assault is slowly pushing up from occupied a divka in an attempt to cut the supply Road from kator to costantina chivar is the Foy of costantina a larger town that has served an important Ukrainian military staging ground their intention is to approach the main Transit hars and thereby render the defense of denes oist systemically difficult to sustain says Michael Kaufman a military scholar from the dc-based Carnegie Endowment in the past few days their forces have breached Ukrainian defenses over for running Ain a Frontline Village in denet oblast the blea Defenders withdrew from several nearby villages on April the 28th as the Russian presence in the area continued to expand although they’ve kept the Russians from breaking through Ukrainian units are having a very hard time on this part of the front line there are many reasons for this including the ongoing impacts of the ammunition shortages shortage of Supply personnel and in some units a lack of training experience and organization some have also complained about a lack of sufficient support or clear planning from the general staff or the government but the full outcome of this offensive remains to be seen Kaufman has said that the general view is that Russia lacks the capacity to use its forces on a scale sufficient for a major breakthrough through and cannot sustain the momentum at the current pace and all these issues on the front lines show why it is so important to help give Ukraine what it needs not just in dribs and drabs or just in time but give it more than it needs to get the job done we should be building in security to the supplies to Ukraine and in training their troops as well not not constantly taking the riskiest scenario by delaying everything pushing it to the last minute and forcing upon Ukraine more losses than it needs to sustain to hold the line and in this Spirit there’s an article in the Kev independent which talks about the Czech president who says that Europe must set clear boundaries for Russia this is dated May the 11th Russia does not seek cooperation with Europe and if European countries want to ensure peace and prosperity they must set clear boundaries for Moscow Czech president P pavil said in an interview with the Austrian newspaper depress tensions between Russia and Europe have been mounting of course since it launched its fullscale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago according to the Czech president Russia continues to see itself as a superpower with the right to dictate rules Europe support for Ukraine is therefore in its own interests he added if we want to maintain security and prosperity in this part of Europe we must set clear boundaries for Russia should we fail it could lead to serious complications in the future that of course is an understatement Russia is not just looking to make minor gains in the east of Ukraine it is quite clear that Russia wants to upend the international order wants to diminish the role of the US and the role of rule of law throughout the world this has become increasingly clear from experts that we have interviewed on this channel and in this Spirit too unfortunately we don’t hear this from Schultz but we are starting to hear German lawmakers some of them some individual lone voices talking in an extremely tough and necessary way again this is from the K independent and it states that a German lawmaker suggests that allies could protect the sky over Western Ukraine from NATO soil some German lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties have supported the idea of allies defending the airspace over Western Ukraine from NATO territory polish officials have also mentioned this possibility but no concrete decisions have been presented defending the airspace over Ukraine from Poland and Romania should not be ruled out in the long term said Anton Hofer from the co-ruling green party the lawmaker nevertheless added that the matter is currently not under discussion as allies focus on supplying additional defensive Aid to Ukraine Berlin has proved itself of course to be a leader in the provision of air defense support for Ukraine and launched an Allied initiative aiming at securing add air defense systems and pledging its third Patriot battery to Kev so these are good ideas and it’s good to hear them start to appear but as we’ve seen with the previous supply of Munitions whether it is leopards Abrams Patriots and other systems and and of course f16s and of course f-16s aren’t even in play yet and we’re more than two years in point where the these ideas are raised the point where they get discussed in legislatures and actually passed and adopted that needs to shrink dramatically we need to stop playing with the security of Europe and stop playing with the lives of ukrainians another piece of good news and this is the announcement that the US has unveiled another 400 million defense Aid package for Europe This follows the 61 billion approved just a couple of weeks ago US President Joe Biden on May the 10th authorized a $4 million defense a package for Ukraine according to a statement on White House’s website I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State to direct the draw down of up to 400 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense to provide assistance to Ukraine the statement read the Pentagon unveiled the content of new packages and there are some significant announcements in here namely ammunition for the Patriot and nasams air defense systems Stinger anti-aircraft missiles highas systems and ammunition 155 and 105 mm artillery shells and equipment to integrate into Western launchers missiles and Radars with Ukrainian systems the package further contains br Bradley infantry fighting Vehicles m113 armored personnel carriers M resistant ambush protected mrap Vehicles trailers toone missiles Javelin and at4 anti-tank launchers Precision aerial Munitions and highspeed anti-radiation missiles Harms in addition it contains small arms and Small Arms ammunition demolition Munitions Coastal Patrol boats chemical biological radiological and nuclear protective equipment spare parts and other ancillary equipment this will not be the last package required to help Ukraine achieve Victory it will not even be the last package required to allow Ukraine to stay in the fight but it is to be welcomed nonetheless now let’s turn to some interesting individual news stories to help build out a picture of what’s going on this one is again from the Kev independent and it talks about Ukraine po eventually starting to discuss the recruitment of 20,000 convicts into the army now this isn’t an exact mirror of the Russian law this will not involve people accused of murder and serious crimes but of course it is a step that suggests a certain level of desperation in terms of needing people to fill the ranks in Ukraine’s Army especially as it becomes depleted monthin month out and the mobilization law that has been passed struggles to get the required number of troops to build up the numbers to match the swelling numbers we see on the Russian side Ukraine could fill its ranks with as many as 20,000 conficts in a move that could also help ease overcrowding in Ukrainian prisons the Justice Minister told BBC Ukraine in an interview published on May the 10th Ukraine’s Parliament the vov passed a bill on May the 8th that permit those convicted of certain offenses to serve in the military Paving the way for the voluntary mobilization of prisoners many have supported the bill but it’s also been pointed out that it is up to Ukraine’s Armed Forces to determine who is suitable for them and who is not and that is crucial they don’t want to dilute the will and commitment of Ukrainian forces and they don’t want to dilute the skills that are required on the front or create increased risks for those who are serving prisoners as I said who are serving due to extreme crimes including murder should be left to serve their sentences and will not be recruited into the army and another story which did get quite a bit of coverage in the mainstream media and this is Russia’s highly militarized Victory Day celebration these have nothing at all to do with World War II suggests the KF independent the legacy of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany feeds pro-war aggression in Putin’s Russia it is celebrated with an almost religious fervor it has nothing to do with never again rather yes we can is the motto that you’re more likely to hear in Russia the article examines the evolution of the Victory Day Parade from those grand militaristic parades in the Soviet Union to the more low-key ones we saw in the 1990s but when Russian President Vladimir Putin swept into power in 2000 he faced a divided country the disintegration of the Soviet Union the economic downturn that followed had left deep scars on Russian Society he felt a sense of National humiliation and of course he weaponized it he even I would argue exacerbated it Putin needed a common cause that weite the masses the Revival of the Russian Orthodox Church back to the highest levels of government was one such step another was to revive the Victory Day parades and the Kremlin was Keen to warp that wartime memory for its own ends the memory of a defensive of War became an all-encompassing National myth a rallying cry for patriotism and an endless source of propaganda most of all that celebration of victory over Nazi Germany has become a validation for Russian aggression in Ukraine with the Kremlin Conjuring up images of Ukrainian Neo-Nazi threats in Kiev to justify its Invasion most people watching this channel will know that it is a lie that it’s a monstrous lie and it’s one that has been created to manipulate Russian people but points out Nova Gazeta there is another aspect to this while the rise in authoritarianism put an end to the discussion of once highly emotive subjects such as democracy and human rights and where the examination of Russia’s history became highly elective that history around the start of World War II was completely off the table for most media and historians and schools and others how the war started is crucially important because Russia started the war as an ally of Nazi Germany it allowed the Germans to think they could get away with their conquest of Europe without initially being opposed by one of the largest military powers on the continent but Russian mythology focuses on on the period subsequent to that after the Germans broke their Alliance and attacked Moscow and it’s that part the relability of Russia as a victim which almost every Russian family can actually understand relate to and it would have been deeply out of character if the Russian government had not tried to mindless tragic part of Russian history for its own ends and manipulations those ow fact have been able to reap the political benefit by appearing at War memorials Museum openings and with veterans or simply by using the victory narrative in all of their speeches the Russian government’s World War II narrative says novag Getta is molded around three main principles first it strenuously avoids mentioning the key historical context that might prove awkward such as the totalitarian reality of Life under Stalin or the traumatic consequences of the Soviet government’s wartime decisions those consequences led to many many millions of excess deaths on the Russian side second the state’s contemporary recasting of the countryes World War II myth avoids any references to Communism in an attempt to ensure the collective Mary of Russia’s wartime heroism is not suid by the mass murder of innocent people and Stalin and thirdly and most importantly whipping up patriotic fervor has allowed the lines between the war in Ukraine and World War II to become blurred in some ways and in a previous video with Anna from Ukraine we’ve suggested that actually the Ukraine war for many Russians is a kind of low quality tasteless cosplay version of World War II the continuity between the two conflicts is reinforced in moscow’s annual Victory Day Parade which showcases present-day Russian military prowess while nominally commemorating the red Army’s capture of Berlin of course it has to be noted at this Year’s parade there was just one solitary t34 tank which underlines the massive and embarrassing losses that have actually been sustained by the Russian army in Ukraine over the last t and a bit years and I’m going to share another piece this is from the Kev post and it is written by two people who have generously appeared on Silicon curtain Ian stradner and Jason J smart this is an opinion piece that says that the great that says there is a great lie behind Russia’s Victory Day Russians believe their Nation contri contributed more than any other to winning World War II the uncomfortable truth is that Moscow actually started the war in 1939 as Nazi Germany’s Ally and the uncomfortable truth is that many of those deaths those excess deaths caused by Terror brutality indifference incompetence of the Russian government didn’t need to happen and actually served little strategic purpose what is also brush over in much of the wartime mythology is what’s now becoming apparent and that is the crimes on a horrific scale caused by Russia and its troops right across the territories it was apparently liberating the cases of mass rape in Berlin and across Germany and indeed in other countries that it was supposedly liberating from Nazi Germany as something that only now Now is really getting full focus by historians and the elephant in the room as well where Russia calls itself an occupier in fact it was not dissimilar from the Nazi regime itself it was taking territories to add to its Empire it had no intention of liberating those peoples in Eastern Europe and many of them found themselves going from being ruled by one dictator to another and many also found especially if they were politically active or part of the intelligencia or showed any resistance at all to Russian power and Russian communism many of them found themselves being deported to Siberia some even never made it that far and were executed in Mass acts of Terror right across Eastern Europe nowhere more so than in Poland which Russia saw as its historic enemy and a significant threat Putin has called Victory Day a sacred holiday and Dimitri MV General Secretary of the union state expressed the hope that history will erase the reasons for the emergence of Nazism which Russia is now fighting this statement of course has an orwellian black is white war is peace kind of ring to it virtually every Russian town has mult multiple World War II monuments proclaiming the victory of Communism over fascism an argument that of course now seems dated and for anyone who has traveled through Russia there is something cold something Collective and brutal about most of these monuments they do not talk to the individual suffering you don’t get a sense of the individual names you don’t get a sense of the individuals who may have vol voluntarily fought to free themselves from the Nazi domination these are monuments to the regime the Soviet Communist Regime they are monuments to power and control not monuments to the loss and suffering of individuals in that sense I never found I could empathize with those monuments they’re in St contrast to The Monuments you see in every town and Village in Britain for instance where you get a very real sense of the individual loss and suffering and you get to read the names of those individuals which is crucially important now let’s turn to the execution of Russia’s war in Ukraine and this is an interesting piece from the K independent it says the Ukrainian Military Intelligence suggests that over 18,000 Russian troops of the Southern military District have deserted soldiers of Russia’s Southern military District whose units are deployed in Ukraine are deserting their posts in increasing numbers Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Agency H said on April the 29th according to many observers low morale has been a recurring problem for the Russian armed forces and that’s not a huge surprise perhaps the UK’s defense Ministry has also pointed out that Russian troops in Ukraine are mainly staffed with contract soldiers and reservists mobilized in late 2022 but conscripts are often pressured to sign contracts and this may well be one of the reasons why if they have the charts they will try to get away and here we have two stories one from the Moscow times one from the KF independent about the ongoing Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries one of the latest ones has occurred in Russia’s kuga region a Ukrainian drone struck an oil refinery in central Russia’s kuga region local officials said Friday as a recent uptick in attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure possibly risks destabilizing Global energy markets well I would suggest that the global energy markets be DED Ukrainian Victory is the first priority and in fact the only sanctions over the last two years that seem to have had any impact whatsoever on Russia are those that are forcefully imposed by Ukraine in terms of sending drones to attrit Russia’s oil refining capacity none of the other sanctions regime has really made a dent in Russia’s war machine or in its capacity to import components and materials to help it perpetuate its aggression in this sense Ukraine absolutely needs to continue that strategy and indeed if it has the capacity scale it up and this is the issue discussed in the Kev independent Ukrainian drones hit one Russian oil refinery after another and this gets to the hard the problem Ukraine faces a challenging problem how to stop a resurgent Moscow in its tracks long enough to rotate its troops resupply and fortify a big part of the answer is playing out right now now in the Skies over Russia says the publication over the past two weeks at least a dozen Ukrainian drones reportedly struck nine Russian regions the targets oil refineries many have hit their targets as we’ve seen I’m sure in various footage of people on the ground they have caused fires and explosions at fuel processing plants across Russia and this strategy goes hand inhand with Ukraine’s earlier attacks on Russia’s hydrocarbon pumping Port infrastructure in us luga and Nova rasis Russia’s primary gateways to export the oil and gas that keeps the whole country and its invasion of Ukraine running if the attacks can be sustained at a high Tempo they could slow Russia’s War Machine and economy raise spending pressure Russia to move a defenses reduce exports and cause unfavorable price swings on fuel this can buy Ukraine more time this can create instability within the Russian economy and one would hope the political Elite as well the damage is hard to estimate but we will be discussing this topic in the next video with Constantine sof and just a couple of stories to round out our coverage one seeks to tackle the popular propagandistic message of zelinsky’s legitimacy now that is not in question because the wartime suspension of Elections mean that it is perfectly constitutional for him to stay in office and not call elections in fact there is Broad support for that measure right across the political community in Ukraine and it’s and it is supported by Ukraine’s legislature the vov r Ukraine’s Minister of Justice says that because of wartime regul ations president zilinski will remain the legitimate head of state even though his 5-year term expires on May the 21st the president’s Powers endure until the election of his successor however certain provisions of the Constitution are open to interpretation inviting speculation or conspiracy theories now that does not seem to be emerging on mass it does not yet seem to have any destabilizing effect on Ukrainian Society but of course we know that Russian trolls and propagandists will try to make some Mage out of this in fact this may get far more traction amongst the US right-wing uh than it does actually in Ukraine itself in the description of the video I’ll also be sharing a link to this story in the Kiev post and it is going into detail of how Ukraine’s economy has remained resilient and in fact thrived despite the ongoing war and this is another rarely discussed aspect but one in which I think it shows the true character of Ukraine and what a powerful society and economy it will be after the war is finished because if it can sustain this level of growth and resilience in Wartime one can only imagine what would happen in the state of the economy when it’s being rebuilt and is secure Ukraine’s economy has proven to be a resilient one not withstanding the ongoing War most Ukrainian companies continue working and during the second year since the fullscale Russian invasion some have even increased their activity said Katrina morova head of the European Business Association in adessa businesses in Ukraine continue to operate and show Financial results even in such difficult conditions we see a gradual but steady trend of recovery in business activity and financial performance which began in 2022 currently 78% of the association’s member companies are operating at full capacity while a year ago only 54% were fully operational the number of companies with restrictions on their operations continues to decrease from 46% last year to the current 21% the most common restriction Remains the reduction of the company’s Geographic scope of activity the majority of these companies surveyed in this particular report namely 88% pay salaries in full while 15% pay bonuses or additional funds at the same time 43% of companies increased the salary level of their employees the number of companies that reduce the level of pay or dismiss Personnel in 2024 remains quite low and Curr currently stands at 5% and 3% perspectively well there’s a lot more detail in this article but I find it absolutely extraordinary that under the psychological and physical pressure of war that the Ukrainian economy exhibits this kind of strength and resilience two more stories that I will just provide a short link to because I think they are especially interesting and this one is from Nova Gazeta and it asks the question how Moscow gave ramsan kadirov a free hand in ch but plans to take some of that back after his death now it has been reported for some time now that kadirov is not exactly in the full bloom of Health on 16th of April cchan leader Raman kadirov announced that apti alov commander of the ammat Special Forces Battalion has been assigned a coveted defense Ministry job in Moscow alov whose one year and 10 months spent in Ukraine constitute his entire combat experience was appointed as a deputy at the main directorate for military and political work this is a dizzying rise up the ranks now this may well mean that he has been groomed as a successor to kadirov and I think one of the key discussions here in the article is not that chcha will descend into Lawless chaos or will immediately seek to break away from Russia when there is a succession crisis in fact there seems to be a lot of planning going on for kadirov replacement and the real struggle is going to be over individual Ministries who controls them Chans or Kremlin appointed puppets this is likely to be a struggle that happens behind closed doors a struggle for increased Kremlin control and influence in the territory but with local players trying to ensure that they maintain various control that they have now and extend in some areas I think it’s going to take a local expert to really help decipher what’s going on but we look forward to covering this topic in the coming weeks and months especially if kadirov shuffles off this Mortal coil which can’t happen soon enough and lastly from Nova gazetta an interesting article that shows how Moscow uses Europe’s far right to promote its own narratives about the war in Ukraine in fact we had an episode earlier this week about a film that’s being made on displaced people uh you displaced ukrainians rather in Ireland and we briefly talked about how Moscow is trying to leverage farri right sentiment and amplify genuine local concerns around local communities resources Etc how try to leverage that for its own ends well this article focuses much more on Central Europe and on Germany in particular and how Russia tries to create assets and agents and leverage various discontent and piggy bag off extremist organizations in Europe earli this week the European commission announced it would expand Czech sanctions imposed on media Outlet voice of Europe early this year to the entire EU as a scandal around Russia’s alleged attempts to influence the outcome of next month’s European elections rumbl on this article features a lengthy interview with political scientist Anton Sher who has also been on this channel whose academic research at central European University focuses on Russian political influence in Europe he told Nova gazetta how links between Russia and European far right developed and what the Kremlin gains from this Arrangement and it also covers an extraordinary event in German political history when a plot to overthrow the government was orchestrated by German far-right group patriotic Union this group is part of a broader nationalistic reberger movement whose members reject the legitimacy of modern Germany and instead consider themselves citizens of the German Reich that existed from 1871 1 to 1945 ironic that Moscow is fighting a war in Ukraine apparently to rid it of Nazis and in Western Europe it is investing in Nazi forces to try and destabilize democracy the Patriotic Union developed the idea that they would conquer Germany with help from its allies in Russia and the US which at that time was led by Donald Trump they want wanted these Allied Forces to carry at a cetar that would allow them to restore the German Reich they were well prepared they had weapons money gold on plans on how to storm the r tag but in the end were caught by the security services well there’s a lot of interesting detail in here it really does examine the grotesque hypocrisy of Russia and its meddling in Europe where it seeks to destabilize societies and build up the forces of extremism and hate and we’ll try to get Anton on the channel to talk about these issues soon especially with the upcoming European elections well that’s it from Silicon bites we’ll have another episode later in the week because so much is going on I don’t think we’ll have trouble filling that sort of 40 minute space but thank you for sticking with the episode this week and I know everyone on this channel will be thinking of Ukraine and Georgia as they both continue to struggle this week to push back and hold the line against Kremlin influence and aggression