Episode Details

James Sherr OBE is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme, which he headed from 2008–11. He currently is a Honorary Fellow at the International Centre for Defence & Security in Tallinn, Estonia, and he was previously Senior Fellow of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute there. His background stretches across the UK Defence Academy, Oxford, RUSI, extensive advisory work in Ukraine and decades of research into Soviet/Russian military and security policy.----------LINKS:https://icds.ee/en/author/james-sherr-5/https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/our-people/james-sherrhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Sherrhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/james-sherr-obe-9593885/----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------DESCRIPTION:James Sherr: Russia Chose War in 2021—And the West Still Thinks in Peacetime TermsIn this interview, James Sherr argues that Russia’s core security culture and institutions—its siloviki and General Staff—were never reformed after the USSR, and that a key change in late 2020–2021 was Moscow’s conclusion that it could not achieve its objectives in Europe without war, testing the Biden administration and seeking recognition of a Russian sphere of influence. Since 2022, he says Russia has intensified a holistic, undeclared war against the West alongside the brutal war in Ukraine, with “hybrid” operations becoming increasingly kinetic, while Western responses remain constrained by peacetime legal standards, escalation fears, and lost institutional memory. Sherr stresses that Putin seeks to crush Ukraine, that Russia will not stop voluntarily, and that only tangible, risk-accepting Western actions can make Russia’s aims infeasible; he also notes Russia’s effective allies and warns Western analysis often misreads Russian belief systems, endurance, and concepts of power.----------CHAPTERS:00:00 Russia Militarized State01:11 Why War Became Inevitable04:11 Undeclared War Reality06:11 Attribution And Escalation Trap10:19 Lost Deterrence Memory12:37 Siloviki Culture Unreformed14:52 Dark Empathy For Russia19:19 Authority And Prigozhin Lesson23:24 Western Weak Signals30:04 Allies And Alignment Of Interest35:03 Putin Next Levers40:44 No Magic Breaking Point47:07 War Transforms Russia58:10 Risk And Strategic Neutralization----------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----------