In fact he started it one year ago with three live posts, of which this is the third:
Three days ago:
One day ago:
Hmmm…. That seems to me to be the same room in which he made the livestreams a year ago….
Meanwhile, what has happened to Denis in Vladivostok?
His vlog has been silent for some time. This morning Facebook brought up this memory:
Yes, I was in direct contact with him one year ago. Perhaps he is busy. He did talk of getting married. And he may be at sea a lot. Or he may simply have gone to ground of his own volition…. This is the last we saw of him:
Islamov DC 3 months ago: I am so old today 🙈 I have birthday today and I am already 24 years 😁🤪🥳
The top one is from Professor Gerdes and is worth sharing again.
Note that one mentioned there is London-based political philosopher Vlad Vexler, Russian-born and Oxford-educated. He is top row, third from the left. Vlad suffers from a debilitating auto-immune condition but manages between episodes of this to produce some of the best analysis you will find on YouTube.
Here is his most recent: VLAD REACTS: Tim Snyder, Blair, Jordan Peterson, Rory Stewart, Richard Wolff. Brilliant!
As one commenter says: “I’ve probably watched over 50 Vlad Vexler Vids, this is my all-time favorite! Precise, open, interested, flexible… Reminded me of stochastic reinforcement learning: how AI can’t learn how to drive unless it’s watching a human. I don’t feel like Vlad is telling us what to think, he’s helping us to exercise the moral muscle needed to think for ourselves.” And another: “I was fully prepared to be offended, and reactionary when I initially anticipated the critique of Timothy Snyder’s view here. After listening, I believe that Snyder would humbly concede to your assessment. I would love to see a Vexler/Snyder headed think tank, books and even a speaking tour. I also respect how you can objectively listen to what someone as awful as blair has to say and find commonality and reason within, without personal judgement. Aside from being an exceptional geopolitical evaluator/strategist, you are a class act, Vlad.”
To which I can only add my humble advice: take the time to listen very carefully to what Vlad Vexler says and even more importantly to the way he says it! Rare indeed in this social media landscape, and so much needed!
He was still in Tbilisi then, but in the year since has managed to win a scholarship to study in the USA, where he now is, still vlogging, but less often. He is of course studying, and even enjoying life as a 22-year-old should!
And then there is Roman the Russian
Roman is now in Portugal and recently gave a full account of how he managed this from Tbilisi, where he lived for two years having fled from Russia in 2022.
Just recently, the comments on my YouTube videos said things like, “Russians are just like us.” But as the situation in Ukraine has progressed, they now tend to be more like: “Russians are brainwashed.”
I’m glad people are watching the videos because I know from my experience how helpful YouTube can be. We’re lucky to be able to learn online.
You’ll notice that in my videos, there’s a pretty clear divide between the answers coming from people who grew up in Soviet times and the younger people. When the older generations were growing up, they got their education only from books or teachers — they didn’t have access to the world like people my age do. The position that I’m in, running this channel, wouldn’t have even existed back then….
Just last week, on one of my own videos, one viewer wrote: “You are not scared, not because you are fearless, but because you just haven’t been scared yet.”
That blew my mind. I know what I’m doing is risky, but maybe I don’t feel worried about it because I’ve never actually been that worried. But at the same time, I’m just the storyteller. A lot of people direct-message me asking for my opinion on various topics, but I don’t answer them.
I see my role as being the person who helps tell people’s stories, and I’ll continue to do so to show how and what Russians feel.
— Interview for Business Insider by Stefano Montali
Three months before April 2022 Daniil featured on Canadian CBC News — so one way or another he would have attracted attention in Russia. Age-restricted on YouTube. “As the war in Ukraine drags on, Russian YouTuber Daniil Orain is using his channel called 1420 to help let the world know there are still dissenting voices in the country.” Do go to YouTube and watch it.
The most recent video we have from Daniil is a livestream from four weeks ago.
I received an email in the past couple of days from Germany, from a Full Professor of Cryptology at the Universität der Bundeswehr München in its Department of Computer Science and Research Institute Cyber Defence (CODE), where he is head of the Quantum Safe & Advanced Cryptography (QuSAC) Lab. This is what he said:
Hi Neil, you did a posting on Daniil Orain and his YouTube Channel 1420 about two years ago. Did you have direct contact to him back then? It looks like he’s missing now. His channel is not updated anymore, lots of videos are deleted and no news. I’m worrying about him. Do you have the possibility to find out, if he’s ok?
Now I too am concerned. Daniil has in my opinion been on thin ice for quite a while.
From that last livestream.
Other vloggers in Russia who have been silent lately include these two:
Nick from Russia/Comrade Nick in the Moscow region and Denis from Vladivostok. Of course there are many reasons possible for this, but I just hope the reasons are not sinister. Both were careful what they shared. Denis I started following in fact because Daniil had promoted him.
#Strongwomen. "I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful - for all of it." Kristin Armstrong
All abandoned: Chernobyl / Pripyat, Nara Dreamland, Anti-Zombie Fortress, Japanese Sex Museum - and many, many more! Plus: North Korea Special - 2 trips, 16 days / 14 nights! As seen on CNN...
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