Speaking at the Greater Good Gathering “The Artificial Future” at Columbia University’s Interchurch Center in New York, Anatoly Motkin, President of StrategEast highlighted an eight-year initiative to build knowledge-driven digital economies across Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
StrategEast President emphasized the region’s strong engineering base — particularly in Ukraine, where talent contributes to Fortune 500 companies and increasingly to defense tech — and called for deeper Western investment in local skills and innovation ecosystems.
He described a growing “digital decoupling” between a China-led tech sphere and a “trusted technologies” bloc of the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South Korea, likening it to a fragmented modern-day Iron Curtain. Unlike China’s infrastructure-led model, he argued, Western firms create more long-term value by training local talent.
Mr. Motkin urged companies to move beyond selling technology toward building local capacity, noting that integration into global digital systems — grounded in rule of law and private enterprise — can help shift these economies away from resource dependence and corruption.
The 2026 Gathering, organized by Eric Schnurer, co-sponsored by Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and partners, launches a broader national conversation on AI’s impact across society.
