In today's #vatniksoup I'll introduce a Bosnian social media personality and nurse, @200_zoka aka Lazo Z. He's best-known for his conspiratorial analysis on the war in Syria, and for his pro-Russian takes on the Russo-Ukrainian War.
This soup was a NAFO collaboration.
1/20
.@200_zoka belongs to the "big three" of pro-Russian Twitter analysts/political commentators, the other two being a German tanker bridge attendant @trollstoy88 aka Richard Z, and Austrian IT support guy, @GeromanAT.
The former was introduced here:
2/20
But this "zuppa del giorno" is just as much about Lazo's catfishing personality as it is about him. For a long time, Lazo used pictures of an young and attractive Russian girl as his profile picture and in his tweets. This strategy of using attractive yet fake images to...
3/20
...attract online audiences is called catfishing, and it's been used online since the birth of the Internet. Recent developments in filters and deep fakes has made it easier for people to catfish for donations and attention online.
4/20
One better-known example if this kind of activity was the 50-year-old Japanese biker dude, who used these filters to make him appear as a young, attractive girl.
5/20
Lazo's fake persona was a Russian powerlifter and propaganda figure called Maryana Naumova. She's been Russia's propaganda sweetheart since 2015, and you might remember her from sending a video greeting to @Schwarzenegger after he appealed Russia to stop their illegal war.
6/20
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Naumova was traveling around invaded areas in Ukraine, producing propaganda for the Russian masses. She's since participated in actual war activities, too. Naumova is member of Russia's communist party and a Stalin fan girl.
7/20
In addition to idolizing Stalin, Maryana has shown her support for war criminals like Slobodan Milosevich, Bashar al-Assad, and Kim Jong Un. As a cherry on top, she's appeared on various occasions together with Russian neo-Nazi and Rusich leader, Aleksei Milchakov.
8/20
It is not known if Ms. Naumova was aware of this questionable honor.Anyway, let's go back to Lazo: his expertise on war comes from his relatively long career in working as a nurse near the Bosnian town of Mostar (even though his Twitter profile says he's in Baranda, Serbia).
9/20
Soon after reaching the ripe age of 18, he started simping online for Syria's al-Assad and Putin, and their war effort in Syria. He painted the NGO group White Helmets, who were responsible in aiding civilians in war zones, as terrorists and paid actors.
10/20
The White Helmets were deliberately targeted by the Russian and al-Assad's troops in so-called "double tap" attacks, and they've been targeted aggressively by pro-Russian and pro-al-Assad propagandists like @VanessaBeeley.
11/20
Zoka's also denied the use of chemical weapons against civilians by the al-Assad regime - a fact that has been confirmed by several reports by the OPCW.
12/20
His account started growing quickly after Russia launched their full-scale invasion Ukraine in Feb 2022. Most of his posts are videos from the front lines, usually coming from a Russian perspective.
13/20
Like @trollstoy88, Lazo posts a lot of photos of (and probably dreams about) Russian women visiting or working in the front lines.
In one particularly disgusting incident, he posted a photo of a Ukrainian girl, stating that she's "Russian".
14/20
His allegiance to the Kremlin is obvious from his posts, and he for example celebrated Wagner's capture of Bakhmut, a demolished city with only symbolic value.
Like Naumova, Lazo also seems to be simping the Russian neo-Nazi Milchakov:
15/20 https://t.co/6QbyNcXrz6
Lazo seems to be a Wagner fanboy, and he was part of the group that was skeptical about Prigozhin's mutiny against Putin, stating that he'd "never threatened Putin".He's also urged Putin to buy the new Shahed 149, the Iranian drone used to attack civilian targets in Ukraine.16/20
He's also spread a lie about Ukraine requesting blood from NATO, claiming that the blood (that was never requested) was infected with HIV and hepatitis B & C. His claims were later fact-checked, which made Lazo a happy man - he even asked for more articles that mention him.
17/20
After Shiite militia abducted Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, Zoka made fun of her situation, hinting that she might have been raped by her captors. He's also celebrated the death of US marines, only hoping there would've been more casualties.
18/20
Lazo is a controversial figure - he spreads disinformation benefiting Russia' genocidal war, but at the same time his a thirsty young man and momma's boy who spends a lot of time with his parents. But this doesn't make his message any less damaging, as with...
19/20
... over 175 000 followers he has a huge reach on Twitter. I actually have a hunch that these rather radical ideas and support of totalitarian regimes might come from his father, who celebrated al-Assad's birthday together with Lazo.
20/20
Past soups:
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APPENDIX:
Apparently he is a Bosnian Serb:
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