Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Oct 10, 2022 11 tweets 5 min read Read on X
In today's Finnish #vatnik's, I'll introduce you to a podcast called LEVELI. The main hosts of the show are two gentlemen: Nico Giansanti (.@ReaverTeknoGods) and Milad Dehghan.

Embrace yourselves, 'tis is a rather long one. 🧵1/11 Image
LEVELI podcast was started on April in 2020. At the beginning, the show was hosting guests that ranged from minor celebrities to actual well-known celebs (e.g. Mikko Hyppönen (.@mikko) and even the Finland's biggest OSINT star, .@emilkastehelmi) in the Finnish media sphere. 2/11 Image
From the beginning, LEVELI was very anti-establishment and countercultural with conspiracies, mysticism and numerology thrown in the mix. They also covered more lighthearted topics such as social media drama and e-celebs. 3/11
In 2021,both Nico and Milad decided to run in the 🇫🇮 municipal elections. They chose their party, True Finns, based on an online poll conducted during one of their podcasts. Milad was elected to Vantaa city council and Nico earned the seat of deputy city council in Helsinki. 4/11 Image
They were eventually sacked from True Finns for criticising the party leadership. Party secretary Arto Luukkanen (.@ArtoLuukkanen) commented that "Anyone can look at their podcast and figure out the reason for this [the sacking]". 5/11
After this, the duo joined Ano Turtiainen's (.@TurtiainenAno) VKK party ("Power to the people"). This group is by far the most Russian leaning party in Finland, and their sole MP Ano has constantly stated the sanctions against Russia should be lifted. 6/11 Image
LEVELI is divided into different segments. In one of them, they go through and discuss different news and counterculture news. Another key segment is the part where they ridicule people who they disagree with, for example politicians and journalists. 7/11 Image
In one show they fried Finnish president Sauli Niinistö (.@niinisto) in an electric chair. In another one Milad praises 🇷🇺's mobilization celebrations.After 🇷🇺 attacked Ukraine in Feb 2021,their podcast has dedicated large segments to spreading Russian disinfo and propaganda.8/11
Generally their reporting and discussion is extremely biased,and they often make assumptions based on conspiracies, numerology and other pseudoscientific bs. Topics vary from COVID-19 conspiracies, alleged corruption in Finland/West, WEF/Great Reset, anti-NATO narratives,etc.9/11 Image
LEVELI has been looking for various monetization channels throughout the years. Probably most of their income comes from individual benefactors on their stream, but they also have a subscription model with private channels, etc. 10/11
They also sell some merch through their website (including #jauhojengi shirts). Both Milad and Nico are also doing music and trying to start several sub-projects such as MMA and travel shows. 11/11 Image

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Jun 8
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about Finland and how pro-Kremlin propagandists have become more active in the Finnish political space since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the first time since 2022, they’ve gained some political power in Finland.

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Russia’s political strategy in countries with Russian-speaking minorities (such as Finland and the Baltics) is typically quite similar: it seeks to rally these minorities around issues like language and minority rights, and then frames the situation as oppression.

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At the same time, Russian speakers are extremely wary and skeptical of local media, and instead tend to follow Russian domestic outlets like Russia-1 and NTV, thereby reinforcing an almost impenetrable information bubble.

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Read 17 tweets
Jun 2
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll discuss the Ukrainian SBU’s “Spiderweb” operation and the main disinformation narrative vatniks have been spreading during the afterfall. While domestic Russian media stays silent, the vatniks and Russian milbloggers have been extremely loud.

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This operation was probably the most impactful strike since the drowning of the Moskva, massively reducing Russia’s capability to bomb Ukrainian cities (or anyone else’s). It involved smuggling 117 FPV drones hidden in trucks into Russia. Once near airbases,…

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…the roofs opened remotely, launching drones in synchronized waves to strike targets up to 4,000 km away. The mission took 18 months to plan. The unsuspecting Russian truck drivers who transported them had no idea they were delivering weapons deep behind their own lines.

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Read 21 tweets
May 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian movie director, propagandist, and former priest: Ivan Okhlobystin. He’s best known for his strong support for the war on Ukraine and for his radical views, which are often used as a testbed for the domestic Russian audience.

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Ivan was born in 1966 from a short-lived marriage between a 62-year-old chief physician and a 19-year-old engineering student. She later remarried, and the family moved from Kaluga province to Moscow. Ivan kept the surname Okhlobystin from his biological father.

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After moving to Moscow, Ivan began studying at VGIK film school. He soon became a playwright for theatre productions and also wrote for Stolitsa magazine, which he later left because, as he put it, “it had become a brothel.”

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Read 21 tweets
May 22
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian-born former State Duma deputy, Vladimir Medinsky. He is best known as one of the ideologues of the “Russkiy Mir”, for his close ties to Vladimir Putin, and for leading the “peace talks” in Turkey in 2022 and 2025.

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During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Medinsky interned as a correspondent on the international desk of the TASS news agency, learning the ways of propaganda at an early age. Some time later, he earned two PhDs – one in political science and the other in history.

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As is tradition in Russia, Medinsky’s academic work was largely pseudo-scientific and plagiarized. Dissernet found that 87 of 120 pages in his dissertation were copied from his supervisor’s thesis. His second dissertation was also heavily plagiarized.

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Read 21 tweets
May 15
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American social media influencer, Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson). He’s best known for his plagiarism while working as a clickbait “journalist”, and for being paid by the Kremlin to spread anti-Ukraine and anti-Democratic narratives.

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Benny graduated from the University of Iowa in 2009 with a degree in developmental psychology. His former high school buddy described him as the “smartest, most articulate kid in school,” and was disappointed to see him turn into a “cheating, low standard hack.”

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After graduating, Benny dived directly into the world of outrage media. Benny’s first job was writing op-eds for far-right website Breitbart, from where he moved on to TheBlaze, a conservative media owned by Glenn Beck, and a spring board for many conservative influencers.

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Read 24 tweets
May 13
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Cypriot politician and social media personality, Fidias Panayiotou (@Fidias0). He’s best known for his clickbait YouTube stunts and for voting against aid to Ukraine and the return of abducted Ukrainian children from Russia.

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Fidias hails from Meniko, Cyprus. In 2019, he began posting videos on YouTube. After a slow start, he found his niche with clickbaity, MrBeast-style content featuring silly stunts, catchy titles and scripted dialogue. Today, Fidias has 2,7 million subscribers on YouTube.

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Fidias’s channel started with trend-riding, but he found his niche in traveling without money — aka freeloading. In one video, he fare-dodged on the Bengaluru Metro. The train authority responded by saying they would file a criminal case against him.

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Read 22 tweets

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