In today's #vatnik soup I'll be introducing a Canadian writer and reporter, Aaron Maté (.@aaronjmate). Aaron is part of the Grayzone posse together with RT poster boys/girls Max Blumenthal, Alex Rubinstein (.@RealAlexRubi) and Anya Parampil (.@anyaparampil).
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This group could be characterized as anti-🇺🇸, and the Grayzone is basically build around this idea. Mr Maté is obviously a very intelligent person and he knows how to defend (and advertise) himself online. But, he's also a pro-🇷🇺/Assad disinfo spreader, no doubt about that.
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He was actually named as one of the most profilic disinfo spreaders about the Syrian conflict in The Guardian article by Mark Townsend: theguardian.com/world/2022/jun…
Mr. Maté himself has disagreed with this statement, as can be seen in the footnote.
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Maté has blamed two OPCW inspectors on doctoring a report on the 2018 Douma chemical attack in Syria to place blame on the Assad regime and to justify missile strikes against Syrian government forces by the 🇺🇸, 🇬🇧, and 🇫🇷.
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In 2020, Aaron testified at the UN at a Russia and China hosted meeting about the alleged cover-up on the attack:
Maté has also received money from The Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, an organization that funds apologists for the Assad regime: bellingcat.com/news/2019/09/3…
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Aaron is heavily in the "US/NATO provoked Russia to attack Ukraine" corner,which can also be seen from his tweet right after the invasion began:
He's been interviewed on Russia state-owned RT America by "the Pulitzer-winning" (this NEEDS to be mentioned!) Chris Hedges (.@ChrisLynnHedges) about the Muller report and the Russiagate:
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Like the rest of the "negotiate for peace" block, Maté has highlighted Putin's call for peace negotiations after the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories. This call hasn't stopped Russia from conducting war crimes and targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
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Correction: Maté has stated that OPCW "veteran inspectors" challenged a cover-up of the chemical weapons probe in Douma.
Fringe pro-🇷🇺 bloggers such as the @TheGrayzoneNews like to keep the 🇷🇺 narrative of Ukrainian neo-nazis and the need for "denazification" inside Ukraine. Today I'll be introducing a real Russian #vatnik, co-leader of the Rusich group and a neo-nazi called Aleksei Milchakov. 1/8
Aleksei is a real piece of work. He came to public attention in 2011 after he made a home movie of him torturing, decapitating and allegedly eating a puppy. newsru.com/crime/28nov201…
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On what claims can we call Aleksei a nazi? He's admitted it himself: in 2020, a video with two men discussing was published on a 🇷🇺 nationalist Youtube channel. One of them is Aleksei. In the video he states that "I’m a nationalist, a patriot, an imperialist [...] I'm a nazi."3/8
Welcome to the 1st edition of international #vatnik's! Today I'll be discussing a prominent figure in the disinfo/conspiracy scene - a lady called Maram Susli AKA PartisanGirl (.@Partisangirl). Originally from Damascus, her family moved to Australia when she was a child.
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She has a degree in biophysics and chemistry, which apparently makes her an expert on geopolitical issues. In her Twitter profile she claims to be a "Scientist", yet she has written only opinion pieces and outright propaganda without a single trace of actual research.
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Maram emerged as an online personality in 2011 during the Arab Spring, but became much more active at the time of the Syrian Civil War. Her stance has generally been anti-US and Syrian rebels and pro-al-Assad and Russia.
Today's Finnish #vatnik is a former powerlifter turned politician and evangelist,Ano Turtiainen (.@TurtiainenAno). Since 🇷🇺's invasion of 🇺🇦,Ano has become a proponent of Putin's politics. He has spoken against all 🇷🇺 sanctions and has criticized "war crimes committed by 🇺🇦". 1/9
His views are also anti-NATO and anti-EU.Ano himself has said that he would like 🇫🇮 politics to be similar to Trump/US doctrine.His rhetoric follows the typical 🇷🇺 disinfo playbook:the decadence of West,conservatism,corruption of 🇺🇦,NATO's "proxy war" & COVID-19 conspiracies 2/9
Nowadays all of this is also decorated with religious babble and declaration of the end times. He has also stated that everyone who gets the COVID-19 vaccination will die in the near future and has compared the whole event to Holocaust. 3/9
Today I'll be introducing one of the most infamous Finnish 🇷🇺 disinfo site on the web: MV-Lehti (AKA MV-Media or UMV-Lehti).During its existence, the site has had three Chief-Editors:Ilja Janitskin, Juha Korhonen (.@Juha_Korh2) and currently Janus Putkonen (.@janus_putkonen).1/10
The latter two have already been introduced in my Finnish #vatnik's series:
I would still like to tell you little about Mr Janitskin, the sole founder of MV-Lehti:
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Ilja started MV-Lehti while living in Spain back in 2014 after a series of failed businesses. Initially it was used as an marketing tool to get 🇫🇮 to come and work in 🇪🇸. The website became quite popular and at some point was amongst the top 10 visited websites in 🇫🇮.
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Today I ran into propaganda piece that (to me) appears to be fake. It's a documentary called "Monopoly - Who owns the world" by Tim Gielen and it's a vivid story about deep state and other conspiracy theories.
I think Tim Gielen does not exist. Can you help me find out? 1/4
I got suspicious when I saw this intro of the documentary. To me, the person, his facial expressions and the lighting/shadows seem unnatural. For example, his eyebrows seem to move in an unnatural way and his voice sometimes is out of sync with the lips. 2/4
Today I will tell you a story- or rather a fairy tale -about a project of several Finnish #vatnik's.The story is called "The Rise and Fall of the Fennotravels".The story has two characters: Janus and Kosti, and they both share a love towards the Russian country and its people.1/9
Janus Putkonen (.@janus_putkonen) is a Finnish #vatnik who I introduced in my earlier posts. You can read his bio here:
Janus is the creator of the Fennoland project and well-known pro-Russia propagandist: fennomaa.net 2/9
Kosti Heiskanen (2nd from the left) is a Finnish "journalist" who has spent a lot of time in Russia. He's known for providing many anti-🇫🇮 interviews on 🇷🇺 media. He is the tour guide of the Fennotours that organizes trips from 🇫🇮 to 🇷🇺, and is quite a character. 3/9