In this thread I'll be discussing 🇷🇺 genocide in Ukraine. I'll focus on the child abductions & will be providing evidence that 🇷🇺 has planned this for a long time and that their intent has been announced in the state-owned media at least since the beginning of April, 2022.
1/10
On April 3rd 2022, 🇷🇺 state-owned news agency RIA Novosti published an op-ed by Timofey Sergeytsev. Sergeytsev once was a consultant to pro-🇷🇺 Viktor Yanukovych and Euractiv described him as "one of the ideologists of modern Russian fascism". 2/10
In his article,Timofey called for the full destruction of Ukraine as a state and also its national identity.This, according to Timofey, should be done to accomplish Ukraine's "denazification". The article caused outrage & it has been condemned as evidence of genocidal intent.3/10
The article has been translated to English by Mariaa Kravchenko and you can read it here: medium.com/@kravchenko_mm…
I have also translated this op-ed to Finnish: medium.com/@pekka.kallion…
By the way, it was published on the same day as dozens of bodies were found in Bucha.
4/10
Russia's war crimes are too numerous to list here, so I will focus on the kidnapping and forced transfers of children from Ukraine into Russia. Putin's troops started the kidnappings pretty much right after the invasion began.
5/10
Already on 22nd of March, 2022, Ukraine and US claimed that over 2300 children had been abducted from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. businessinsider.com/us-embassy-acc…
6/10
International law and the 1948 Genocide Convention state that "forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" constitutes a genocide. By May 26th, more than 238 000 Ukrainian children were allegedly deported to Russian territories.
7/10
On May 30th, 2022, Putin signed a decree that made it easier to give Russian citizenship to Ukrainian orphans (or those w/o parental care). One of the organizers for these abductions is Maria Lvova-Belova, who was appointed as "the federal Commissioner for Children's Rights".8/10
UN has stated that "credible" reports have been presented that Russian forces had sent (and probably still do) Ukrainian children to Russia for adoption in a forced deportation programme. aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/8/…
9/10
For some reason, blogs such as @TheGrayzoneNews have not reported about these child abductions, and political commentators such as Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) have downplayed them.
These people all have something in common: they consider RT being an "independent media".
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In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce Lithuanian far-right politician and Seimas member Remigijus Žemaitaitis. He’s best known for his extremist political views and for falling for a scam that convinced him he was flying to New York to meet Elon Musk.
1/17
Like many vatniks before him, Remigijus worked as a lawyer before entering the world of politics. Once just another politician, he gradually embraced far-right nationalism and populism, following a trend seen across Europe over the past 15 years.
2/17
Instead of real policies, he tapped into fear, resentment, and anger, turning 4chan talking points into a populist political strategy. His speeches became more extreme, targeting minorities, Western institutions, and Lithuania’s support for Ukraine.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an Estonian businessman turned far-right politician and conspiracy theorist, Harry Raudvere. Raudvere is best-known for his neo-Nazi and pro-Kremlin politics, for his lingerie businesses, and for spreading anti-Estonia propaganda.
1/17
Raudvere started building a business empire in the 2000s, and a lot of his wealth comes from wind farms in Ida-Virumaa in Estonia. His family also owns a lingerie business, BonBon Lingerie. As tacky lingerie is popular in Russia, they were very active there before the war.
2/17
Raudvere promotes ideas that strongly resemble Russian propaganda talking points, and has no problem in undermining Estonia’s support for Ukraine. But at the same time, he is strongly aligned with far-right nationalist movements.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll continue the “Degenerate Russia” series. In it, we look behind the Kremlin propaganda and see the real Russia – an authoritarian country that doesn’t care about its people and desperately tries to hold on to its imperialistic past.
1/18
The Kremlin loves to brand Russia as the last defender of “traditional values” against the “decadent” West. But in reality, Russia is plagued by crime, violence, corruption, and even neo-Nazi groups. Let’s break down the hypocrisy.
Russia has one of the highest divorce rates in the world. In 2021, it had a divorce rate of 4,3 per 1000 people, among the highest globally. While Putin criticizes Western liberalism, over 60% of Russian marriages end in divorce. So much for being a “family values” society.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll start a new series titled “Degenerate Russia”. In it, we look behind the Kremlin propaganda and see the real Russia – an authoritarian country that doesn’t care about its people and desperately tries to hold on to its imperialistic past.
1/22
In this first soup, we’ll examine religious persecution in Russia and Ukraine, how the KGB/FSB has used religion as a tool of espionage and propaganda, and how Russia is erasing Ukrainian culture by destroying the country’s churches.
2/22
Russia claims to be the last bastion of Christian tradition, but its history tells a different story. For decades, it has persecuted religious groups, tortured, imprisoned and murdered clergymen, bombed churches, and used the Orthodox Church as a state tool.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian propagandist, Xenia Fedorova (@xfedorova). She’s best known for running Russia’s state propaganda media in France, and then writing a whole book to whine about how it got shut down by the EU after Russia invaded Europe.
1/16
Xenia was born in 1980 in Kazan, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, now Russia. She got an Executive MBA from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership in 2014, and did her whole career (since December 2005) at the Russian state propaganda outlet, RT.
2/16
RT (previously “Russia Today”), established by Putin in June 2005, is active all around the world to spread vatnik narratives. Together with Sputnik, it is the main foreign propaganda outlet for Russian bullshit. Both outlets are led by the master vatnik Margarita Simonyan.