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Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
@P_Kallioniemi
Nov 11, 2022 • 9 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
In today's #vatnik soup I'll continue discussing Prigozhin,and focus on his mercenary group Wagner. It's a paramilitary organization that deals with Putin's "dirty problems". Private military contractors are forbidden by law in 🇷🇺,and the group operates mostly beyond the law. 1/9 Image
Wagner doesn't have any central ideology, but it has ties to neo-nazi movements in Russia. (Ex-)Wagner leader Dmitry Utkin even has nazi symbols tattooed on his body and neo-nazi groups such as the Rusich work under Wagner. (see my previous report: ). 2/9 Image
Wagner has been involved in the 🇷🇺-🇺🇦 conflict since 2014 when it aided separatist forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk areas. The group has also been involved in other conflicts around the world, including Syria, Libya and Mali. 3/9 Image
Wagner has a tendency to bring war crimes such as rapes, torturing and robberies where ever they go: Raping women in Mali, (theafricareport.com/239790/mali-in…) and killing civilians in Ukraine (theguardian.com/world/2022/may…) are just for examples of this kind of activity. 4/9
Before the war in 🇺🇦, Wagner mostly employed retired servicemen aged between 35 to 55. This all changed after Russia started getting their ass kicked in Ukraine, and now they are going through Russian prisons, looking for anyone who's interested in joining the meat grinder. 5/9
Allegedly cannibals and serial killers have joined the fold, and many of these prisoners also have serious infectious diseases, including hepathisis and HIV. These "soldiers" are marked with approriate bracelets.
theins.ru/en/news/255084
6/9 Image
Recruitment of serious criminals will no doubt lead to increase of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. By Russian standards, the group pays really well - monthly salary is estimated to be something between 670 and 2100 USD. 7/9
The company shares bases with 🇷🇺 military and they train its personnel in 🇷🇺 MoD facility masked as a "children's vacation camp": reuters.com/article/us-mid…

🇺🇦's Security Service (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak said that, in their opinion, Wagner was in essence "a private army of Putin". 8/9
Prizoghin has sued Bellingcat, Meduza and EoM for reporting his links to Wagner. Finally, in Sept 2022, he finally admitted to finding the group: theguardian.com/world/2022/sep…
Prigozhin was filmed during a recruit process in 🇷🇺 prison on 14th of Sept, 2022:
9/9

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Dec 20
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American radio host and propagandist, Scott Horton (@scotthortonshow). He’s best known for blaming Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine on the US, and for publishing a 700-page book full of Kremlin propaganda.

1/23 Image
Most of you probably remember Scotty from this recent episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, in which he was schooled for his revisionist propaganda by Ukrainian volunteer and activist Anastasiya Paraskevova (@UkrainianAna).

2/23
Let’s start with the obvious - Scott Horton is a hardcore Kremlin apologist who sees nothing wrong with what Putin does, but strongly condemns anything that Ukrainians do to defend themselves. For Horton,the enemy is the US and all of its allies. The way this works is that…
3/23
Read 24 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Dec 4
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the sad (but funny) state of Finnish vatniks. After Russia launched their full-scale invasion against Ukraine, the Finnish pro-Kremlin/conspiracy theorist scene experienced a dramatic devaluation and hasn’t been able to bounce back since.
1/20 Image
I often get asked about the current state of the Finnish vatnik club, and there’s usually not much to report.

It’s not because these people have stopped, but because today their work has only comedic value.

So here’s the latest:

2/20
Master vatnik and traitor Johan Bäckman has relocated to Russia, and he was recently given a Russian citizenship. It’s obvious that Johan was recruited by Russia’s intelligence agencies a long time ago. He’s still producing videos on YouTube on his…

3/20 Image
Read 21 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Nov 29
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Romanian politician and conspiracy theorist, Călin Georgescu (@calin_georgescu). He’s best-known for his pro-Kremlin and conspiratorial views, running for president of Romania, and doing it by only campaigning on TikTok.

1/25 Image
Georgescu has a doctorate in pedology (a branch of soil science), and held various positions in Romania’s environment ministry during the 90s.

Between 1999-2012, he was a representative for Romania on the national committee of the United Nations Environment Program.

2/25 Image
He was proposed as Romania’s prime minister in 2011, 2012 and 2016 by Romanian far-right parties, but he rose to international infamy in 2024, when he ran for president of Romania independently and obtained the most votes (22,95%) out of all candidates in the first round.

3/25 Image
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Read 26 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Nov 28
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Canadian journalist and alleged Soviet/Russian spy, David Pugliese (@davidpugliese). He’s best-known for his articles about “Ukrainian Nazis”, and for allegedly being a spy for both the Soviet Union and later Russia.

1/21 Image
Several months ago I was anonymously sent a pile of documents from the mid-80s originating from the KGB archives in Kyiv. These documents outlined a KGB recruitment into “Stuart”, or David Pugliese who “works in foreign mass media” and who is…

2/21 Image
..“studied with the perspective of possible operative use”. Another document described “Stuart’s” contact “Ivan”, who allegedly became his handler.Some have speculated that “Ivan” is Fred Weir, a correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor.He’s lived in Moscow since 1986.
3/21 Image
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Read 22 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Nov 11
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American far-right social media personality, Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes). He’s best-known for his white supremacist, misogynistic and antisemitic rhetoric, and for being the poster boy for the so-called incel movement.

1/17 Image
Like so many from the white supremacist movement, Fuentes dropped out of university after his freshman year. He studied introductory international relations, which apparently made him a geopolitics expert. Nick was introduced to the white supremacist movement at an…

2/17 Image
..early age - he took part in the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,Virginia. In 2017, Fuentes launched his political talk show “America First”. Initially the show was aired on Trump-aligned Right Side Broadcasting Network, but it was dropped after the rally.
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Read 20 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Nov 7
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss foreign malign influence operations during the 2024 US elections. As in 2016 and 2020, these recent elections were also a target of massive disinformation and hacking campaigns originating mostly from Russia and Iran.

1/17 Image
First of all, my opinion is that these influence operations alone didn’t affect the elections so much, that they actually made a difference.

Unlike in 2016, Trump’s win over Harris was clear and these short-term campaigns didn’t really change that much this time.

2/17 Image
Yet, many of these online campaigns attacked both Harris and Walz on various social media platforms. Especially Walz became a big target after his nomination, and many Russian efforts attempted to defame him.

3/17 Image
Read 18 tweets

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