In today's #vatnik soup, I'll be discussing one of the most resilient and widespread conspiracies out there: World Economic Forum (WEF), The Great Reset and the "New World Order".
WEF is a lobbying organization founded by Klaus Schwab (@ProfKlausSchwab) in the 70s... 1/10
... and is best known for their annual Davos meeting where billionaires and politicians "shape global, regional and industry agendas".
The Great Reset is an initiative launched in 2020 by Schwab's club and it aims to rebuild the post-COVID-19 society in a sustainable way.
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The three key aspects of the program are: green growth, smarter growth and fairer growth. Sounds pretty demonic, eh?
Why do the Russians want to spread this conspiracy? Because it would neutralize their economic stronghold of fossil fuels.
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The Great Reset focuses on green, renewable energy that would slow down the climate warming. This paradigm shift would ruin their business model (although the war already did that...) of selling natural gas and oil to fund their war efforts.
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Many fringe groups have created conspiracies around this program, claiming that COVID-19 was created by a secret group to seize control of the global economy. This theory suggests that lockdowns and other restrictions were designed to crash the global economy ...
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...so that Schwab's socialist system could take over.
In addition, many groups and individuals claim that "deadly COVID-19 vaccines" are used to enslave humanity and reduce populations greatly.These stories often involve influential people such as Bill Gates and George Soros.6/10
Schwab has stated that his "4th Industrial Revolution" would blur the lines between real world and digital, and that it includes technologies such as AI, IoT & nanotechnology.
Based on Klaus' vision, Danish MP Ida Auken (@IdaAuken) published an essay called ...
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... "Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better" which emphasized the importance of sustainability through renting and borrowing instead of owning stuff in the near future.WEF also produced a video based on this essay.
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It was a PR disaster, and it became one of the most widely spread "evidence" for the Great Reset conspiracy theory.
Snopes has traced the origins of this conspiracy to QAnon groups and the 8kun social media site. Russell Brand made a video on it:
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One of the first countries where this conspiracy spread quickly was Canada. A British journalist Oliver Kamm has stated that the Great Reset conspiracy theory has been widely disseminated by Russian disinformation channels. It is especially popular on sites like 4chan.
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In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce the main themes of Russian disinformation on TikTok. Each day, there are thousands of new videos promoting pro-Kremlin narratives and propaganda.
It’s worth noting that Russians can only access European TikTok via VPN.
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There is currently a massive TikTok campaign aimed at promoting a positive image of Russia. The videos typically feature relatively attractive young women and focus on themes of nationalism and cultural heritage.
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Ironically, many of these videos from Moscow or St. Petersburg are deceptively edited to portray Ukraine in a false light — claiming there is no war and that international aid is being funneled to corrupt elites.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.