In today's #vatnik soup and 3rd edition of "You pronounced this nonsense, not me", I'll explain why 🇷🇺 is definitely NOT fighting NATO as they say. 1st of all, why are they claiming this without showing any proof? There are two reasons: 1) 🇷🇺 always lies, & 2) they're losing. 1/9
In August, Putin's deputy chief-of-staff, Sergey Kiriyenko declared that "Ukraine’s leadership has sold out its own people to fight on behalf of NATO against Russia." He continued: "We understand very well that we are not fighting against Ukraine in the Ukrainian territory,...2/9
... and we are certainly not against the Ukrainian people. The entire NATO bloc is at war with Russia in Ukraine with Ukrainians' hands"
This "news" was quickly spread by far-right blogs such as Europe Renaissance.
3/9
It was then amplified with fake propaganda videos such as "Putin is stuck: 10 thousand NATO Troops entered the territory of Ukraine!" - a clip that "proved" the presence of NATO and that was seen by over 120 000 people before it was deleted.
4/9
On September 21, 2022, Putin picked this narrative for his own speech, when he suggested that "The Kyiv regime has launched new gangs of foreign mercenaries and nationalists, military units trained to Nato standards and under the de-facto command of Western advisers."
5/9
RIA Novosti joined the claim by stating that "Our intelligence agencies revealed the arrival of regular Nato officers in the Kharkiv region."
All this was said after the humiliating losses at Kharkiv Oblast & further amplified after the drone strike vs. the Black Sea fleet.
6/9
As a "proof" Russia has shown tweets by American soldiers fighting in Ukraine. These people are not currently serving in the US military but have joined the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. Of course, no ACTUAL proof of NATO involvement has been presented.
7/9
To conclude, I would like to share one of my "favorite" stories from the Syrian civil war: the Battle of Khasham. It is the only modern example of combat between US and Russia-affiliated (PMC Wagner) elite troops. This battle showed the huge skill gap between the two.
8/9
It was roughly 4-hour battle in which a group of Wagner's finest were obliterated by a much smaller US force, without taking any losses. Read the story here: coffeeordie.com/wagner-group-s…
IF Russia was fighting NATO in Ukraine by traditional means, the war would already be over.
9/9
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In today's #vatnik soup, I'll introduce a Russian grand propagandist Margarita Simonyan. She's the Editor-in-Chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya.
She is one of the best known Kremlin mouthpieces and controls a large Russian propaganda network.
1/10
Simonyan started her journalism career covering the 2nd Chechen War. Later she was one of the first journalists to report on the Beslan school hostage situation in 2004. After this she moved to Moscow to join the Kremlin propaganda machinery. She was only 25 when she was... 2/10
... appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of RT. Andrei Richter, a journalism professor, stated that she got the job because of her connections. At the beginning, she told a reporter that Kremlin wouldn't dictate any content and there would be no censorship in RT's coverage. 3/10
I'm a postdoctoral researcher from Tampere University and I'm conducting actual research on #NAFO and #NAFOfellas. For this, I have created a short, confidential survey: forms.gle/oaPANteUNcBBRd…
I would appreciate if you'd fill it out (this'll take ~5-10 min) and spread the word!
All data will be anonymized and handled according to GDPR. This data will be the basis for a scientific paper "#NAFO Disruption of Russian Disinformation and Propaganda on Social Media".
After the unfortunate divorce of two main actors of Fennotravels, Janus Putkonen decided to do one final trip with "Finnish patriots" to Russian Murmansk. The trip is taking place during 2.-4. Dec, 2022.
2/5
Janus has previously been at Murmansk creating casus belli against Finland by "criticizing Finland's treatment of indigenous people". Mr. Putkonen even "talked" with an imaginary UN official, Rashid Aluashi, about the situation.
In today's #vatnik soup I'll discuss the power of photography & portraits. Using specific photos, propagandists can create powerful image of a person. Putin's marketing crew has been exceptionally good at this by often using old photographs of Vlad that reek of testosterone. 1/6
For example, this video of Putin is used in many occasions, even on the Western media. It is from 2015, and it's the image of Putin Kremlin wants to present. It's been used in news excerpts and propaganda clips throughout the years.
2/6
Another image that is spread around a lot is the one where Putin is horseback riding shirtless. This particular image is from 2009.
In today's #vatnik soup and in the 2nd edition of "You pronounced this nonsense, not me", I'll introduce some of the outlandish lies and disinformation regarding Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and how he has managed to counter these smear campaigns.
1/13
Since day one of the invasion he's been the #1 target for Russian propaganda - why? Because Russia lost their own man, Viktor Yanukovych, during the Euromaidan uprising. Yanukovych fled Kyiv and is now living in exile in Russia.
2/13
At the beginning of the war, 🇷🇺 assumed that Zelenskyy, a man mostly known for his acting career, would quickly fold and leave Ukraine. Immediately after 🇷🇺's full-scale invasion begun, Kreml started spreading disinfo that Zelenskyy had already fled from Ukraine to Poland.
In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce a politician who loves EU money but also 🇷🇺 energy.His name
is Viktor Orbán and he's been 🇭🇺's PM since 2010.Orbán is the ultimate opportunist,begging for gas from Russia & at the same time hoarding all the money he can get from the EU. 1/11
Because of his limitations on press freedom, judicial system, and multiparty democracy, and attacks against immigrants and marginal groups, Hungary's democracy has been described as being in deep decline. 2/11
Due to this 🇭🇺dropped 11 places in the EIU's Democracy Index and Freedom House downgraded their rating from "Free" to "Partly free". The Economist went as far as calling Orbán's Hungary an "authoritarian kleptocracy". 3/11