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.
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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
In 2020, Simonyan defended a overtly racist TV segment where his husband and an actress was wearing blackface posing as Barack Obama. She stated that this kind of shit is okay because her husband is of Armenian background: businessinsider.com/kremlin-tv-sta…
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In regards to Ukraine, Margarita has been echoing the basic Kremlin rhetoric: Ukraine bombed Donbas for several years, Ukraine is full of nazis and that Russia is at war with NATO.
She's also said that the food crisis will force the West to lift all sanctions on Russia. 5/10
She has also said some rancid stuff about the conflict. For example, on Feb 24, 2022 she tweeted that "This is a standard parade rehearsal, It's just that this year we decided to hold the parade in Kyiv". 6/10
She's also said that "considerable portion of the Ukrainian people have turned out to be engulfed in the madness of nazism." On "The Evening with Vladimir Solovyov", Margarita said that she's okay with nuclear war if it goes to that, because "We're all going to die someday." 7/10
She's also encouraged Russia to war crimes, such as disabling Ukrainian nuclear power plants. In April, 2022, she proposed the removal of article on the prohibition of censorship from the Russian constitution, stating that "freedom of speech will lead to collapse of Russia". 8/10
In 2018, Margarita wrote a script for a state-sponsored movie, "The Crimean Bridge. Made with Love!". It was a horrible piece of propaganda and hated by all critics, but based on Navalny's research, Margarita, her husband and her relatives earned ~700 000 USD for making it. 9/10
Margarita has suggested that Russia conquered Kyiv during the first week of the conflict and then simply gave it back:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.
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Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.
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Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.
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Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.
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One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.
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The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.
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From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.
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On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.
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What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.
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The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.
These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").
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Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.
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Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.
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Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.