In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce the current Deputy Minister of Defense in Russia, Timur Ivanov. Actually, I'll talk more about his wife and a socialite, Svetlana Zakharova, whose 8000 leaked e-mails were carefully inspected by Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.
1/12
Ivanov is an engineer for the war. He's responsible for building military barracks, cadet corps, submarine bases and military airfields, as well as hospitals and kindergartens.
He is also responsible for many rebuilding efforts in Mariupol.
2/12
Svetlana have mostly been living off his husband(s), and all of her personal business ventures have gone bankrupt. She's mostly known for appearing on tabloid covers and being a TV presenter. She loves glamour and lavish life, including 5-star hotels, yachts and shopping.
3/12
On March 17, 2022, rescue workers were searching for survivors from the ruins of the Mariupol theater. At the same time, Svetlana was buying expensive jewellery in Joel Arthur Rosenthal's jewellery store in Paris. The prices at this establishment start from 100 000s of euros.4/12
Later she travels to London to meet her son, but moves quickly to Paris. There she buys 8000 EUR worth of Prada outfits. Her daughter lives there, too, and they spend family time together for a month in Europe. At the same time, Russia is bombing civilian targets in Kyiv.
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Every year the whole family spends the whole August in the Côte d'Azur in a 120 000 EUR / month villa. 90 000 EUR was spent for a yacht rental. For some villas, they paid 2000 EUR a month extra to see the Russian TV channels - just to see Solovyov lie on Russia-1!
6/12
Timur Ivanov has been a strong opponent of NATO, yet the family has no problem in vacationing in NATO countries like France.
They do all this through front organizations and offshore companies, some of them registered to Luxemburg.
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In 2013-2018 they spent at least 1,3 million EUR
on their holidays in Europe. These included 5-star hotels, and luxurious villas and yachts. Nice boost for the local economy!
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They're also good friends with the press secretary of Russia, Dmitry Peskov. Peskov visited one of their parties and even put on a bear suit to entertain the
guests. As it turns out, Peskov's daughter, Yelizaveta also loves the West - she's living in France.
9/12
Svetlana's spendings seem endless, and she also likes to eat well: while Russian soldiers are eating food-like products in the trenches, Mrs Zakharova eats red & black caviar, croissants and fresh berries for breakfast.
10/12
They're circumventing the sanctions in a creative way: they're cars are registered to their drivers, their yachts are ordered for their nannies, and so on. Jewellery and clothes are paid via offshore companies. They also order construction from their own companies.
11/12
In Oct, 2022,Timur Ivanov (but not Svetlana) was put on sanctions list by the EU. What did they do? They filed for a "divorce", just so that she can continue her glamorous life in Europe. On 3 Dec, 2022, she was again shopping in Paris.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the Wagner Group, its founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, and the mutiny they started on 23 Jun 2023. The event marked the climax of the Wagner Group–Russian MoD conflict, and finally led to the deaths of Prigozhin and Utkin.
1/22
Wagner has been used in many conflicts around the world, but they came to global prominence during the war in Donbas in 2014-2015. Wagnerites helped the Donbas separatists fight against the Ukrainians during the conflict, which helped Putin to “outsource” the insurrection.
2/22
The group doesn’t have any central ideology, but many of its members and leaders have ties to various neo—Nazi movements in Russia. For example, Wagner leader Dmitry Utkin had several Nazi symbols tattooed on his body. Neo—nazi group Rusich has also fights as part of Wagner.
3/22
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an Amsterdam-based propaganda channel, Bonanza Media (@bonanzamedia2). It’s best-known for producing & spreading online pro-Kremlin propaganda videos while closely coordinating & collaborating with the Russian intelligence agency GRU.
1/19
Russian intelligence has been extremely active in the Netherlands for a long time. For example in 2018, four GRU agents were caught while trying to hack into OPCW,an organization that monitors the use of chemical weapons. In addition, the International Criminal Court (ICC)…
2/19
…and the MH17 investigation have become targets for the Russian intelligence and propaganda operations. These operations are often complemented with “investigative journalism” media outlets, that often echo the Kremlin’s propaganda and disinformation.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll talk about the recent EU elections and what are their implications for both the Kremlin and Ukraine. Right-wing political parties, some pro-Kremlin, won a lot of seats around Europe, and this result can also change the EU’s stance on Ukraine.
1/19
But before we start, I want to promote a truck fundraiser I'm doing together with the fantastic @ArturRehi and @69thSB.
Our goal is 20 000 USD, and you can contribute to this important fundraiser here:
EU’s support of Ukraine is essential for their survival against genocidal Russia. So far,this support has been delayed mostly by Orban’s Hungary (& to some degree, Fico’s Slovakia). Now, this support will probably be challenged by many new members of the European Parliament.
3/19
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss a specific propaganda/disinformation that the Kremlin likes to use – antisemitism. I also talk about how the Russian society itself has become riddled with antisemitism & how this has led to a decrease in Jewish population in the country.
1/19
Russian antisemitism works on many levels, and their narratives vary depending whether they’re targeting a local audience or people in Europe and the US. For example for the latter, Russia attempts to create a false narrative of Ukraine being an antisemitic “Nazi state”.
2/19
But before diving deeper, let’s look at a survey data of Russians in 2023: Nearly 30 million Russians harbour antisemitic attitudes, and 15% of those surveyed believed that “Jews were responsible for most of the world’s wars.” 38% think that the Jews have...
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian media personality and propagandist, Diana Panchenko (@Panchenko_X). She’s best-known for betraying her own country by peddling anti-Zelenskyy and anti-Ukraine propaganda and disinformation for the Kremlin.
1/22
Panchenko was born in 1988 in the Mykolaev Oblast in Ukrainian SSR in 1988. She studied publishing and editing at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and later graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree in law.
2/22
After graduating, Diana worked briefly for the news site . Between 2010 and 2015, Panchenko was a presenter for KyivTV, but she found her true calling as a pro-Kremlin propagandist after she was hired by a national “news channel” called NewsOne.