In today's #vatnik soup I'll talk about the "fifth column": a group of people who undermine and sabotage a nation or a group from within, usually in favor of a another nation or a group. Their activities often include sabotage, disinfo & propaganda, espionage, and terrorism.
1/19
Maybe the most famous case of fifth column is Russia's illegals program. Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) trained several Russian agents to live indefinitely in the US. Their mission was to get involved in high position in the society, build contacts with ...
2/19
... executives, academics and policymakers, and gather and send intel for the SVR. These "illegals" were often given the identities of dead people and they were supposed to live a normal American life to not raise any suspicion among the common folk.
3/19
One of the best-known illegals is Anna Chapman, who became the "modern Mata Hari" that tried to seduce her way to state secrets. FBI caught up on the illegals at an early stage, and they were tracked and followed from the beginning of the program in Operation Ghost Stories.
4/19
In Jun, 2010, 11 people were arrested and the sleeper agents were charged of spying on behalf of Russia. They were later exchanged for four Russian nationals convicted on espionage on behalf of the US and UK.
5/19
The program was considered to be a failure because of its high costs and bad outcome in terms of intel gathered, but the illegals and those who spy for Russia are considered heroes, and many of them have been offered prominent positions after their return to the motherland.
6/19
Anna Chapman, the "Modern Mata Hari", has become a famous celebrity in Russia, modeling for various magazines, having her own TV show and advertising state-sponsored activities such as encouraging people to take the Sputnik-V COVID-19 jab.
7/19
Andrey Bezrukov and Yelena Vavilova are both working as authors and Andrey is also an adviser to president of Rosneft. Bezrukov & Vavilova also served as the inspiration for the main characters of the (fantastic) TV show The Americans.
8/19
Some time after this Russians started focusing more on online propaganda and cyber warfare. Russia already had a very strong hacker scene dating back to the 90s, but their new plan was something completely fresh in the propaganda sphere: ...
9/19
... they would utilize fictious "digital illegals" in hybrid warfare against the West. It provided both remoteness and implausible deniability for these digital actors, and technologies such as VPN allowed them to be geographically from any place on earth.
10/19
The most famous spawning point for digital illegals was Yegveny Prigozhin's Internet Research Agency (IRA), but the main script was written by a man named Vladislav Surkov. His idea was to polarize and confuse the West by funding various, opposing parties or organizations.
11/19
For example, IRA would fund both pro-BLM and anti-BLM movements and rally them against each other. Russian disinformation and propaganda machinery exploited the West's idea of free speech and free press, ...
12/19
... and they launched several websites and communities such as "Secured Borders" and "Blacktivists" with a sole purpose of spreading hate and confusion among the Western nations.
In 2016, a man named Matt Skiber became active in the US political sphere.
13/19
He was very active in politics and organized events such as "March for Trump" rally in NY. He arranged megaphones, designed posters, wrote press releases and communicated with other Trump supporters.
14/19
In reality, Matt Skiber wasn't a real person, but a digital illegal and a IRA employee depicting as a Trump supporter. On that particular day his job was to promote Trump and mock Hillary Clinton, but the next day it could be something completely else.
15/19
These digital illegals were extremely effective and very cheap assets, which is why Russia has been investing in them for over a decade. In this type of digital warfare, Russia was one step ahead and the West is now paying a hard price for their overlook of the phenomenon.
Many of the key figures work in both real and the digital world and they do it very effectively, and most of them are Russian immigrants with connections to Russian intelligence agencies and/or neo-nazis.
This is what a successful fifth column activity looks like.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.
1/21
Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.
2/21
Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.
1/15
Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.
The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.
2/15
The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.
1/21
Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.
2/21
While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.
1/22
Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…
2/22
…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.