In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce a British freelance journalist, agitator and propagandist, Graham Phillips. In his articles and videos he favors Russia heavily, even though he calls himself an "independent journalist".
1/13
Graham moved to Ukraine in 2010 and started working as an English teacher. He also started writing a blog, Brit in Ukraine, with articles on football, politics, history, and prostitution. The last topic was apparently his favorite, as he wrote a lot about prostitutes, ...
2/13
... students moonlighting as escorts and foreign bride-hunters. He wrote about his first encounter with a prostitute in Amsterdam in a following manner: "A new high had replaced the drugs, and I exhaled 'I love prostitutes' into an appreciative Amsterdam night."
3/13
He also interviewed prostitutes on a floating Brothel on the Dnieper River and concluded that "Ukraine speaks to the wildness in me".
After these sexual escapades he focused on his writings, but one of his books was withdrawn due to a threat of legal action & another one...
4/13
... - incidentally about an American searching for an Ukrainian bride - was never finished. He found himself unemployed, and his relationship ended because she was more interested in Euromaidan than in him.
5/13
His critical reporting of the mass protests caught the eye of RT producers, who asked him to comment the situation via Skype for propaganda purposes.He made good money as the Kremlin-sponsored propagandists, and for a while he was the only RT reporter working in Ukraine.
6/13
It seems that his experiences in Ukraine made him bitter, & he soon started talking about "Kiev [sic] junta" & "Ukrainian fascists". He started freelancing for RT, "reporting" around 🇺🇦. He's been caught by the AFU and deported several times, and each time he has returned.
7/13
In Sep, 2016 he taunted a disabled Ukrainian POW who had lost both of his arms and sight in a mine blast. Earlier that year he was disrupting the Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires events and was deported to Russia.
8/13
When looking at Graham's publicity stunts, there are MANY. In Aug, 2016, he entered the investigative journalism organization Correctiv's office and demanded an interview with MH17 investigator Marcus Bensmann.
9/13
In Jan, 2017 he was thrown out of the UK Parliament loudly condemning UK's support for Ukraine. He's been creating and spreading pro-Russian disinformation in Donbas area. In 2018, he disrupted a press conference by Bellingcat's Eliot Higgins, calling him a "NATO agent".
10/13
After 🇷🇺's invasion began, Phillips went immediately back to Ukraine. In Apr '22 he interviewed Aiden Aislin,a British-Ukrainian soldier captured by the Russians.Publishing interviews of POWs is against the Geneve Conventions & he may face a war crime prosecution for this.
11/13
For his "great work", Border Service (a branch of FSB) awarded him with a "Border Brotherhood" medal. He's also been awarded several medals by the Luhansk and Donetsk oblast separatists. In Nov, 2020, he was awarded the "War Correspondent" medal in Moscow.
12/13
In Jul, 2022, Phillips became the first British-born citizen to be sanctioned, when UK placed him under sanctions and froze his assets.
Today he has a tiny following on Rumble and Odysee, platforms that nobody gives a shit about.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the sad (but funny) state of Finnish vatniks. After Russia launched their full-scale invasion against Ukraine, the Finnish pro-Kremlin/conspiracy theorist scene experienced a dramatic devaluation and hasn’t been able to bounce back since.
1/20
I often get asked about the current state of the Finnish vatnik club, and there’s usually not much to report.
It’s not because these people have stopped, but because today their work has only comedic value.
So here’s the latest:
2/20
Master vatnik and traitor Johan Bäckman has relocated to Russia, and he was recently given a Russian citizenship. It’s obvious that Johan was recruited by Russia’s intelligence agencies a long time ago. He’s still producing videos on YouTube on his…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Romanian politician and conspiracy theorist, Călin Georgescu (@calin_georgescu). He’s best-known for his pro-Kremlin and conspiratorial views, running for president of Romania, and doing it by only campaigning on TikTok.
1/25
Georgescu has a doctorate in pedology (a branch of soil science), and held various positions in Romania’s environment ministry during the 90s.
Between 1999-2012, he was a representative for Romania on the national committee of the United Nations Environment Program.
2/25
He was proposed as Romania’s prime minister in 2011, 2012 and 2016 by Romanian far-right parties, but he rose to international infamy in 2024, when he ran for president of Romania independently and obtained the most votes (22,95%) out of all candidates in the first round.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Canadian journalist and alleged Soviet/Russian spy, David Pugliese (@davidpugliese). He’s best-known for his articles about “Ukrainian Nazis”, and for allegedly being a spy for both the Soviet Union and later Russia.
1/21
Several months ago I was anonymously sent a pile of documents from the mid-80s originating from the KGB archives in Kyiv. These documents outlined a KGB recruitment into “Stuart”, or David Pugliese who “works in foreign mass media” and who is…
2/21
..“studied with the perspective of possible operative use”. Another document described “Stuart’s” contact “Ivan”, who allegedly became his handler.Some have speculated that “Ivan” is Fred Weir, a correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor.He’s lived in Moscow since 1986.
3/21
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American far-right social media personality, Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes). He’s best-known for his white supremacist, misogynistic and antisemitic rhetoric, and for being the poster boy for the so-called incel movement.
1/17
Like so many from the white supremacist movement, Fuentes dropped out of university after his freshman year. He studied introductory international relations, which apparently made him a geopolitics expert. Nick was introduced to the white supremacist movement at an…
2/17
..early age - he took part in the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,Virginia. In 2017, Fuentes launched his political talk show “America First”. Initially the show was aired on Trump-aligned Right Side Broadcasting Network, but it was dropped after the rally.
3/17
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss foreign malign influence operations during the 2024 US elections. As in 2016 and 2020, these recent elections were also a target of massive disinformation and hacking campaigns originating mostly from Russia and Iran.
1/17
First of all, my opinion is that these influence operations alone didn’t affect the elections so much, that they actually made a difference.
Unlike in 2016, Trump’s win over Harris was clear and these short-term campaigns didn’t really change that much this time.
2/17
Yet, many of these online campaigns attacked both Harris and Walz on various social media platforms. Especially Walz became a big target after his nomination, and many Russian efforts attempted to defame him.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a social media personality and TV presenter, Raisa Blommestijn (@rblommestijn). She’s best-known for her far-right rhetorics, spreading conspiracy theories, and spreading anti-Ukraine and pro-Kremlin narratives on Dutch television.
1/24
Raisa studied philosophy of law at Leiden University. The faculty is best-known for one of its professors, Paul Cliteur. He’s a member of the pro-Kremlin party Forum voor Democratie (FvD), where he is one of the leading figures.Cliteur is also known for supervising the FvD…
2/24
…founder Thierry Baudet’s doctoral thesis, and can be considered a central figure in this Dutch “anti-establishment” movement. While studying at Leiden, Raise also met her best friend forever, Eva Vlaardingerbroek: