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After these sexual escapades he focused on his writings, but one of his books was withdrawn due to a threat of legal action & another one...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 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.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce the main themes of Russian disinformation on TikTok. Each day, there are thousands of new videos promoting pro-Kremlin narratives and propaganda.
It’s worth noting that Russians can only access European TikTok via VPN.
1/10
There is currently a massive TikTok campaign aimed at promoting a positive image of Russia. The videos typically feature relatively attractive young women and focus on themes of nationalism and cultural heritage.
2/10
Ironically, many of these videos from Moscow or St. Petersburg are deceptively edited to portray Ukraine in a false light — claiming there is no war and that international aid is being funneled to corrupt elites.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about Finland and how pro-Kremlin propagandists have become more active in the Finnish political space since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the first time since 2022, they’ve gained some political power in Finland.
1/16
Russia’s political strategy in countries with Russian-speaking minorities (such as Finland and the Baltics) is typically quite similar: it seeks to rally these minorities around issues like language and minority rights, and then frames the situation as oppression.
2/16
At the same time, Russian speakers are extremely wary and skeptical of local media, and instead tend to follow Russian domestic outlets like Russia-1 and NTV, thereby reinforcing an almost impenetrable information bubble.