In today's #vatnik soup I'll be introducing a British reality TV star and a propagandist, George Galloway (@georgegalloway). He's best known for his appearance on Big Brother, affiliation with Russia state-media & his love for various authoritarian regimes around the globe.
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Galloway has been a MP in 1987-2010 and in 2012-2015. He's currently leading the Workers Party of Britain, a party which has never held any elected presentation at any level of government.
George also doesn't like it when he's connected to Russia-state affiliated medias.
2/15
George has been a fan boy of several totalitarian leaders since the 90's. In 1994, during his unauthorized trip to Iraq, he met with Saddam Hussein and ended up his speech with a famous statement: "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability."
3/15
After Saddam's demise, Galloway defended Iraqi suicide bombers who targeted Western forces, calling them "martyrs". His political views are on the left & in 2002 interview he said that the collapse of the USSR was "the biggest catastrophe of my life". He's also stated that.. 4/15
... "I am a Socialist who doesn't like Capitalism and who likes Imperialism less. I am a revolutionary and I support the armed struggle where there is no alternative."
For being a socialist, Georgie sure loves money and luxury.
5/15
In 1986 he was claimed to have spent 20 000£ while "enjoying a life of luxury". He was later cleared of these accusations, but he did end up repaying 1720£ in contested expenses. While working for Press TV, Al-Mayadeen & RT, he had spent 70 000£ in flights and hotels.
6/15
Galloway was also a founder of the Mariam Appeal, a political campaign that provided medical assistance to the people of Iraq. Galloway faced several investigations related to the campaign, for example using the donation money for his personal travel expenses.
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The campaign raised significant funds but was never registered as a charity organization. A 2017 claim stated that George's then wife Abu-Zayyad had received 84 000£ in salary and expenses without a contract of employment.
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The Yorkhill NHS Trust received 54 000£ that was allegedly supposed to be spent on the leukemia treatment for Mariam Hamza. Galloway and his then wife, the trustees of the organization, claimed 3000£ in travel expenses.
9/15
Galloway has worked for several state-affiliated medias, including the Iran-state controlled Press TV, the Al Mayadeen TV station that's connected to both Iran and Assad's Syria, and of course the Kremlin-controlled RT. He's shown support for Putin, al-Assad and Hussein.
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During 2014, Galloway had earned at least 293 450£ from his TV appearances, and between 2013 and 2015 George was paid 100 000£ for his appearances on RT - the highest salary to any British politician working for this Russia-affiliated media.
11/15
He presented his "The Mother of All Talk Shows" on RT UK, until it was shut down following the Russia's genocidal invasion of Ukraine in Feb, 2022.
George is strongly in the "NATO started the war in Ukraine" corner, and basically blames the US for the whole conflict.
12/15
This view lines him up with the Grayzone bloggers, Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, and they're organizing a "NO2NATONO2WAR" event in London in Feb, 2023. Their first venue, St Pancras New Church cancelled their booking because of the overwhelming criticism.
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On the 14th of Feb, 2022, he tweeted that Russia is not about to invade Ukraine, and ridiculed people who claimed this. He's also called Zelenskyy a "cross-dressing coke-sniffing porn-actor" that's been turned into "Spartacus".
14/15
He's shared the idea that the Zelenskyy "government has given weapons to criminals who are robbing and raping".In his latest talk show, he interviewed pro-Russian blogger Max Blumenthal, a "political analyst" and a propagandist Garland Nixon, and propagandist Gonzalo Lira.
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Afterword: I wanted to add some extra spice to today's soup, and share a little story about George and a program called Oil-For-Food. This program allowed economically sanctioned Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for vital goods for the Iraqis. 1/4
The program was heavily abused, and these abuses included smuggling of oil and use of surcharges. Galloway was interviewed in the US Senate for his involvement. Several pro-Russian and Syrian accounts spread a video of George's testimony from this hearing, praising it,...
2/4
... and for example @sahouraxo called it "one of the greatest speeches in history". The Senate's report disagreed with this statement, and they concluded that Galloway "knowingly made false or misleading statements under oath".
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Bank statements also showed that his wife Abu-Zayyad had received a payment of 150 000USD from the proceeds of the program. The report also stated that Galloway's Mariam Appeal had received 446 000 USD via the program. For some reason these vatniks always leave this part out. 4/4
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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.
1/20
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.
2/20
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.
1/21
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.
2/21
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.
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.
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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: