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.
8/15
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.
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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.
13/15
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,...
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... 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 #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.