In today's #vatnik soup, I'll introduce an American propagandist & a Youtuber, Patrick Lancaster.He's a former sailor turned pro-Russian disinfo spreader. Ironically,his videos from the Russia-occupied areas have exposed Russian war crimes and sensitive military information.
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In June 2001 he joined the US Navy, working on the USS Kitty Hawk as a cryptologic technician. He apparently also held a top-secret clearance. After leaving the Navy, he worked as a real-estate agent until he moved to Berlin and started working as a journalist around 2011.
2/13
Patrick calls himself a "independent, crowd-funded journalist", which means that he's mostly paid for by the Kremlin. He's usually the only English-speaking reporter in Russia-controlled territories, and often travels around with Russian troops.
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David Ferris,an American filmmaker met Lancaster in Donetsk in 2014 & later commented that "I remember [Patrick] sort of being compromised from the beginning". Cyber Front Z,a troll farm established in 2022,promotes Patrick's videos and calls for people to support his work.
4/13
He arrived to Ukraine in 2014 to cover the Euromaidan revolution. In the same year,he converted to Orthodox Christianity,settled in the Donetsk Oblast & met a woman who'd later become his wife. Their wedding was covered by several Russian news organizations, including Zvezda.5/13
At some point Lancaster worked as a cameraman for another propagandist, Graham Phillips. By 2022, Patrick had fallen out with Graham, & Patrick described Graham as a "harmless clown who runs around in a panic, like a rabbit in headlights spouting phrases in broken English".
6/13
Graham later retaliated, calling Lancaster an "illiterate, grifting charlatan, with a journalistic acumen and ability lower than a potted plant."
His Youtube channel gained a huge boost in subscriptions after he started reporting on the war, helping him boost his channel...
7/13
...from mere 50 000 followers to over half a million.
Patrick is one of the "dirty dozen" of the most prominent Western propagandists that spread pro-Russian propaganda by masquerading as "independent journalists". Patrick crowdsources his work, and has over 1000 ...
8/13
... paying subscribers on Patreon, each paying anything between 3 and 200 USD. By Jun, 2022, his Buy Me A Coffee account had collected over 77 000 USD. He also sells his footage to Kremlin-backed medias, probably gaining him a hefty extra pile of money.
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Lancaster has worked for many Kremlin-controlled state medias,including RT, Ruptly & Zvezda, while covering the war in Donbas. In 2022,his only international outlet was the InfoWars. Patrick's connected to Eric Kraus,a pro-Russian French businessman who's close to Patrushev.10/13
He's been involved in various false flag operations, which try to put the blame of "terrorist acts" and "war crimes" on the Ukrainian soldiers.
He published a staged video of a "pre-war provocation" from Donbas, in which IED had allegedly killed one of the ...
11/13
... military commanders of the made-up state of Donetsk People's Republic. Explosive weapons expert and a forensic pathologist concluded that the whole scene was staged and the bodies were actually cadavers with evident autopsy marks on their skulls.
12/13
Research by Bellingcat also used one of Lancaster's videos to identify a Russian soldier suspected of torturing and castrating a Ukrainian POW: bellingcat.com/news/2022/08/0…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss two events, Rescue the Republic and Rage Against the War Machine, that are being held during the last weekend of September 2024 in Washington DC. Both of these events promote pro-Kremlin viewpoints and platform many prominent vatniks.
1/11
Rage Against the War Machine is being organized for the 3rd time, although the 2nd installment, “Defeat the Deep State”, was cancelled, probably due to low interest. The event was organized by the Libertarian Party, a US political party that was recently hijacked by vatniks.
2/11
Both events are co-organized by craniosacral therapist/chair of the Libertarian National Committee, Angela McArdle, who was leading the Libertarian Party takeover in 2022 and turning it into an extension of Trump’s MAGA Republicans:
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American social media personality, Tim Pool (@Timcast). He’s best-known for being funded by the Kremlin, his right-wing media empire, his connections to several American conspiracy theorists, and for his cool beanie.
1/23
Tim Pool rose to fame during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests, which he livestreamed together with a former realtor, Henry Ferry. He was one of the pioneers of doing livestreams where he also interacted with the audience and even let them direct him on the ground.
2/23
Pool’s footage was aired on NBC and other mainstream networks, and Time dubbed him as “the eyes of the movement”. In 2011, Pool described himself as “an activist 100%”, stating that he doesn’t consider himself a journalist. A year later things had changed…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American politician, Jill Stein (@DrJillStein). She’s best-known for her visits to Moscow, bids for the US presidency, blaming of NATO for the war in Ukraine, and for her inability to condemn Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.
1/23
Stein’s background is in medicine, and she graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1979. During the 90s Stein turned to activism and subsequently received various environmental awards for her work. Stein began her political career by running for governor of Massachusetts...
2/23
...in 2002, but only got 3,5% of the total vote. Her following campaigns were also massive failures, and the only election in which she managed to secure a seat was the local legislative body in Lexington. But that didn’t stop Jill, as in 2012 she decided to run for...
In today’s #vatniksoup I’ll introduce a Russian filmmaker, Anastasia Trofimova. She’s best-known for her latest controversial documentary “Russians at War”, and for working as a producer for Russian state-funded media outlet RT.
1/19
Soft power has been part of the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare for a long time. It refers to the “ability to get what you want through attraction rather than through coercion” and which can “be cultivated through relations with allies, economic assistance, and cultural exchanges.”
2/19
Russia has been using soft power to sow division and distrust in the West for decades. Documentaries like Ukraine on Fire offer a revisionist and pro-Kremlin view on what happened in Kyiv and in Ukraine in 2014. It was directed by the Russian master…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss why I think it’s important for Ukraine & for Europe that Donald Trump does not become the next president of the US. I’ll share my insights on how Trump has been undermining democracy and supporting authoritarian leaders around the world.
1/19
First of all, I think Trump supports Russia more than Ukraine. Trump has a long history of doing business with the Russians, and he’s even held private meetings with Putin and other high-ranking Russian officials while sharing highly classified information with them.
2/19
In addition, Trump withheld a 400 million aid to Ukraine because Zelenskyy wouldn’t help him dig dirt on the Biden family. He also “watered down” the toughest penalties the U.S. had imposed on Russian entities after Putin annexed Crimea in 2014.
As there's clearly not much to say about the debate other than Trump was deranged and he'd clearly abandon Ukraine and appease Russia, I'm just gonna post the best memes and posts about the whole thing.