In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce a Dutch "independent journalist", a columnist and a conspiracy theorist, Sonja van den Ende (@SonjaEnde). Sonja was recruited to report on Ukraine by Alexander Dugin through his Euroasia organization in March, 2022.
1/12
Before the invasion, she was reporting from Syria, and even claimed to be related to the al-Assad family through her now-ex husband. She has accused the US and Israel of mass murder in Syria, and has praised Putin for his help in "defending the Syrian people".
2/12
Van den Ende has spread conspiracy theories about the Syrian volunteer group the White Helmets, and she was also (naturally) involved in various COVID-19 and WEF related conspiracies.
3/12
She has contributed to GRU-owned disinformation mills InfoRos and Oneworld. She also has her own column in the Prigozhin-owned RiaFan. Some of her works include a made-up story of a Dutch woman harvesting organs from Ukrainian soldiers and sending them ...
4/12
... to countries such as Israel and Germany.
In 2017 she visited Ukraine by the invitation of Russian propaganda group Global Rights of Peaceful People (who comes up with these ridiculous names?). She has also protested against the official MH17 investigation.
5/12
Sonja was also one of the "foreign observers" in the sham vote for the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Russia accepted anyone who'd come to "observe the legality of the vote", and Sonja was of course one of the volunteers.
6/12
Others include European far-right politicians, pro-Russia bloggers and propagandists, and people from the African National Congress Youth League. As most of us know, nobody took these annexation votes seriously, but it didn't stop these people from celebrating the result.
7/12
Together with the other usual suspects such as Alina Lipp & Eva Bartlett,Sonja attended the international conference "Evidence of mass war crimes of the armed forces & national units of Ukraine",which is basically a Kremlin-organized propaganda event defaming Ukrainians.
8/12
In Jan, 2023, she also attended International Press Forum "Journalists under the scope: attacks on freedom of speech & reprisals against reporters. How to preserve lives and guarantee safety?", a propaganda event by a Russian propagandist Mira Terada (real name Oksana Vovk).
9/12
So far van den Ende has refuted Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and Mariupol hospital. She's also denied any Russian wrongdoing in Bucha, and blamed the Ukrainians for Olenivka prison massacre.
10/12
Van den Ende has stated that she can't go back to the Netherlands because she'd be arrested. As of today, there are no ongoing investigations on her activities, and no sanctions have been imposed on her.
11/12
The Kremlin has paid and provided her with a flat in Moscow, where she allegedly resides when she's not doing false flag operations in Donbas. She often travels around with her 22-year old daughter, who does the photographing and filming for Sonja.
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.
1/15
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:
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.