In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce a Russian politician, spin doctor and one of the most popular Russian bloggers, Oleg Matveychev. But just as much as this soup is about Oleg, it is also about her daughter Danila Ivanov, also known as Lidia Sloutskovski.
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Matveychev has an academic background, and he has PhD in the philosophy of politics and law. He's currently a professor at Financial University in Moscow. In 2021 he was elected as a member of the Russian State Duma.
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Even though he's a superstar in Russia, Matveychev is quite unknown in the West. He's mostly known for his brazen statements about the US "paying reparations" to Russia in form of Alaska and Fort Ross, California.
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He's also suggested that the West is wholly totalitarian and riddled with censorship, and that families will bathe once a week and in winter sleep in their fur coats (do these still exist in Western Europe?).
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In Nov, 2010 while advertising his new book, Matveychev suggested that any kind of opposition in Russia should be "crushed with tanks" and added that "like after Tiananmen in China, we would also have 10% annual economic growth after 20 or 30 years".
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Three days after the invasion had started, Oleg predicted that "three days remain before the capture of Kyiv" and that "Ukraine will not be able to resist for 10 days, [...] Three days remain before the capture of Kiev, Odessa, Zaporozhye, Mykolaiv and other key cities."
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In one of his interviews in 2022,he called NATO a "a cancerous tumor on the body of the planet". In Jan, 2023, he visited Soloyvov's TV show and started judging Germany according to Russia's criminal law, completely forgetting that there are also international laws in place.
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Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation did some thorough digging, and found out that Matveychev's daughter recently got married in Barcelona, and Oleg was naturally there. Her Russian name is Danila Ivanov, but in the West she goes by the name Lidia Sloutskovski.
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Lidia works in an international organization that deals with - believe it or not - ethical issues.Her salary is paid through the Vremya Foundation, founded by one Oleg Matveychev and led by his 74-year old mother. In 2020-2021, Oleg has funneled over 4 million USD to Vremya.
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As of 3rd Feb, 2023, Lidia's profile and information has been removed from the organization's website, but several documents show that she's been involved in its activities in the past. Also, the YouTube video from the wedding has been made private.
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Ironically Matveychev himself has called all Russians who leave Russia "Judases" - apparently this doesn't apply to his own daughter. Here's some travel photos from his trip to the "cancerous tumor".
In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. He was one of the few people who had close ties to Putin, and he's been described as "Putin's favorite industrialist". Deripaska used to be "among the 2–3 oligarchs Putin turns to on a regular basis".
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He got rich after the fall of Soviet Union by trading raw materials such as metals. In 2000 he merged his business with Roman Abramovich to create RUSAL, which eventually became the largest aluminum producer in the world (it was surpassed by China Hongqiao Group in 2015).
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He was maried to Polina Yumasheva between 2001 and 2018. Yumasheva is the daughter of Boris Yeltsin's top advisor Valentin Yumashev, which put him close to Yeltsin's inner circle, "The Family".
In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce an American arms inspector, convicted criminal and a pro-Russian propagandist, Scott Ritter (@RealScottRitter). He's best known for his biased takes on the Russo-Ukrainian War, his propaganda work for RT and for his sex offenses.
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Scotty continued the family tradition of military service, and he served as the lead analyst for Marine Corps Rapid Deployment Force during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran-Iraq War. Ritter worked as a weapons inspector for the UN Special Commission between...
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... 1991 and 1998. His main objective was to find and destroy possible WMD's and WMD-manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. UN inspectors were thrown out of Iraq in 1998 after which Ritter declared in an interview by Jim Lehrer that "without effective inspections, without ...
In today's #vatnik soup I'll be talking about books, documentaries, podcasts, etc. that I have found to be useful in understanding disinfo, Russian info ops, culture, etc. It's by no means a comprehensive list, but I think it's a good start! Also,list YOUR favorites below 👇🏻1/13
Books/audiobooks
Catherine Belton (@CatherineBelton): Putin's People - If I could recommend only one book, it'd be this one. It's a fantastically written book about the rise of Putin and Putinism and a masterwork of investigative journalism.
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Keir Giles (@KeirGiles): Russia's War on Everybody - A comprehensive look on different aspects of Russian politics, bringing together various themes and stories from the military, politics, espionage, cyber operations, etc. Good book for getting a general overview on Russia.
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In today's #vatnik soup I'll be discussing the "propaganda through architecture and rebuilding" model. Its a very common information operation technique used by the USSR and Russia in the last century or so.
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Russia, USSR and also China love to use fake façades as propaganda. For example, St. Petersburg and Moscow are just big showrooms for Russian success and wealth, but as soon as you leave the city centers you are faced with poverty.
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As well all know, Russia's most common war strategy is complete demolition and destruction of whole cities and towns. This strategy aims to affect the civilian population so that they'd push for peace and negations. Why Russia uses it so often? Because it works.
In today's #vatnik soup I'll be discussing about Finland and how it fights Russian disinformation and propaganda. I'll also introduce some of the methods that Finnish vatniks have applied in order to brainwash the Finnish folk from all levels of society.
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Let's start with journalism: In the Press Freedom Index, Finland has been at the top 5 along with the other Nordic countries for decades now.
According to Christophe Deloire of Reporters without Borders, the biggest threat to press freedom is the so-called...
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... "Fox News Model", in which the media both polarizes and attracts audience share with extreme opinions.
Countries like Russia and China have basically no freedom of press, and pretty much all media is controlled by the state.
In today's #vatnik soup I'll be introducing a comedian-turned-propagandist and conspiracy theorist, Jimmy Dore. He's the host of The Jimmy Dore Show, a comedic talk show but without any comedy.
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Between 2009 and 2019 Dore was affiliated with the Young Turks and appeared on their show Aggressive Progressives. Later Ana Kasparian accused Dore of sexual harassment, alleging that Jimmy had made several sexually inappropriate comments about her
looks.
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In Jul, 2020, Dore accused Biden of hosting a "black black face affair with a bunch of rich white people". Biden of course didn't have anything to do with the video, but this didn't stop Dore from sharing it along with the story. The video has been since removed by YouTube.