In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce a Ukrainian billionaire, philanthropist and the richest man in Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov. He's the founder, sole proprietor and president of System Capital Management (SCM). Allegedly he also has ties to organized crime.
1/19
Akhmetov was born in Donetsk Oblast and he is an ethnic Volga Tatar. Details about Akhmetov's past are controversial and there are contradictory stories on how he gained his wealth after the fall of USSR.
2/19
Rinat himself has said that he made his fortune by "trading coal and coke" and investing on assets that "no one wanted to buy". Ukrainian author Serhiy Kuzin has claimed that Akhmetov was a "mafia thug" in the 80s.
3/19
Hans van Zon, a Professor of Central and Eastern European Studies, has suggested that Rinat and his brother Igor were involved in criminal activities already in 1986. During the 80s Akhmetov also worked for Akhat Bragin, an alleged powerful criminal boss who allegedly ...
4/19
... made his money in illegal clothing business. Akhmetov was described as an "enforcer" who used mafia methods against Bragin's enemies. During early 90s, Akhmetov acquired property in the Donetsk Oblast - again allegedly - by means of extortion with the assistance of ...
5/19
... Lieutenant-General Volodymyr Malyshev. Serhiy Kuzin has also suggested that Malyshev helped Akhmetov by wiping any documents regarding his criminal past.
After Bragin was killed in 1995 in a bombing at a football stadium, Akhmetov inherited his financial empire.
6/19
In Sep, 1999, an official Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs report identified Akhmetov as a "leader of an organized crime syndicate". The report claimed that Akhmetov's group is involved in money laundering and financial fraud.
7/19
In June 2005, Serhiy Kornich, then head of the Interior Ministry's economic crimes department, said directly that Rinat Akhmetov was "the head of an organized crime group".
In 2006 WikiLeaks published a diplomatic cable from one of Ukraine's most respected policy ...
8/19
... strategist, Volodymyr Horbulin. In this cable Horbulin told the US Ambadassador to Ukraine that the Ukrainian, pro-Russian Party of Regions - best known for their presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych - was largely financed by Akhmetov.
9/19
Horbulin also added that the party partly composed of "pure criminals" and "anti-democratic figures".
Akhmetov also employed and became close friends with Paul Manafort. Manafort's associate Kilimnik allegedly passed polling data about the 2016 US election to Akhmetov.
10/19
In 2005 Akhmetov was also investigated on murder charges and for his alleged role in organized crime in the Donetsk Oblast. To avoid this prosecution, he promptly fled to Monaco. These charges were dropped in 2006, ending Akhmetov's exile.
11/19
If Akhmetov was a criminal mastermind, he's covered his tracks well - Hennadiy Moskal, who in 2005 acted as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, said in an 2011 interview that concrete evidence was never officially released against him or his company SCM.
12/19
Rinat's SCM group is a multinational corporation and Ukraine's largest financial and industrial group. It employs around 200 000 people, and in 2018 paid 22% of all tax revenues to Ukraine's governmental budget. It's also Ukraine's biggest private wartime taxpayer.
13/19
Self-proclaimed "People's Governor" Pavel Gubarev of the puppet-state DPR said in an 2014 interview that Akhmetov had financed two-thirds of the people of the so-called separatist movement in Donetsk Oblast. Akhmetov denied these accusations, and after this he ...
14/19
... started blaming the "separatists" for the "genocide in Donbas". He also started supplying huge amounts of humanitarian aid to the Donbas region, and in Dec, 2022, Washington Post called Akhmetov the biggest private donor for Ukraine during the war, providing over ...
15/19
... 100 million USD in military and humanitarian aid. In Jan, 2023, the Rinat Ahkmetov Foundation and the Shakhtar football club provided additional 133 million USD for assisting the Ukrainian war effort.
In Nov 2021, president Zelensky has accused Akhmetov of being ...
16/19
... enlisted to help in planning a Russian coup against him. Akhmetov has also been a target of Zelensky's anti-corruption efforts, and Akhmetov has funded Zelensky's opponents. To put it mildly, Akhmetov and Zelenskyy are not friends.
17/19
In Jul, 2022, Rinat involuntarily gave up his media activities due to "de-oligarchisation" legislation.
Regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Akhmetov has been clear on his stance: "Russia is an aggressor and Putin is a war criminal".
18/19
In an interview with Forbes Ukraine, he stated that Ukrainian victory consists of "a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian soldiers from Ukraine and a full restoration of Ukraine's internationally recognized borders. Including Donbass and Crimea."
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.
1/20
The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.
2/20
From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.
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.