In today's #vatnik soup I'll be introducing a Portuguese "independent journalist" and a politician, Bruno Carvalho. Carvalho is part of the gang that does live - and often staged - reports from Russian-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.
1/17
Bruno's political affiliation is with the communists, and he was elected to city hall of Amadora as a member of the communist party CDU/PCP. Allegedly he joined the party at a very young age, as there's video footage of a 19-year old Bruno being interviewed about politics.
2/17
Perhaps due to his political background, Carvalho is all about them Ukrainian nazis. He calls the Azov Regiment "the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion", being consistent with the views of his party, PCP.
3/17
In May, 2022, he published an image on Telegram of "Mein Kampf", a book written by Austrian politician Adolf Hitler, on top of a Ukrainian flag. He claimed that his "fellow journalist" found the book inside an empty house in Rubizhne.
4/17
Interestingly, he also claimed that it was the ONLY book found inside the house, suggesting that someone really loves Hitler over there in Luhansk Oblast.
Carvalho stated that no one else was present when they entered the apartment, but a video published by the Russians...
5/17
suggest otherwise: it clearly shows that he entered the flat together with Russian soldiers.
He's also interviewed people who were "robbed" by the Ukrainian forces, and denied all sorts of war crimes conducted by the Russian forces, including mass graves in Mariupol.
6/17
In addition, this heroic "independent journalist" has reported on Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles that, based on Bruno, were used to attack civilians in the puppet states of DPR & LPR. During the fake referendums, Carvalho claimed on a news broadcast that "Donetsk is a country".
7/17
Carvalho has also been a target of criticism in Portugal. For example, João Galamba, Minister of Infrastructure has mocked him and the content he's shared on Twitter. Carvalho considered this a serious attack against his journalistic integrity and demanded an intervention... 8/17
... from the Journalist's Union.
Now here comes the interesting part: Bruno Carvalho is a contributor for @cnnportugal. On their website, you can see various video reports from Bruno with titles like ...
9/17
... "It's very difficult to justify a narrative that says it's the Russians who are bombing themselves" and "I counted at least 50 rockets in this zone alone: this is the result of hours of consecutive attacks in Donetsk". You know, variations of the "genocide in Donbas"...
10/17
... narrative that Russia has been pushing since 2014. It is necessary to have reports from both sides of the conflict, but the other side shouldn't be covered by "journalists" who have no respect towards journalistic ethics.
11/17
Former MEP Ana Gomes asked the CNN about the issue,but neither @CNN or @cnnportugal responded to her.Carvalho's shared a video of Zelenskyy with subtitles that turned out the be fake. He added a "correction" that suggested that the "opinions are divided" on what Zelenskyy...12/17
...actually said, which of course isn't true. As of today, Bruno's tweet is still available.
Carvalho's been also going on about the Minsk agreement. He's stated that Zelenskyy should've complied with the Minsk agreements instead of pushing for NATO.
13/17
But as many of you know, Russia never complied with the Minsk agreement, either. I'm by no means expert on this topic, but please read this fantastic analysis by @neil_abrams for more information:
Russia has a huge propaganda network in Latin America, and news channels like RT Español and Sputnik Mundo are very popular there. Portuguese is an official language in Brazil, a country with population of over 200 million people.
15/17
Yet it is kind of a "blind spot" for the Western analysts focusing on Russian propaganda and disinformation. "Journalists" like Carvalho have large presence in these areas, and their pro-Russian narratives are often published without any criticism.
16/17
In addition, contributing for a prestigious and well-known brand such as CNN, Bruno's considered as a reliable source of information.
Thank you for the sous-chef @Cbritinha and the rest of the Portuguese team for helping me to prepare this soup.
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.
1/5
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!").
2/5
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.
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: