In today's #vatnik soup we'll make our first trip to beautiful Slovakia to meet a Slovak politician and ex-Prime Minister, Robert Fico. Fico is best-known for leading the SMER-SD party and for his pro-Russian politics and views.
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Fico has a long history in politics, and he's joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia already in 1986. He was elected as an MP in 1992. During the 90's Robert represented Slovakia as a legal counsel at the European Court of Human Rights, losing all 14 of his cases.
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In 1999 Fico and his associates launched SMER, a new political party on the left. He restricted everyone with ties to the previous communist regime or people who had background in other political parties from holding party office, ...
3/19
... which created a new generation of politicians who had no role in previous corruption scandals. He also stated that all financial donations should be made public. But as happens so often, Fico's rule set was eventually scrapped and SMER and Robert became a target of a ...
4/19
... scandal, blaming the party of raising several million euros in undeclared funds. These accusations raised from a published voice recording in which (allegedly) Fico was talking about a "parallel financial structure" that was created for SMER's election campaign.
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This scandal created a deep rift between Fico and the media, and he has been blaming the media for his failures ever since. He addressed the media sources, stating that "you are masturbating on the prime minister every day".
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In another incident, he called the journalists who questioned him about allegations that he'd broken the rules of public procurement during Slovakia's EU presidency, he described them as "dirty, anti-Slovak prostitutes". In 2021, he described journalists as ...
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... "Soros' corrupt gang of swines for whom water is already boiling", and the next year he claimed that they were an "organized criminal group with the aim of breaking Slovak statehood". He's called individual journalists "idiots", "pricks" and "hyenas".
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In Mar, 2018, Fico resigned from his PM position after the murder of Slovak investigative journalist, Ján Kuciak. Kuciak was investigating tax fraud inside the SMER party, and he'd also found connections between the Italian mafia 'Ndrangheta and the alleged cronies ...
9/19
... inside Fico's party. The Slovak police have suggested that Robert's assistant Mária Trošková, a former nude model, could have ties to the Italian mafia family. Today (21th of Feb) is the 5th anniversary of the murder of Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová.
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Lately Robert and SMER have been involved in several court cases, including "Kauza Súmrak" ("Case Twilight") and "Kauza Mýtnik" ("Case Tollbooth"). In the former he (among others) was accused of setting up a criminal organization in order to obtain information on...
11/19
... Fico's political opposition. The case against Fico was dropped in Nov, 2022. In the latter SMER party members were involved in a corruption and theft scheme.
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Fico has been keeping good relations with the Russians. He lacked the political allies within the EU, so he sought to strengthen the relations with both Serbia and Russia. After becoming the PM in 2006, he stated that Slovakia's "Slavonic solidarity" and friendship...
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... with Russia would be improved after years of "neglect". Incidentally, this statement right before Putin started waging his "economic war" in Europe, flooding political parties with money. In 2008, Robert accused Georgia for provoking Russia, thus forcing them ...
14/19
... to attack South Ossetia and start the Russia-Georgia War. He called the EU sanctions after Russia's annexation of Crimea as "senseless" and "a threat to the Slovak economy". His rhetoric about the origins of the war could be coming directly from the Kremlin propaganda...15/19
...unit, and he's blamed "Ukrainian fascists" for "killing civilians in Donbas" and for breaking the Minsk agreement. He's described the war as a "conflict between the US and Russia". He's also called the strengthening of NATO forces in Slovakia...
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... a "welcoming of Wehrmacht [the armed forces of Nazi Germany] in our country". In Aug, 2022, while Slovaks were celebrating their National Uprising, Fico invited the Russian diplomat Igor Bratchikov to hold a speech on stage.
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Fico has also stated that if he rose to power again, his leadership would be similar to Hungary's Orbán's, and that he'd restore the good relations with Russia and stop all military aid to Ukraine.
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So far the Slovak support and aid of Ukraine has been outstanding, and they recently even declared Russia as a state that sponsors terrorism, but all that would change if Fico and his party would regain their power in the upcoming Slovak elections.
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Ping: @SamoMarec
Thank you for the sous-chef @BeaEllerbeck for helping me to prepare this soup.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the Wagner Group, its founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, and the mutiny they started on 23 Jun 2023. The event marked the climax of the Wagner Group–Russian MoD conflict, and finally led to the deaths of Prigozhin and Utkin.
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Wagner has been used in many conflicts around the world, but they came to global prominence during the war in Donbas in 2014-2015. Wagnerites helped the Donbas separatists fight against the Ukrainians during the conflict, which helped Putin to “outsource” the insurrection.
2/22
The group doesn’t have any central ideology, but many of its members and leaders have ties to various neo—Nazi movements in Russia. For example, Wagner leader Dmitry Utkin had several Nazi symbols tattooed on his body. Neo—nazi group Rusich has also fights as part of Wagner.
3/22
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an Amsterdam-based propaganda channel, Bonanza Media (@bonanzamedia2). It’s best-known for producing & spreading online pro-Kremlin propaganda videos while closely coordinating & collaborating with the Russian intelligence agency GRU.
1/19
Russian intelligence has been extremely active in the Netherlands for a long time. For example in 2018, four GRU agents were caught while trying to hack into OPCW,an organization that monitors the use of chemical weapons. In addition, the International Criminal Court (ICC)…
2/19
…and the MH17 investigation have become targets for the Russian intelligence and propaganda operations. These operations are often complemented with “investigative journalism” media outlets, that often echo the Kremlin’s propaganda and disinformation.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll talk about the recent EU elections and what are their implications for both the Kremlin and Ukraine. Right-wing political parties, some pro-Kremlin, won a lot of seats around Europe, and this result can also change the EU’s stance on Ukraine.
1/19
But before we start, I want to promote a truck fundraiser I'm doing together with the fantastic @ArturRehi and @69thSB.
Our goal is 20 000 USD, and you can contribute to this important fundraiser here:
EU’s support of Ukraine is essential for their survival against genocidal Russia. So far,this support has been delayed mostly by Orban’s Hungary (& to some degree, Fico’s Slovakia). Now, this support will probably be challenged by many new members of the European Parliament.
3/19
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss a specific propaganda/disinformation that the Kremlin likes to use – antisemitism. I also talk about how the Russian society itself has become riddled with antisemitism & how this has led to a decrease in Jewish population in the country.
1/19
Russian antisemitism works on many levels, and their narratives vary depending whether they’re targeting a local audience or people in Europe and the US. For example for the latter, Russia attempts to create a false narrative of Ukraine being an antisemitic “Nazi state”.
2/19
But before diving deeper, let’s look at a survey data of Russians in 2023: Nearly 30 million Russians harbour antisemitic attitudes, and 15% of those surveyed believed that “Jews were responsible for most of the world’s wars.” 38% think that the Jews have...
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian media personality and propagandist, Diana Panchenko (@Panchenko_X). She’s best-known for betraying her own country by peddling anti-Zelenskyy and anti-Ukraine propaganda and disinformation for the Kremlin.
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Panchenko was born in 1988 in the Mykolaev Oblast in Ukrainian SSR in 1988. She studied publishing and editing at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and later graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree in law.
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After graduating, Diana worked briefly for the news site . Between 2010 and 2015, Panchenko was a presenter for KyivTV, but she found her true calling as a pro-Kremlin propagandist after she was hired by a national “news channel” called NewsOne.