Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Feb 25, 2023 17 tweets 8 min read Read on X
In today's #vatnik soup I'll be introducing an American journalist, author and a podcaster, Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled). Ames is best-known for being the editor of the eXile tabloid in Moscow between 1997 and 2008, and for co-hosting the Radio War Nerd podcast.

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Mark established the eXile in 1997 while living in Moscow. Shortly after starting it, he hired Matt Taibbi to work with him. The tabloid consisted of articles mainly on politics, organized crime, prostitution, sex and drug use.

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In 2000 Taibbi and Ames published a book about their adventures in Russia called "The eXile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia". Based on an Observer interview from 2000 Ames quickly delved into sexual escapades with Russian ladies, stating that getting attention...

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...from Russian girls was something new, and he stated that "I didn’t even think of women anymore because they could just smell failure on me". Then, he continued that in Russia "It was pretty much just fuck whoever you wanted to". Based on Taibbi, Ames was...

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..."universally loathed in the Moscow foreign community".

"Tens of millions of people live in dire circumstances, stranded in the center of the world’s largest continent, with little hope of going anywhere," Mark claimed."Which means–sexual opportunity for me”, he continued.5/16
Then he claimed that "Russian women, especially on the first date, expect you to rape them", and that "it took me a while to learn you really have to force Russian girls, and that’s what they want, it’s like a mock rape."

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In their book, Ames described another scenario where he had sex with a pregnant 15-year old girl. He then wrote: "Right then my pervometer needle hit the red. I had to have her, even if she was homely." In the book, he also threatened to kill a pregnant Russian girl if ...

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... she didn't do an abortion. Their book was described as "nonfiction" but both Taibbi and Ames later said, on many, many occasions, that the whole thing written as a satire. Incidentally, Mark's ex-girlfriend has called him a "fucking psychopath".

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Why write about all this,if not to defame Mark? Because Russia has an age-old strategy that they've been using effectively for decades:kompromat.Spending 10 years in Russia,using drugs & having casual sex to me seems like a perfect scenario for becoming a target of blackmail.9/16
When it comes to his views on Russia, Ukraine and the war, we can clearly see where Mark stands. He masks his pro-Russian stance as anti-imperialism and hate for the CIA and the "neocons".

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Ames blamed the US for most of Russia's problems, including the chaotic times during the 90's, Putin's election rigging and the rise of the far-right within Putin's government. Ames was also rejoicing over Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008.

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Like a good Putin's puppy, he likes to talk about the "Azon nationalists" and "Banderites". He's called the Yuschenko regime "hard-line, monocultural, nationalistic". He criticized Zelenskyy for publishing the arrest picture of Viktor Medvedchuk, ...

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Putin's old pal who funded false flag operations and large media operations to help Yanukovych at the presidential election already back in 2004. In the eXile, Ames has often written about a Russian politician Eduard Limonov who founded the National Bolshevik Party...

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...together with Aleksandr Dugin and Yegor Letov in
1993.

John Dolan and Mark Ames have featured the pro-Russian Grayzone blogger Max Blumenthal in their War Nerd podcast. They were also the first people to interview Seymour Hersh after the publication of his fictitious...14/16
...story on the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage. Ames has also attacked the Bellingcat multiple times, stating that they're funded by the CIA and blamed them smearing Seymour Hersh already back in 2017 after Hersh's article "Trump's Red Line".

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Ames' audience is of course the Americans. He's trying to convince people, that the US leadership (excluding Trump) has meddled with Russia & Ukraine for too long,and that the military aid should be stopped.He barely speaks of Russia's imperialism and their barbaric history.16/16

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Sep 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the agenda-setting and flood of disinformation that spread on X and other platforms right after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It’s far from the first or last time a tragedy has been weaponized for political purposes.

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Every major political event, especially those involving violence, attracts massive attention. In the immediate aftermath, reliable information is scarce, making it highly vulnerable to both coordinated and improvised disinformation campaigns.

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As I’ve mentioned in my previous soups and lectures, in disinformation campaigns, being first with a narrative is crucial, as people often remember the first version best — psychology studies show it sets the mental schema, and later updates rarely overwrite it.

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Read 19 tweets
Sep 8
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American social media personality David Freeman, AKA Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman). He’s best known for spreading political disinformation on X and shamelessly sucking up to Trump, Putin, and other authoritarian leaders.

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David is a textbook example of someone profiting from MAGA grievance politics. He uses extreme, provocative language to farm engagement on X and never hesitates to flatter anyone who might give him more exposure — or money.

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But David wasn’t always like this. At some point, in his mid-40s, he even tried a real job: he trained to become a cop. He spent three years with the Metro Transit PD, but after that he either got fired or quit, and never looked back.

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Read 24 tweets
Sep 5
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian-Estonian businessman, Oleg Ossinovski. He is best-known for his deep ties to Russian rail and energy networks, shady cross-border dealings, and for channeling his wealth into Estonian politics.

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Oleg made his fortune via Spacecom Trans & Skinest Rail, both deeply tied to Russia’s rail system. Most of this is through Globaltrans Investments PLC, a Cyprus-based firm with 62% held via Spacecom and tens of millions in yearly profits.

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Ossinovski’s Russian-linked ventures made him Estonia’s richest man in 2014, with an estimated fortune of ~€300M. His business empire stretched across railways, oil via Alexela shares, and Russian bitumen imports from Help-Oil, a supplier to the Defense Ministry.

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Read 15 tweets
Sep 2
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Swiss/French writer, Alain Bonnet, aka Alain Soral (@officielsoral). He’s best known for his rabid antisemitism and for his pathetic support for all the worst authoritarian regimes from Russia to North Korea.

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Alain’s childhood was problematic, as his father has been characterized as a “narcissistic pervert” who beat his children and did jail time for fraud. Alain himself has said he was “programmed to be a monster.” Born Alain Bonnet, he took the stage name of his sister,…

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… actress Agnès Soral. She wasn’t too happy about this, commenting “How would you like to be called Agnès Hitler?”. Like many grifters, he became a pick-up/seduction artist writer, à la late Gonzalo Lira, writing books and even making a B-movie, “Confessions d’un dragueur”.
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Read 23 tweets
Aug 18
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.

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Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.

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Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

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Read 25 tweets
Aug 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.

1/23 Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia
Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.

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One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.

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Read 24 tweets

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