In today's #vatnik soup, I'll introduce a Russian TV presenter and propagandist, Olga "Iron Doll of Putin" Skabeyeva. She's best-known for her hot takes on the Russo-Ukrainian War on Russian TV.

1/16
Skabeyeva rose to fame while covering the Pussy Riot trial during 2012 and 2013. She was also covering the Russian anti-government rallies provoked by various Russian opposition figures, including Boris Nemtsov, Mikhail Kasyanov and Alexei Navalny.

2/16
Since 2016 Skabeyeva and her husband Yevgeny Popov have been hosting together a show on Russia-1 called 60 Minut. The whole show is basically a pro-Putin propaganda show broadcasting outrageous lies and disinformation to support the official Russian narratives.

3/16
If there's a narrative that supports Russian point of view, Olga has probably spread it. Along with her husband, she has spread lies and conspiracy theories about "evil Nazis in Ukraine", threatened the West with nuclear weapons...

4/16
...and gloated over the death sentences given to two British fighters captured by the Russians in Ukraine.

Here's some of "Iron Doll's" greatest moments:

5/16
In Sep 2022, Olga suggested that Russia should've bombed the UK during the queen's funeral, as "all the best people" are there.

6/16
Olga and husband called the Skripal poisonings "an elaborate British plot to smear Russia". In their show, they played a fake phone call between Yulia Skripal and her cousin, Viktoria: bbc.com/news/world-eur…

7/16
During the 2019 presidential election in Ukraine, Olga thought that their live coverage wasn't running and told her husband and co-host, Yevgeny that "We're not on TV right now — we don't have to lie".

8/16
She's also claimed that Bucha was a false flag operation done by the "Ukrainian Nazis". She said that the West is trying to create a hybrid, "Srebrenica-like" event.

9/16
She also suggested that Bucha was chosen for its name: "Biden said that Putin is a butcher. Bucha sounds like 'butcher' - how could they not take advantage of such a town?"

10/16
Olga has said that "Ukrainian women are lying about being raped by Russian soldiers". She continued: "It is known for a fact that no one was raped. [...] not a single name, place or time of the rape has been mentioned by anyone accusing Russian soldiers of this so far."

11/16
During the World Economic Meeting in Davos, she made a propaganda piece about "prostitutes who sell themselves to the elite".

12/16
She was also one of the first people to say that "WW3 has started" after the Ukrainians sink the warship Moskva in Apr, 2022.

13/16
In Feb, 2013, an interesting interview was seen when Skabeyeva was interviewing the Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, who was holding a loaded pistol during the interview.

14/16
Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation published their investigation on Skabeyeva and her husband, Popov, stating that they own real estate in Moscow worth over 4 million USD. Their yearly earnings are around 170 000 USD, ...

15/16
...but these estimates are probably lot less than their actual income. It's worth noting, that at least in 2020 they both earned more than Sergei Shoigu did.

US State Department sanctioned Skabeyeva on 24 Feb, 2023.

Sources: @JuliaDavisNews @Gerashchenko_en

16/16
Support my work (and get some AI art!): buymeacoffee.com/PKallioniemi

Past soups: vatniksoup.com
Correction: the Kadyrov interview was of course done in 2023, not 2013.

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Feb 28
In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce an American troll and opportunist, Jackson Hinkle (@jacksonhinklle). Hinkle is best-known for his pro-Russian and pro-Putin views, for his feeble attempts at getting attention and for his monetization of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

1/15 Image
In 2019 he ran for the San Clemente City Council, but wasn't elected. His main campaign points were to stop the building of a toll road, and legalizing drugs and prostitution. After this election, Hinkle must've thought "This cute boy approach isn't working, I'll just go...

2/15 ImageImageImageImage
...full edgelord asshole - it worked for Trump, why not for me?" Or maybe he had a chat with Tulsi Gabbard, who had a quite similar transformation around that time, and who left the Democratic Party to fight the "elitist cabal of warmongers". Or maybe he noticed...

3/15 Image
Read 16 tweets
Feb 27
In today's #vatnik soup I'll continue introducing Russian propagandists, and I'll talk about a man named Dmitry Kiselyov. Kiselyov has been the head of Rossiya Segodnya, a Russian state-controlled media group,since 2013 & has a very big role in Russian propaganda narratives.
1/15 Image
In addition to directing Rossiya Segodnya, Kiselyov serves as the deputy director of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. Dmitry started working for TV and radio during the late 80's. In the early 90's he worked as a host for the program called...
2/15 Image
..."Television News Service", but due to his refusal to read prepared texts regarding Soviet repression of protests in Vilnius, he was sacked.

During the mid-90's, Kiselyov even hosted a program called "Window to Europe" and received an European Commission grant...

3/15
Read 17 tweets
Feb 25
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.

1/16
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.

2/16
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...

3/16
Read 17 tweets
Feb 23
In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce a British euroskeptic, pro-Russian and anti-American author, John Laughland. He's best-known for his work for the Russia-funded Institute of Democracy and Cooperation and for Thierry Baudet's political party, Forum voor Democratie.

1/16
He worked at the French Institute of Democracy and Cooperation from 2008 until 2018. It is an association founded by a Russian attorney Anatoly Kucherena. Kucherena is probably best-known for acting as a lawyer for both Viktor Yanukovych and Edward Snowden.

2/16
The think tank aims to provide a"symmetrical response" to the human rights violation allegations that organizations like Freedom House introduce,meaning that they'll explain these scenarios from the Russian point of view.The institute is funded by Russian Presidential grants.3/16
Read 17 tweets
Feb 22
In today's #vatnik soup and the edition of "You pronounced this nonsense, not me", I'll discuss the rather novel "Edelweiss neo-Nazi unit" narrative that was also repeated in Putin's speech of 21 Feb, 2023.

1/11
It's worth noting that this part of the speech was borrowed from one of Putin's propagandist, Dmitry Kiselyov, who claimed on state TV that Ukraine is "legalizing the fascist Edelweiss [unit]". He's a propagandist that deserves his own soup entry in the near future.

2/11
But let's review what Putin said in his speech:

"Recently, one of the brigades of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, I'm ashamed to say, was named Edelweiss, same as a Hitler's division that participated in the deportation of Jews, executions of prisoners of war, and punitive...

3/11
Read 12 tweets
Feb 21
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.

1/19
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.

2/19
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
Read 20 tweets

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