In today's #vatnik soup I'll talk about children, and especially the children of the Russian propagandists and politicians. It seems that the Kremlin-elite doesn't want to send their children to fight in Ukraine, but rather provide them with Western luxuries and education.
1/18
I have previously written about Kremlin folk who often criticize the West while vacationing on various European hotspots. Some of these include the Russian Deputy Minister of Defense, Timur Ivanov and his wife, and the press secretary for Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov.
2/18
In the midst of the Russian mobilization and the Great Exodus, Putin called those who leave Russia and turn to the West "scum and traitors to their homeland". The "We all must do our part" rhetoric has been constantly parroted in the Russian media,...
3/18
...and everyone who avoids their duty to the "Fatherland" is a coward. In Mar, 2022, he said that "they [the West] will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on traitors. To those who earn their money here, but live there".
4/18
Of course there is also the narrative about the "decadent West", where traditional values are forgotten and children's parents are called simply Parent 1 and Parent 2. In this story, homosexuality and pedophilia are rampant in the West and religious values...
5/18
...have been forgotten a long time ago. Nevertheless, it seems that the Russian elite want to join the unholy bacchanals in the West, and even send their kids to learn about these twisted values!
Let's go through some notable examples:
6/18
This is Polina Kovaleva, Sergei Lavrov's stepdaughter. Polina loved spending time at the now-seized Deripaska's mansion in Porto Cervo. Somehow, at the age of 21, she had the money to buy an apartment from Londongrad with a price tag of 4,4 million pounds, with cash.
7/18
Maria Pevchikh (@pevchikh) has called Polina's Instagram feed as a "non-stop holiday". Due to the attention she got, her Instagram account has been turned to private, but there's no doubt she's still vacationing somewhere around the world.Kovaleva was sanctioned in Mar, 2022.8/18
This is Jelizaveta Peskova,daughter of Dmitri Peskov. While Ukrainian civilians, including children,are bombed and tortured in places like Kherson,Peskova is posting pictures & videos from various luxurious locations in Europe. She also seems to enjoy the "Western decadence".9/18
As a child, she attended the Ecole des Roches, a boarding school whose fees would've taken up most of Dmitry Peskov's official salary. Later she interned for Louis Vuitton and completed a marketing degree from a French Business School.
10/18
To be fair, she's been vocal about the war, saying that "for me, it's totally unfair and unfounded". This comment came after she was sanctioned in Mar, 2022. On the day of the full-scale invasion, she posted the words "No to war" on her Instagram page, a crime that...
11/18
...could put her behind the bars for 15 years when (if) she goes back to Russia - it'll be interesting to see what happens.
And it doesn't end there: Lavrov's other daughter, Yekaterina, studied in the US, State Duma's Deputy Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak's three daughters...
12/18
...study in Switzerland and in Britain, Putin's close confidant, Vladimir Yakunin's children and grandchildren also lived in Switzerland and in the UK, and Russian politician Yelena Mizulina's son lives in the US. Pavel Astakhov, ...
13/18
...a politician who is best-known for advocating the ban on the adoption of Russian children by foreigners, has a son who was also studying abroad. Sergei Lisovsky's son hold the citizenship of a NATO state. Lisovsky is an open supporter of the Russo-Ukrainian War and...
14/18
...one of the main suspects in the murder of journalist Vladislav Listiev. Alexei Cepa, a State Duma member who constantly criticizes the West, doesn't mind that his son runs a company in Spain and owns a villa in Marbella.
15/18
His daughter Anastasia lives in the UK and is beneficiary in a company that sells "luxury clothes and accessories".
Master propagandist Vladimir Solovyov's son used to study in London. He was recently accused of "draft-dodging" by living and modeling in London, but the...
16/18
...images that were shared were actually taken by a Russian model agency, Contora.
Even Putin's daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, has lived in Europe with his husband Igor Zelensky, flying more than 50 times between Moscow and Munich in a time period of just one year.
17/18
While Ukrainians die en masse, these hypocrites keep on living a life of luxury as usual. Recently they've relocated to Dubai.
As the late Russian General Alexander Lebed said: "Let me recruit a platoon of the children of the elite, and the war will be over in a day."
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, we’ll reintroduce Laura Loomer @LauraLoomer, an American political activist. Our first possible case of a former vatnik, she’s best known for her unhinged takes on Ukraine & for admitting those were the result of falling for Russian propaganda.
1/20
When we first souped Laura, she was just one of many influential right-wingers and conspiracy theorists spreading vatnik propaganda: the usual, stale Kremlin narratives intended to help Russia with its invasion of Ukraine.
But now, she’s clearly and publicly admitted she was wrong. Now of course, this doesn’t mean that we agree with her on everything now, or that we can guarantee that she won’t change her mind again. But: her previous stance on Ukraine was extremely superficial…
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a French far-left politician. He’s best known for founding the party La France Insoumise (“Unsubmissive France”), demanding submission from his own movement and advocating global submission to authoritarian dictators.
1/23
Mélenchon received his early political education in the Organisation communiste internationaliste, a Trotskyist-Lambertist communist group known for secrecy, rigid discipline and entryism. Lionel Jospin was also a member, and both later joined the Socialist Party.
2/23
Mélenchon was elected to the Senate and was a junior minister in Jospin’s government. He left the Socialist Party in 2008, co-founded the Left Party, then the Left Front alliance with the Communists & ran as its presidential candidate. He was also an MEP from 2009 to 2017.
In today’s Vatnik Soup and our “Degenerate Russia” series, we’ll discuss what kind of lowlifes sink low enough to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, lie on Russia’s behalf, promote Russian BS, and even gather in Moscow or St. Petersburg to help the Kremlin wage its war.
1/21
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeting right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying Russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional, family values.
Russia is also normalizing relations with the Taliban, doesn’t recognize Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist groups, and deepens its military partnership with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the regime that legalized pedophilia through child marriage.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce Vincent Bolloré, a French billionaire and media tycoon. He’s best known for building a powerful media empire and for reshaping editorial lines across French media and publishing, pushing them toward far-right and pro-Kremlin positions.
1/25
Born in 1952 in Boulogne-Billancourt to a family of industrialists, Vincent studied law at Paris Nanterre University. He took over the family business and turned it into a sprawling conglomerate spanning logistics, port infrastructure in Africa, advertising, and media.
2/25
Bolloré’s African logistics empire also became the subject of a long-running corruption investigation in France. Legal proceedings against Vincent Bolloré personally are still ongoing, with a trial planned in December, after a judge refused to approve a plea deal.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll introduce an American conspiracy theorist, podcaster & antisemite, Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO). She’s best known for spreading conspiracy theories, attacking Ukraine, promoting pro-Kremlin BS, and becoming a favorite of Russian state media.
1/21
Candace started her career as an intern at Vogue magazine but later moved into political commentary. Her early career focused on criticizing Republicans, calling their antics “bat-shit crazy.” In 2016, her blog even published an article about Trump’s penis size.
2/21
That same year, she launched a doxxing website called SocialAutopsy. In response, people began posting Owens’s personal information online. During the controversy, she gained support from figures such as @Nero and @Cernovich. And just like that, she became a conservative.
In today’s Wumao Soup, we’ll talk about Taiwan, the sovereign country the Chinese Communist Party insists is not a country, but constantly threatens to invade just like a country, while the “antiwar” crowd is eagerly encouraging them to start that war, endangering millions.
1/20
Taiwan is a country, a state. It has its own territory, government, army, police, courts, taxes, passports and elections, just like any other country.
The only difference? Its neighbor, imperialist China, wants to invade it, and other countries try to please the big bully.
2/20
Taiwan’s official name is the Republic of China, or ROC. The ROC was founded in 1912, after the fall of the Qing dynasty. The People’s Republic of China, or PRC, was founded by democidal dictator Mao Zedong and his communist party, in 1949, after fighting against the ROC.