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.
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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 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
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
...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...
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
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
..."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...
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.
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...
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
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.
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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...