Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Mar 4, 2023 25 tweets 13 min read Read on X
In today's #vatnik soup, I'll introduce a Spanish writer, colonel and attention-seeker,Pedro Baños. He's best-known for his takes on "geostrategy" (his Twitter handle is @geoestratego), for his hate on "Anglo-Saxon" world and for his long-lasting, low-key support for Russia.
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Baños started his long military career in the early 80's, and he was even the head of Counterintelligence and Security of the European Army in Strasbourg during the early 2000's. In 2017 he published a book called "Así se domina el mundo" ("How They Rule The World").

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The book focuses on the idea that world is ruled via realpolitik, a system of politics based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations. British writer Jeremy Duns compared the Spanish and English versions of the book, and noticed that Baños had deleted...

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...around 30000 words from the English version. In these deleted passages,Baños had referred to the Jewish Rothschild family in connection with the antisemitic fabricated text and conspiracy theory called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, first published in Russia in 1903.4/24 Image
In the TV show "Cuarto Milenio" he flirted with the idea that the Rothschilds together with Israel were behind the JFK assassination. Still back in Jan, 2022, he claimed in a YouTube show that the world was in the hands of "ten-twelve families who run everything".

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Back in 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia, Baños condemned the attack and called it a "Pyrrhic victory" for Putin. His views on both Russia and the US apparently changed around 2014, after the Russians annexed Crimea and started their false flag operation in Donbas.

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After the shoot down of MH17, he suggested on an interview on RT that, according to "alternative sources", it might have been shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet.

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During the Syrian War, Pedro accused the US and president Obama of "imprisoning Russia through NATO". He also supported the Russian version of the Douma chemical attack, denying the use of chemical weapons by the al-Assad regime. A year later his stance on this battle of...

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...empires became even more evident, when he wrote an article for the Spanish military publication "Ejército", praising Putin's ambitions to return Russia to its "former glory". Baños stated that the EU's sanctions to annexation of Crimea was an "unnecessary mistake".

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In Jun, 2018, he was going to be appointed as the director of National Security of Spain, but the nomination was contested by Partido Popular and Ciudadanos parties due to Pedro's "public positions in favor of the Kremlin", and he was never chosen for the job.

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Spanish political analyst and political scientist José Ignacio Torreblanca (@jitorreblanca) went as far as comparing him to Michael Flynn, a US general with solid pro-Russian connections and who also believes in various conspiracy theories.

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Baños also downplayed the Russian interference during the 2017 Catalonia referendum, blaming the journalist, Nicolás de Pedro (@nicolasdepedro), who wrote about the incident to be employed by a "fake think tank" funded by the British secret service MI6.

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NYT had earlier uncovered that the group calling for the independence met with FSB colonels and that even the infamous GRU unit 29155, a group best-known for the Salisbury poisonings, was somehow meddling with the independence process.

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In Nov, 2021, when Russia was gathering its troops along the Ukrainian border, Pedro called those who warned about the invasion "warmongers". When Zelensky was preparing Ukraine for war, Baños called it a ruse, "steering away the attention from internal politics".

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Baños spent the months before the invasion on mocking analysts who were warning about it. In Apr, 2022, he said in an interview that "providing weapons to Ukraine is not the right way". In another interview he predicted that "hundreds of thousands could die of cold" in...

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...wintertime due to the sanctions on Russia. Pedro's comments haven't gone unnoticed in the Spanish media: an article by Julio Valdeón (@JulioValdeon) on El Mundo explicitly accused Baños of being paid by the Kremlin.

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Lately Baños has been going around every possible TV show, touting about classic Kremlin propaganda like Ukrainian biolabs and COVID-19 being a US experiment.

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It is rather alarming when colonels and "geostrategists" mix conspiracy theories and strong anti-US and NATO rhetoric with geopolitical views. His fandom for Putin & his regime has been evident on many occasions, and even though he has condemned Russia's illegal invasion,...18/24 ImageImage
... he keeps on promoting the "mistakes of the Anglo-Saxons", barely mentioning the genocidal events conducted by Russia in Ukraine.

Baños seems to love attention and being in the spotlight. I mean, the man is 63 and has an active TikTok account.

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He also attempts to control the narrative: after I announced that I'm looking for help in translating Spanish for project "Pedro Baños", he immediately went into damage control mode, even suggesting that there's a "disinformation campaign" against him, and that #NAFO...

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...mostly consists of bots. He claimed that this campaign is organized from Finland, and his friend, claiming to be "digital analyst", continued that it this might cost "as much as 10 000 EUR" each month.

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Why is Baños doing this? For money and fame, of course. Since he lost his cozy job in the military, he now somehow has to stay relevant, which is why he makes silly TikToks, spreads conspiracy theories on populist TV shows and blames people for plotting against him.

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So, @geoestratego, here's a litmus test: Let us know what you think of the massacres in Bucha and Izium, tell us how you feel about the FSB-organized kid's torture chambers in Kherson, please enlighten us with your thoughts on the mass bombings of civilian targets,...

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...conducted by the Russian troops. This would be the moment to truly condemn Russia's war atrocities and illegal invasion.

This thread will be published also in Spanish in the near future. Thank you for the sous-chef @Victor_Vas_Her for helping me to deliver this soup.

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

Past soups: vatniksoup.com
Related soups:
Michael Flynn:

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

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.

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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
Aug 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.

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The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.

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From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.

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On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.

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What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.

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The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.

These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").

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Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

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Read 5 tweets

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