In today's #vatniksoup I'll introduce a British blogger and propagandist, Vanessa Beeley (@VanessaBeeley). She's best-known for spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation about both the Syrian civil war and about the Russo-Ukrainian War.
1/19
Beeley is a daughter of a former diplomat from the UK, Harold Beeley. Like so many other "independent journalist" who defends dictator-ruled regimes around the world, Vanessa started her blogging career writing about the Palestine-Israel conflict.
2/19
Then in 2015, she started focusing on the Syrian civil war. In 2016 she met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus as part of a US Peace Council. She later described the event as her "proudest moment". Beeley was also on the steering committee for the Syria...
3/19
...Solidarity Movement, an association that has received almost 2 million USD in support from undisclosed donors. This association supports he Syrian Social Nationalist Party, a fascist and "rabidly anti-Semitic" political party.
4/19
After Syria, Vanessa naturally moved on to Russia, where she met with Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Maria Zakharova. Bogdanov has been described as one of the main strategists for Syria in Russia.
5/19
Beeley's been appearing frequently on RT and Sputnik, providing a pro-al-Assad and pro-Russian point of view on the war.
Like so many like her, Vanessa has received the "Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism" from a pro-Assad lobby group the...
6/19
...Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees. Other prominent activists that have received this prestigious award are Jackson "Z" Hinkle, the "MAGA communist" grifter, and Max Blumenthal, the Grayzone blogger.
7/19
It was suggested that Beeley was a finalist for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, however it was later revealed that there are no finalists for said award and only winners are published.
8/19
As a "journalist", Vanessa has published some weird takes on world events. Some examples include calling the Human Rights Watch a "fake" NGO, claiming that the Charlie Hebdo shooting was a false flag operation, and that Al-Qaeda had nothing to do with 9/11.
9/19
Beeley is part of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media, which is another pro-Assad group that tries to defame the White Helmets. White Helmets are a group of people who help Syrian civilians in war zones.
10/19
They have also documented bombings of hospitals and use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, and for this reason they have been a target of disinformation campaigning for years.
11/19
Beeley has suggested together with the Russian government that they are connected to Al-Qaeda and that they are involved, among other things, in organ harvesting. She has also suggested that the group is a "legitimate military target".
12/19
Hackers hacked and obtained Beeley's private Facebook conversations with the blogger Scott Gaulke, where she admitted that the Syrian government has tortured but that she would never say it publicly.
13/19
Vanessa was one of the "foreign observers" in the sham vote for the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Russia accepted anyone who'd come to "observe the legality of the vote", and she was of course one of the volunteers.
14/19
James Delingpole interviewed Beeley on Rumble in Oct, 2022, and the whole thing was pure comedy. They showed the West as a main source of disinformation, whereas Russia was presented as a beacon of truth.
15/19
They also said that the Russian economy is thriving she even called herself an "independent delegate" for the annexation vote. She also claimed that Russia hasn't committed any war crimes and that many Ukrainian refugees she has interviewed have praised Russia.
16/19
Beeley is a big fan of the conspiracy theory "deep state", and often refers to this in her rambles. She's also shared several conspiracy theories about COVID-19. Vanessa's also claimed that she's on a "UK kill list" along with 300 children, but it is unclear if she...
17/19
...actually referred to Myrotvorets, a list of who the authors call to be "enemies of Ukraine". At some point pro-Russians started calling it a "official Ukrainian government kill list", which it of course isn't: disinfowatch.org/disinfo/russia…
18/19
Even though Beeley is mostly focusing on events in Syria, he's still a prominent figure in spreading Russian disinformation and propaganda, even participating in their hoax referendums.
As a little dessert for today's rather heavy #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a real coup that was supposed to be done by Yanukovych and his Party of Regions,with the help of Putin. This conspiracy was revealed by a former People's Deputy of Ukraine, Oleg Anatolyevich Tsaryov.
The idea with the plan was to do what Lukashenko has done in Belarus - rewrite the constitution which would allow Yanukovych to become a president indefinitely. This was then supposed to provoke Ukraine's western regions into separatism (instead of the people in east of Ukraine).
They even planned Oleh Tyahnybok of the far-right Svoboda party for the role of running separatist movement in the west of Ukraine.
This of course is a clear indication that Yanukovych and his Party of Regions were actually Russian agents, trying to make Ukraine into...
In today's #vatniksoup and another edition of "You pronounced this nonsense, not me", I'll talk about an event called the Revolution of Dignity AKA Maidan Revolution. It was a wave of demonstrations in Ukraine that took place in 2013 and 2014.
1/24
Many pro-Russian voices, including Russell Brand (@rustyrockets), have said that what happened at Maidan was actually a far-right wing organized coup d'etat - let's see if this argument holds.
First, let's talk about what led to the civil unrest. In Feb, 2013, Verkhovna...
2/24
...Rada, Ukraine's parliament, had overwhelmingly approved (315 of 349 MP's voted "Yes") the implementation of Ukraine's aspirations for European integration and the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. EU then said that this agreement wouldn't be ratified,...
In today's #vatniksoup and another edition of "You pronounced this nonsense, not me", I'll go through some of the most common pro-Russian claims and tropes. I have discussed these in previous soups, but I feel like this type of general collection would be a helpful resource.
1/23
As many of you know, the Kremlin and other pro-Russian propagandists like to repeat the same old lies over and over again. This is part of the "Firehose of Falsehood" system that they have been using at least since 2013, probably even longer:
1) "Ukrainians shelled Donbas for 8 years, killing 14 000 Russian civilians" - This lie was promoted even by Putin himself. It is naturally not true, as Russians provoked the whole conflict in Donbas and the UN data tells us...
In today's #vatniksoup I'll introduce an American politician, lawyer and Florida Man, Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz). He's best-known as the US representative for the Republican Party, being a close ally of Donald Trump, and for voting against any aid for Ukraine.
1/23
Gaetz is a lawyer by profession. He earned his Juris Doctor from the William & Mary Law School in 2007, and was admitted to the Florida Bar in Feb, 2008. In Oct, 2021, he was suspended from practicing law in Florida due to unpaid fees.
2/23
During his career in politics, Gaetz has promoted several white nationalist figures.
In Jan, 2018, Matt invited holocaust-denier ("I agree with David Cole about Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real", as he put it) Charles C. Johnson to attend Trump's State of ...
In today's #vatniksoup (I finally put those two words together to make a hashtag!) I'll introduce a politician and mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin. As of today, he's best-known for running a huge corruption scheme, "My District", camouflaged as a city development program.
1/18
Somebody REALLY wants to keep this news hidden, which is why I got struck with several DMCA's and they locked my account for a while. To prevent this,I have now removed all the images, but maybe we can make sure that this corruption is revealed to as many people as possible.
2/18
Sergey has been the Mayor of Moscow since 2010, and ironically he has been praised for his efforts in combating corruption. On 7 Mar, 2023, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation released an extensive report on Sobyanin's money laundering schemes - it seems that he has...
In today's #vatniksoup (I finally put those two words together to make a hashtag!) I'll introduce a politician and mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin. As of today, he's best-known for running a huge corruption scheme, "My District", camouflaged as a city development program.
1/17
Sergey has been the Mayor of Moscow since 2010, and ironically he has been praised for his efforts in combating corruption. On 7 Mar, 2023, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation released an extensive report on Sobyanin's money laundering schemes - it seems that he has...
2/17
...funneled vast amounts of money to his close associates and to his controlled opposition through the "My District" program.
A lot of the money has been channeled to superstar propagandists Margarita Simonyan and his husband, Tigran Keosayan.