In today's #vatnik soup, I'll introduce a Spanish-Russian "journalist" & political scientist,Liubov "Liu" Sivaya (@liusivaya). She's best-known for her YouTube channel where she spreads pro-Kremlin narratives and denies war crimes conducted by the Russian military for money.
1/18
I consider Sivaya to be a part of the group of "relatively attractive, young women who do pro-Kremlin propaganda" along with people like Mira Terada, Maria Butina, Alina Lipp and Anna Chapman.
She'll probably join some Prigozhin-run propaganda committee in the near future.
2/18
Sivaya has lived in Spain for 10 years, and she's claimed and received Spanish citizenship, and on occasion she has exhibited both passports online in order to defend herself from critics, whilst being fully aware that Spain does not allow double citizenship with Russia.
3/18
Liubov's been actively trying to get into politics for years, and she's tried all political parties ranging from left to right: in Spain, she's toured the PSOE (center left), Ciudadanos (center to center right), PP (right) and VOX (far right).
4/18
This identity crisis finally landed her into the political landscape of "anti-woke", where she emphasizes the importance of traditional values - you know, the kind that Russia preaches but does not practice.
5/18
She's gained quite a lot of traction with the Spanish speaking audience by criticizing the current Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez.
6/18
Liu has participated in several talk-shows on channels such as Cuatro and 7NN where she tells the fairy tale of "eight years of bombing of the Donbas" and spouts on about the alleged persecution of Russians "unlike we've never seen before in history of mankind".
7/18
She's among the group of pro-Russian propagandists or so-called "independent journalists" that claim to "show you what the mainstream media won't show you", meaning that they travel around Donbas with Russian soldiers and produce solid propaganda for the information war.
8/18
In April 2022, Liu, together with notorious denialist of Russian war crimes and lawyer, Ruben Gisbert, visited the occupied Donbas under an armed escort by the authorities of the Russian puppet states DPR and LPR.
9/18
Soon after that, Liu decided to settle on an apparent permanent basis in the Russian occupied territories, from where she keeps working under the protection of the Russian authorities.
10/18
Liu's discourse has evolved from open and staunch denial of the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, up to a repeat of all Kremlin talking points on short videos, in a way similar in both presentation and content to Alina Lipp, Vanessa Beeley and Sonja van den Ende.11/18
She's also occasionally interviewed Finnish propagandist Janus Putkonen on her videos. Putkonen's financial ties to Kremlin we're proved through the 2016 Doni News e-mail leak. Liu even visited Finland where she interviewed people about their NATO stance.
12/18
Amongst the arguments that she keeps repeating are the false flag claim regarding the Mariupol Theater attack, a war crime where over 600 civilians were killed in a Russian air-raid whilst hiding in a building marked with the word "children".
13/18
She's also reported from "rebuilt Mariupol" where the Russians have been building a Potemkin village for propaganda purposes. In her YouTube video she showcases playgrounds, brand new apartments for the residents and other reconstruction projects around the city, ...
14/18
...and of course interviews pro-Russian actors who condemn the evil Ukrainian Nazis and thank their liberators. For obvious reasons, Mariupol has become the main stage for crisis actors and fake "rebuilding efforts" initiated by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
15/18
One can only guess why Liubov is doing this: based on her "political tourism", one could argue that it's all for attention,yet another motivator could be just money.Some have even suggested that she's infiltrated the Spanish society for years, only to become active later on.16/18
It may be that Sivaya has moved to Russia and/or to the illegally annexed areas for good. She's still producing pro-Kremlin propaganda on almost daily basis for her Spanish audience - her latest video focused on "debunking the disinformation spread by the West" - which...
17/18
...indicates that there's still money to be made in this arena of lies.
As I have said before, the West has a blind eye for the Russian propaganda and disinformation spread throughout the Global South, which may partly explain their pro-Russian attitudes towards the war.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.
1/21
Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.
2/21
Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.
1/15
Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.
The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.
2/15
The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.
1/21
Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.
2/21
While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.
1/22
Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…
2/22
…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.