Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Mar 22, 2023 19 tweets 10 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an ex-video game streamer and gamer turned-propagandist, Mike "iEarlGrey" Jones. He's best-known for transforming his gaming-related YouTube channel into Kremlin propaganda instrument. Jones has been residing in Russia since 2018.

1/18
To understand the vatnik-y background of Mr. Jones, we have to go way back to his game streaming days and also take a quick look at his dating history. Jones was (is?) an avid gamer who focused on strategy games made by a company called Wargaming.

2/18
Wargaming is a company known for their war strategy games such as World of Tanks and World of Warships. In his streaming career, Mike focused on the latter and was kind of a "big name" in that scene.

3/18
Wargaming was founded in Belarus in 1998 by Victor Kislyi. As is tradition in both big Russia and little Russia (i.e. Belarus), the headquarters of the company was soon moved to Nicosia, Cyprus.

4/18
In Feb 2022, the creative director of Wargaming Sergey Burkatovskiy was fired for supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The company later condemned the war and claimed their support for Ukraine.

5/18
At the beginning of Jun, 2018, Jones moved to St. Petersburg, allegedly to start at his new job at Wargaming. In Aug, 2018 he introduced her future Russian wife for the first time for the larger audience. They were married in 2020.

6/18
In Jan, 2022, he appeared to have abandoned his support for the company and announced his support for the Russian "traditional values", as he published a video titled "WGNA [Wargaming North America] Go Woke Go Broke".

7/18
Then the invasion started, and his YouTube channel had a complete overhaul, as it started publishing literal Kremlin propaganda such as RT-produced documentaries. By doing this, Jones was actually circumventing the EU ban on RT.

8/18
He also started publishing commentaries on issues like McDonalds leaving Russia, evidence on "Ukrainian plans for attacking Crimea" in early 2022 (BTW, those documents look like they were photoshopped by my late grandma, God rest her soul),and the "economic fall of the West".9/18
He's also done interviews with "independent journalists" such as Eva Bartlett and Igor Gomolsky. He visited Donbas to interview the local crisis actors and provide them "humanitarian aid" - a very common trope among western, pro-Russian propagandists.

10/18
In Mar, 2023, he appeared on Russian state-owned national TV channel Zvezda with Florida Man and ex-cop turned-propagandist, John Mark Dougan. In the interview, they talked about their humanitarian project in Donbas. In his heartbreaking...

11/18
...monologue, he stated that as "Russia wouldn't mobilize him" (which they most certainly would), he'd "mobilize himself".

Mike is extremely productive, and he publishes new video almost on a daily basis. His funding model is a mystery, but supposedly he gets money...

12/18
...via his various donation channels. He has a Patreon, which makes him something between 370 and 2500 EUR a month. He's also asking money on Locals and on Stripe, selling T-shirts and encouraging people to donate to him via crypto.

13/18
Stripe is an Irish-American company,Locals hails from NYC & Teespring Inc. also comes from the US,so it might be worth looking into if he's breaking the US/EU sanctions by using these services to fund his pro-Russian propaganda (as was the case with Alina Lipp's donations). 14/18
Cutting these bad actors from their income source is the best way to stop the flow of propaganda and disinformation. Although, I assume that he's also paid for by the Kremlin for publishing material from RT.

15/18
When looking at Mike's past and his trajectory, it doesn't come as a surprise that he's decided to support Russia in this horrible war. Basically he's been part of that culture since his streaming days, and he's allegedly still married to Russian lady and lives in Russia.

16/18
His past as a relatively popular streamer with 120 000 YouTube followers provides the illusion that he's a "big name", but his recent videos have garnered only 10 000-60 000 views. Nevertheless, he is an important channel for spreading Russian disinfo into the mainstream.

17/18
He's also a useful propaganda poster boy for the Russian media, as he "reveals the hypocrisy of the West". This material is then fed to the common Russian folk through nationwide TV channels.

18/18

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

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.

1/20 Image
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.

2/20 Image
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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.

3/20 Image
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.

1/5 Image
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!").

2/5 Image
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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.

3/5 Image
Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.

1/21 Image
Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.

2/21 Image
Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.

3/21 Image
Read 23 tweets
Jul 14
While Ukrainians are terror bombed on a daily basis, rich Russians live in Europe like kings and queens.

This young lady lives in Portugal, and travels freely to Ibiza...
...the Alps...
... and of course Paris.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 7
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 Image
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.

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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.

3/21 Image
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Read 23 tweets
Jul 6
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 Image
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 Image
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:

3/15

vatniksoup.com/en/soups/
Read 15 tweets

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