Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Mar 24, 2023 27 tweets 11 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup I'll introduce a conspiratorial fake news blog called Mintpress News (@MintPressNews). The site's best-known for spreading disinformation and propaganda, and for its support of totalitarian regimes.

1/24
Mintpress News is headquartered in Minnesota, US, but as is the case with the Grayzone blog, its funding remains mostly unknown. The blog was found by Mnar Muhawesh (now Adley) back in 2012.

2/24
She's claimed that the site was originally funded by "angel investors" and "retired businesspeople", but in 2013 Muhawesh stated that she's the "sole investor of MintPress".

3/24
Some describe Mintpress as a "far-left" website, but I'll outright refuse to do that since I don't see anything "left-wing" about it - it's simply an anti-US propaganda outlet wooing the various totalitarian regimes around the globe.

4/24
MintPress can be seen as part of the disinformation/propaganda fake news blog network, including sites like The Grayzone,Truthout and Antiwar.com (MintPress actually lists them as "news partners" on their site).

5/24
At the beginning, the blog was reporting on "American imperialism" in the Middle East and on its support for Israel. Based on MintPress, the Americans were assisting on "the humiliation and slaughter of innocent Arabs" in the Middle East.

6/24
As is tradition, they've also been pushing Soros related conspiracy theories, as they made a connection between Soros' funding and the Pandora Papers, somehow implying that revealing corruption would somehow be a bad thing.

7/24
MintPress has shared content from Kremlin-owned RT and Sputnik. They've also "partnered up" with Peace Data, a fake news blog run by Prigozhin's Internet Research Agency.

The site also provided platform for GRU troll with the codename "Alice Donovan". In "her" articles,...

8/24
..."she" criticized Turkey and later started instigating political movement of African-Americans against Hillary Clinton. During 2016, "she" published at least 30 political pieces on various "left-leaning" blogs, including MintPress.

newyorker.com/news/news-desk…

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In Aug, 2013, Mintpress article written by Dale Gavlak and Yahya Ababneh claimed that the Syrian rebels were responsible for the Ghouta chemical attack. Human Rights Watch found no evidence for this claim, and Foreign Policy magazine described it as...

10/24
..."one of the most crazy conspiracy theories" when it comes to chemical attacks in Syria. Gavlak, who had also freelanced for Associated Press, later tried to get his name removed from the article, suggesting that Ababneh was the sole author of the article.

11/24
He also said that the report had not been verified. Gavlak later got suspended from AP, possibly due to the article. MintPress put up an additional text stating that Gavlak wasn't actually in Syria, but wouldn't remove him from the author list.

12/24
Instead of posting international human rights organization reports, MintPress has been reporting on the "other side" of the war by publishing interviews from al-Assad and other pro-al-Assad and anti-US/anti-rebel material.

13/24
Just like great humanitarian figures such as Jackson "Z" Hinkle and Vanessa "Al-Assad tortures but I'd never say it publicly" Beeley, MintPress has received the Serena Shim award for their "outstanding journalistic efforts".

14/24
The site's also amplified Beeley's conspiracy theories on the Syrian NGO, The White Helmets.

Some frequent contributors of MintPress include Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett, Max Blumenthal, Lowkey, Kit Klarenberg, and always unfunny Lee Camp. I'm sure you can guess what's...

15/24
the connection between all of them. Latest articles on the site include conspiracy theories about "US/CIA-funded coup in Georgia", article that downplays the role of Russian collusion in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and RT-reporter Chris Hedges' op-ed titled...

16/24
..."Ukraine's death by proxy". They've also amplified the NO2NATO movement in the UK and provided platform for various far-right, pro-Russian actors. For example, a Brazilian analyst Pepe Escobar wrote an article on how he met and had great discussions with Alexander...

17/24
Dugin in a "New Horizon" conference in Iran. Another author, Whitney Webb, has spread classic anti-Semitic tropes of Rotschilds controlling the IMF. Her source for this rather bold claim was the True Activist article titled "The 5 Biggest Threats To Humanity Exposed".

18/24
Climate change and mass extinction didn't make the list.

MintPress also re-published William Engdahl's anti-Soros article, originally written for Russian-controlled New Eastern Outlook. Engdahl's also contributed to several other Russian propaganda mills, including Global..19/24
...Research, Veterans Today and Katehon. The article itself discusses the Great Replacement conspiracy theory and George Soros.

Today I learned that being considered "far-left" includes being anti-Semitic and promoting fringe far-right voices.

20/24
They also have a podcast, MintCast, which covers the same topics as the blog. By their own description, it's a podcast that features "dissenting voices, independent researchers and journalists the establishment would rather silence".

21/24
Of course they feature the loudest anti-Ukraine, pro-Russia voices online, including Michael Tracey and Rania Khalek. They also have quite active YouTube channel with new videos published almost on a daily basis.

22/24
In May, 2022,PayPal shut down MintPress' account along with the account of another propaganda mill,Consortium News. Naturally "freedom of speech advocates" like Branko Marcetic and Matt Taibbi defended these noble "left-wing" establishments and their efforts for free speech.23/24
One funding source for the site is Patreon, and with 381 "patrons" the site makes anywhere from 1150 to 40 000 USD per month. MintPress are also asking for cash, BTC and credit card payment donations via their website.

24/24
Also, big thank you to @vorkoz for delivering today's #vatniksoup.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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
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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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