In today's #vatniksoup I'll introduce another Dutch politician and MEP, Marcel de Graaff (@MJRLdeGraaff). He's best-known for his beliefs in conspiracy theories, for his strong pro-Russian stance, and for his pro-Kremlin voting patterns in the European Parliament (EP).
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He was elected as a MEP in the 2014 European Parliament elections. In 2015 he joined the far-right coalition called Europe of Nations and Freedom, with de Graaff and Marine Le Pen as its first co-presidents.
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Marcel actually voted for Le Pen in her absence on many occasions, and was fined for this.
His party didn't obtain any seats in the Parliament in the 2019 European Parliament elections, but he was given a seat nevertheless due to Brexit and UK losing its representatives.
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In national politics, he defected to Thierry Baudet's party, Forum for Democracy (FvD), due to his critical stance on Dutch COVID-19 measures. There he found a home with other rabid conspiracy theorists, including Baudet.
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The party's ties to Russian leadership and funding has also been proven: In 2020 Dutch TV program Zembla published Whatsapp group messages with interaction between the party leader Baudet and Russian Vladimir Kornilov, damning the party of accepting Kremlin money.
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De Graaff has methodically voted against all 20 so-called milestone anti-Russian resolutions and against 16 out of 22 Russia-condemning documents, skipping the voting on the rest. His radical stance made him opt out of the EP far-right coalition, Identity and Democracy.
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He said that "their attempt to silence me about NATO/Ukraine is indigestible", suggesting that he's going to create his own group that supports "de-escalation" of the war in Ukraine.
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Marcel is a working prototype of Homo Putinicus - a person who swallows ALL Russian narratives and conspiracy theories whole, and then spreads these fake stories like wildfire. If Russian propaganda were Pokémon, Marcel would have catched 'em all.
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Marcel's spoken harshly against the "woke" culture and LGBTQ+ rights. He's shared various Putin's "truth bombs" about the "decadent West" and traditional values maintained in Mother Russia. Based on Marcel, the West truly is decadent and only the Russian culture can save it.
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He's also questioned the down-shooting of MH17, a tragedy in which 193 Dutch passengers (including children) lost their lives. In Sep 2014, de Graaff, along with Le Pen, Salvini and others, called for a thorough investigation on the shoot-down.
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Later he criticized the investigation, maybe because the main culprit turned out to be the Russian military.
And what was his source for the "real" information? RT.
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Few weeks before his departure from Identity and Democracy, he had suggested that the US is "a puppet used by satanic elites to impose a communist wold dictatorship, where citizens are digitally controlled", while combining so many conspiracy theories that even I lost count.12/16
De Graaff also thinks that the Ducha [sic] massacre was conducted by Ukrainian soldiers, that NATO is planning a nuclear strike against Russia, that "Zelenskyy and his nazi army are committing war crimes", and that there are bioweapons labs in Ukraine.
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He was also part of that big group who denied the upcoming invasion in early Feb 2022.
Like a Putin's good lapdog, he started promoting "peace talks" only after the fake referendums and illegal annexations of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
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He's also suggested that the ICC-issued arrest warrant against Putin was executed due to bribery.
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To conclude, Marcel isn't even a low-hanging fruit - he's a rotten apple on the ground. Dutch followers - how did these people get elected to power? And is it bound to happen again?
And a question to you, Marcel: Did you call for peace negotiations before 22 Sep, 2022?
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce Vincent Bolloré, a French billionaire and media tycoon. He’s best known for building a powerful media empire and for reshaping editorial lines across French media and publishing, pushing them toward far-right and pro-Kremlin positions.
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Born in 1952 in Boulogne-Billancourt to a family of industrialists, Vincent studied law at Paris Nanterre University. He took over the family business and turned it into a sprawling conglomerate spanning logistics, port infrastructure in Africa, advertising, and media.
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Bolloré’s African logistics empire also became the subject of a long-running corruption investigation in France. Legal proceedings against Vincent Bolloré personally are still ongoing, with a trial planned in December, after a judge refused to approve a plea deal.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll introduce an American conspiracy theorist, podcaster & antisemite, Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO). She’s best known for spreading conspiracy theories, attacking Ukraine, promoting pro-Kremlin BS, and becoming a favorite of Russian state media.
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Candace started her career as an intern at Vogue magazine but later moved into political commentary. Her early career focused on criticizing Republicans, calling their antics “bat-shit crazy.” In 2016, her blog even published an article about Trump’s penis size.
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That same year, she launched a doxxing website called SocialAutopsy. In response, people began posting Owens’s personal information online. During the controversy, she gained support from figures such as @Nero and @Cernovich. And just like that, she became a conservative.
In today’s Wumao Soup, we’ll talk about Taiwan, the sovereign country the Chinese Communist Party insists is not a country, but constantly threatens to invade just like a country, while the “antiwar” crowd is eagerly encouraging them to start that war, endangering millions.
1/20
Taiwan is a country, a state. It has its own territory, government, army, police, courts, taxes, passports and elections, just like any other country.
The only difference? Its neighbor, imperialist China, wants to invade it, and other countries try to please the big bully.
2/20
Taiwan’s official name is the Republic of China, or ROC. The ROC was founded in 1912, after the fall of the Qing dynasty. The People’s Republic of China, or PRC, was founded by democidal dictator Mao Zedong and his communist party, in 1949, after fighting against the ROC.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll introduce Russian propaganda operations around military targets like Starobilsk. For over a decade, the Kremlin has used similar strategies, combining crisis actors, “independent journalists” and fabricated evidence.
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First, let’s go back to 2014. Russia funded separatist groups and sent its mercenaries to Donbas, which led to the creation of two puppet states, Donetsk and Luhansk, governed by Russian propagandists and soldiers like Igor Girkin.
The fake genocide was touted as one of the main reasons for Russia’s war during the early stages of the full-scale invasion, and the claim was made even by Putin himself. Before his mutiny, late Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said that all this was fabricated bullshit.
In this 9th Debunk of the Day, we’ll discuss “legitimate military targets”. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, with no declaration of war, hiding behind a “special military operation”. Yet vatniks & useful idiots pretend Russia has any legitimate or lawful targets in Ukraine.
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Russia started the war in 2014 by seizing Crimea with unmarked soldiers, “little green men”. Russians have been waging an undeclared, illegal war with endless war crimes ever since, whether it’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children with genocidal intent…
… the concentration camps for Ukrainians under occupation, conscripting Ukrainians from occupied territories, or the terrorist, deliberate bombing of civilians, including their infamous “double tap” strikes.
So no, Russia does not have any “legitimate targets” in Ukraine.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce Hasan Piker, a Turkish-American streamer and millionaire. He’s best known for his champagne socialism, rabid criticism of the US and Israel, support for the Soviet Union and for Chinese and Russian invasions, and for mistreating his dog.
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Born in 1991, Piker grew up in a privileged and well-connected environment. His father held senior roles at big corporations and his uncle, Cenk Uygur, is the founder of The Young Turks media network. He graduated cum laude from Rutgers, a top-tier university in New Jersey.
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His main activity and primary source of income consists of hours-long livestreams on Twitch where he comments on news and yells at videos. He also keeps his dog in place the whole time with a shock collar.