Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Apr 5, 2023 26 tweets 13 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Finnish economist, conspiracy theorist and doomsayer, Tuomas Malinen (@mtmalinen). He's best-known for promoting market crash every two months, for his alleged support for the WEF conspiracy theory, and for his pro-Russian hot takes.

1/23 Image
Malinen has a PhD in Economics from University of Helsinki, where he studied, among other things, economic crises. Currently he's working for GNS Economics (actually Kasvu ja Suhdanne Oy), a company with revenue of 100 000 EUR and operating loss of 10 000 EUR.

2/23 Image
Based on Malinen, there are five partners on board with him on GNS.

For many years now, Tuomas has been forecasting the economic end times that never came. He's often suggested people to "withdraw cash and keep it" because the collapse can happen on "any day now".

3/23 ImageImageImageImage
Malinen was also at least on some level involved in the most pro-Russian party in Finland, Valta Kuuluu Kansalle (VKK; "Power to the People"). At the end of 2021, he published a video where he claimed that the top leadership of the police and of the Army don't think the...

4/23 Image
...best for the Finns anymore. In the same video he promoted antivax- and WEF conspiracy theories, suggesting that "we are at the point where we need to start building a parallel society".

5/23 Image
Few days after Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Tuomas commented that "VKK unfortunately didn't turn out to be what I hoped for", at the same time suggesting that he had previously collaborated with them.

6/23 Image
Malinen has been appearing every now and then on pro-Russian and conspiratorial podcast called LEVELI. Both hosts of the podcast are members of the VKK party, and they're known for promoting conspiracy theories and for smearing Finnish politicians and journalists.

7/23 Image
In Dec 2022, Malinen was caught up in a drama when she was blamed for "manipulation" by one of LEVELI's former podcasters, Nea Lundström-Finnilä.

8/23 Image
She suggested that Tuomas had manipulated her by offering her a "position as his successor" by becoming her mentor, and for this she had to "give up everything". LEVELI later gave him the platform to explain the situation.

9/23
In Oct 2022, Malinen claimed that the Russian bombing of civilian targets seemed "too focused to act as a mere terror campaign" (which it was and is). He also stated that the Russian re-grouping could predict a "massive winter offensive in many fronts possibly to ...

10/23 ImageImage
...crush Ukrainian army altogether". "Russia would probably be able to unleash a war-machine not seen in Europe for a very long time," he continued.

Malinen has also theorized that the war could result in - surprise, surprise - market crash in Europe, and this might've...
11/23 ImageImageImageImage
...been Putin's strategy all along.

In Dec 2022, Malinen tweeted that he'd received "worrying information", pointing to the possibility that it was actually Ukraine that initiated the war against Russia.

12/23 ImageImage
Malinen attempts to create this illusion of being a neutral analyst, often using phrases like "I am hoping that the information and the speculation are wrong", but then continuing with something like "Something just doesn’t add up".

13/23 Image
He often presents Putin as a "master strategist" and the West as the inferior party. When reporting about various incidents from the battlefield, he refers to pro-Russian propagandists such as Douglas Macgregor.

14/23 Image
Tuomas also claims that he's receiving "extraordinary intel" from various sources on the field which is a great way to shift the responsibility to others when he's eventually wrong again. This fantastic information usually comes from people like Ritter and Macgregor.

15/23 Image
Here's a textbook example from one of his blog posts: "Again, I hope that I am wrong and Ukraine wins the war and reclaims her territories. That, unfortunately, currently looks rather unlikely."

16/23 Image
This "muddying the waters" approach offers a nice backdoor when Russia eventually loses the war - Tuomas can simply state that he was always rooting for the good guys.

17/23
In Jan 2023, Malinen tweeted that "there would have been a simple solution to #UkraineRussiaWar️" - by addressing the concerns of Russia and by accepting territorial losses (probably referring to Crimea) "as a result of failed foreign policies of the US and the EU".

18/23 Image
In Mar 2023 he also blamed the Biden administration for the destruction of Nord Stream pipelines, parroting the narrative by Sy Hersh. At the same time he highlighted the "inhumane losses of the Ukrainian army", perhaps again referring to Macgregor's shitty analysis.

19/23 Image
On 3 Mar 2023,he claimed that Finland's NATO membership makes Finland the second front-line against Russia, and will most like bring war. He also possibly thinks that "Finns are, generally, the most stupid, gullible and malevolent people" and that we have "lost our purpose".20/23 Image
Tuomas also has a tendency to cry out election fraud in any election held in Finland - the last time he cried wolf was on 5 Apr 2023, after the Finnish Parliamentary election, when he stated the possibility of a "massive elecotral fraud".

21/23 ImageImage
Apparently Mr Malinen considers himself as a real threat to the "deep state", as he has tweeted that "they" are eventually coming after him with false accusations of tax fraud, sexual assault or robbery/battery.

22/23 Image
In the grand scheme of things, he's nobody, but I wanted to demonstrate the doomsayer, "I fully support Ukraine, BUT..." type that we so commonly see these days, especially among scholars and academics.

23/23 ImageImage
A little dessert for today's #vatniksoup: Greg Gaylor (@SMUMustangAlum) and his company helped Malinen to obtain a visa to the U.S.

They planned of having him serve as an economist for their M&A group, but they couldn’t get him "out of the clouds" and "down to Earth".
Greg said that "he was virtually bankrupt" and had no money or prospects, but is now doing well. "I think he’s in the pay of the Kremlin," he continued.

Greg also stated that "his economic analysis is very good" but he doesn't know how to translate this into advice for clients.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Pekka Kallioniemi

Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @P_Kallioniemi

May 9
In today’s May 9th Vatnik Soup, we discuss the ambiguous relationship of the Kremlin with Nazism and explain why so many vatniks can be outright Nazis, and promote or excuse them while at the same time being so hysterical about alleged “Nazis in Ukraine”.

1/23 Image
Of course, Kremlin propaganda employs the Firehose of Falsehood and often lacks any consistent ideology other than spreading chaos and seeking power, so such contradictions can be commonplace. However in this case there is a certain cynical consistency there.

2/23 Image
Image
To understand modern Russia, we need to go back a hundred years to the beginnings of Soviet Russia/Soviet Union — a genocidal terror regime under dictators Lenin and Stalin, whose totalitarian and imperialist legacy Putin’s Russia fully embraces.

3/23 Image
Image
Image
Image
Read 24 tweets
May 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll discuss the state of X in May 2025. Since its acquisition by Elon Musk, this platform has rapidly transformed into his personal political tool and a breeding ground for hate speech and disinformation.

1/22 Image
Not everyone is following this shitshow as closely as I am, so I thought it would be good to write a summary of all the changes that have happened on this forum and outside of it. These changes have drastically changed how the platform operates and who gets “a voice” here.

2/22 Image
Image
Elon’s team has been tweaking the algorithm many times after the takeover. One of these tweaks happened already around Nov 2022, when the platform heavily suppressed the visibility of pro-Ukraine accounts. This change was then noticed & reported by many pro-Ukraine accounts.
3/22 Image
Image
Read 23 tweets
May 2
In today’s 350th Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American comedian and podcaster, Dave Smith (@ComicDaveSmith). He’s best-known for his numerous appearances on the Joe Rogan Experience and for his unhinged takes on the Russo-Ukrainian War.

1/22 Image
Smith has a massive megaphone - he’s a good friend of Joe Rogan, and he’s appeared on Joe’s podcast a whopping 16 times. Naturally, he’s also visited Lex Fridman’s podcast and frequently appears on Fox News’ Kennedy and The Greg Gutfeld Show.

2/22 Image
Image
Image
Image
Dave is part of the Kremlintarian section of the Libertarian Party called Mises Caucus. They took control of the party in May 2022, and with the help of their new leader, Angela McArdle, turned it into an extension of the MAGA Republicans:

3/22

Image
Image
Image
Read 24 tweets
Apr 29
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian journalist, Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin). He’s best-known for posing as a Russian dissident, while at the same time sneakily promoting the Kremlin’s narratives about the Russo-Ukrainian War.

1/20 Image
On paper, Leonid doesn’t look like your typical Kremlin apologist - he’s written and worked for prestigious Western outlets like the BBC, the Guardian, and he’s even written some Lonely Planet guides for the Baltic countries!

2/20 Image
Image
But Ragozin’s public commentary often seems to walk a fine line: condemning the war while pushing narratives that shift blame, dilute responsibility, or quietly carry the same old imperial baggage Russia - or its opposition - has never truly forgotten.

3/20 Image
Image
Read 21 tweets
Apr 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll introduce a bank that is well-known in both Austria and Russia: Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) and its Russian subsidiary, AO Raiffeisen. It is one of the few foreign banks that still does business in Russia.

1/21 Image
Raiffeisen’s Russian branch was founded in 1996 and expanded dramatically after the acquisition of Russia’s Impexbank in 2006. A year later, it was the largest bank trading in foreign capital (seventh in size) in Russia.

2/21 Image
In the early 2000s, Raiffeisen opened new branches in Russia, including in Saint Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar. After 2018, it focused on digital expansion and by 2021 it had a digital presence in more than 300 cities.

3/21 Image
Read 22 tweets
Apr 24
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an Estonian lawyer, social activist, politician, and useful idiot for the Kremlin, Varro Vooglaid (@varrovooglaid). He’s best-known for promoting pro-Kremlin viewpoints under the guise of “traditional family values.”

1/20 Image
Vooglaid has an academic background, which usually gives people plenty of credibility in the eyes of the Kremlin. Most of his academic career was spent at the University of Tartu, but he was also a researcher between 2007 and 2011 at the University of Helsinki.

2/20 Image
Varro is likely the most influential vatnik in Estonia. His academic credentials provide him credibility, while his religious image appeals to “traditionalists” - many of whom oddly admire Russia and its imperialistic nature.

3/20 Image
Read 21 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(