In today's #vatniksoup, I'll be introducing a bank well-known in both Austria and Russia: Raiffeisen Bank International and its Russian subsidiary, AO Raiffeisen. It is one of the few foreign banks that still continues business-as-usual in Russia.
1/12
The Russian branch of Raiffeisen was founded in 1996 and was expanded massively after the takeover of Russia's Impexbank in 2006. A year later they had become the largest bank that deals with foreign capital (seventh largest overall) in Russia.
2/12
During the early 2000's Raiffeisen was opening new branches around Russia, including St. Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar. After 2018 they focused on digital expansion, and in 2021 they had digital presence in over 300 cities.
3/12
The customer satisfaction at Raiffeisen is also high - in 2021, the American Forbes called it the "best bank of Russia", and in 2018 Euromoney magazine referred to it as "The best bank for private banking services for wealthy customers in Central and Eastern Europe".
4/12
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022, many Western companies and banks decided to leave the Russian market. In general, when banks leave a country en masse, it can have devastating consequences on its economy, ...
5/12
...which is why Putin has been doing everything in his power to disrupt these departures. Nowadays all big exits have to be signed by Putin himself.
Many Western banks left Russia actually already in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea.
6/12
But some European banks, including Raiffeisen and Italian Unicredit, saw the opportunity to make some money from the war, and decided to stay.
Staying and continuing business-as-usual in Russia has been a pretty profitable deal for Raiffeisen: around 60% of its profits,...
7/12
...a total of 2 billion EUR, came from Russia. The bank holds more than 20 billion EUR of Russian money.
Raiffeisen's stay in Russia has faced some challenges lately, though - recently Russia started granting loan payment holidays to their troops who fight in Ukraine.
8/12
The banks that grant these loans must write off the entire debt if these soldiers are either maimed or killed on the battlefield. Between Sep and Dec of 2022, these write offs were worth 800 million EUR. By granting these loans, both Raiffeisen and Unicredit are complicit..
9/12
...in funding Russia's barbaric invasion. In Jan 2023, US Treasury launched an investigation concerning potential breach of Western sanctions. In addition, The European Central Bank has been pushing Raiffeisen to leave the profitable Russian market.
10/12
On 30 Mar 2023, Raiffeisen called its critics "morally arrogant", and the moralizing from a "risk free zone of comfort". It's worth noting that one of the most sound critics of Raiffeisen has been President Zelenskyy, who hardly operates from a "risk free zone of comfort".
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
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
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.
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
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
Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.
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
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
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.
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: