Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Apr 14, 2023 23 tweets 11 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce Daniel Ivandjiiski's fake news blog, Zero Hedge (@zerohedge). The site's best-known for its alarmist doomsday predictions on Wall Street, and for its far-right, conspiratorial and pro-Russian content.

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The site was launched in 2009 by Bulgarian-born Daniel Ivandjiiski, a former investment banker. Since its launch, most of the articles on ZH were published under the pseudonym "Tyler Durden". Dan was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and moved to the US to study medicine, ...

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...only to realize that one could make much more money on Wall Street. In 2006, Ivandjiiski was charged of gaining 780 USD from inside trading and was eventually barred from acting as a broker.

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Few weeks after leaving the business, Dan launched ZH. Based on various financial experts, the site was a pretty good financial blog, and in Mar 2011, it was selected as the 9th best financial blogs by the Time Magazine.

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The site's domain name was registered under a company called ABC Media Ltd., ran by Dan's father, Krassimir Ivandjiiski. In 1974, Krassimir became a member of a Soviet propaganda organization called International Organization of Journalists.

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He then worked as an international correspondent for the Rabotnichesko Delo, a Soviet propaganda newspaper, allegedly until the fall of the USSR. Since 1994, Krassimir has worked as a publisher and as editor-in-chief for the anti-Semitist, conspiratorial fake news blog...

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...called Strogo Sekretno ("Top Secret"). In his blog, he's suggested that COVID-19 was actually a "Western Zionist act of bioterrorism". Several sources, connected to the Bulgarian government, have suggested that ZH could actually be a Bulgarian intel operation.

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A Bulgarian attorney, Nikolay Hadjigenov, stated that "If you read carefully his career, you can see the possibilities of the KGB in the shadow of the mirror," referring to Krassimir Ivandjiiski.

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Later it turned out that Dan wasn't the only one who was writing under the pseudonym Tyler Durden. In Apr 2016, Bloomberg published an article that revealed three contributors to the name: Dan Ivandjiiski, Tim Backshall and Colin Lokey.

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In the same article, Lokey, who had left the company, told Bloomberg how Ivandjiiski's personal beliefs don't intersect with the site's content, and that he's using controversial topics to make money. Lokey described ZH's approach to "news" as follows: "Russia=good. ...

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...Obama=idiot. Bashar al-Assad=benevolent leader. John Kerry=dunce. Vladimir Putin=greatest leader in the history of statecraft." Lokey earned more than a 100 000 USD annually for writing this BS. Back then, Dan said that the blog generates income from online ads.

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And boy, do those ads make a lot of money! Even though Dan has tried to hide all information on revenue, his divorce case revealed some of his ownings, including a 2,3 million USD mansion. Previously Dan & his wife had paid off 1,7 million USD mortgage in just two years.

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Lokey also provided chat transcripts to Bloomberg in which Dan calls the US "silent majority" "beastly" (i.e. "very unpleasant"),and that life in the US "outside of my bubble" is bad. After these revelations, Dan tried to defame Lokey, calling him "an emotionally unstable,..13/22
psychologically troubled alcoholic with a drug dealer past, as per his own disclosures."

In 2019, ZH published an article falsely claiming that Mykola Zlochevsky, the head of a Ukrainian energy company Burisma, had been indicted for money laundering, and that the crime...

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...was related to the Biden family. Apparently ZH bloggers had misunderstood the original Russian article from the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency and just went with their own interpretation. As is tradition, this fake news spread like a wildfire when it was spread by...

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...far-right propagandists like Jack Posobiec and Charlie Kirk, and again amplified by QAnon conspiracy theorists.

In Feb 2022, right before Russia invaded Ukraine, intelligence officials claimed that ZH had published and spread articles written by the Kremlin-run media.

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ZH has also published articles written by people affiliated with the Strategic Culture Foundation, a US sanctioned foundation that interfered with the 2020 US presidential election, and allegedly has ties to Russia's foreign intel service, SVR.

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These rather biased takes have headlines such as "NATO Sliding Towards War Against Russia In Ukraine," and "Theater Of Absurd... Pentagon Demands Russia Explain Troops On Russian Soil."

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They've also claimed without any evidence that the down shooting of MH17 was a pretext for a NATO invasion of East of Ukraine. This article was widely referenced in Russian state media. ZH has also suggested that the Skripali poisonings were staged by the British...

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..intelligence services,and that the Steele Dossier,a report suggesting financial connection between Donald Trump and the Kremlin, was a "fanfiction" originating from 4chan. The site has also featured articles from the PUA grifter and sleazeball extraordinaire, Gonzalo Lira.20/22 Image
With headlines like "What Is the Ultimate Endgame For ‘Woke’ Ideology, Actually?" and "Anheuser-Busch Loses $6BN In Six Days After Trans Ad Campaign That Top Execs Never Approved", ZH's front page shows how the site has transformed from a finance blog into a fake news blog.
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If you have ran into a Zero Hedge article that criticizes Putin, please let me know. I'm still looking.

Ping: @seth_hettena @tracyalloway @LJKawa

Sources: newrepublic.com/article/156788…
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… (paywall)

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Apr 4
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll introduce a Russian ultra-nationalist propagandist and “philosopher”, Aleksandr Dugin. He’s best-known for his blueprint on Russia’s geopolitical strategy and for his genocidal rhetoric towards Ukrainians.

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In my first Dugin Soup, I covered the man’s 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics — a manual for dismantling the West, breaking up NATO, and building a Russian-led empire. In it, he makes eerie “predictions” that seem to be playing out today.

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Apr 1
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce Russian propagandist Sergei Tsaulin. He’s best-known for spreading pro-Kremlin narratives in Estonia, fleeing to Russia after breaking several laws in Estonia, and almost getting blown up by a bomb in St. Petersburg.

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For years, Tsaulin was known for organizing marches and events glorifying the Soviet Union. Under the excuse of “remembering history,” these events were nothing more than Kremlin propaganda, wrapped in a red flag with a hammer and sickle.

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Mar 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a podcaster and conspiracy theorist, Joe Rogan (@joerogan). He’s best-known for launching the biggest podcast in the world, promoting various conspiracy theories, his support for Donald Trump and his anti-Ukraine rhetoric.

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Joe Rogan started as a stand-up comedian in the 1980s, found fame on NewsRadio, and became a household name with Fear Factor. But his biggest impact came in 2009 when he launched The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), one of the first major podcasts.

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JRE started as casual but deep conversations, often covering countercultural topics like psychedelics, MMA & hunting. Joe’s podcasting style is largely non-confrontational, often allowing his guests to share their views without significant pushback or critical questioning.

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Mar 27
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce KOOS party leader and Estonian crypto businessman Oleg Ivanov. He’s best known for running shady businesses, spreading Russian false narratives in Estonia, and participating in the pro-Kremlin political party KOOS.

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As a talented youngster, Oleg learned Estonian almost flawlessly, was a promising karate athlete, and landed a job at a law firm at just 20. He caught the eye of Estonian fuel entrepreneur Endel Siff, who quickly took him under his wing.

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Oleg’s father, Vladimir Ivanov, was a longtime politician from the Russian-funded United People’s Party of Estonia. His career at the town hall ended abruptly when he was caught drunk at work. After that, he went into business with his son, Oleg.

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Mar 26
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about the takeover of social media by illiberal, populist influencers. For the last ten years, social media has been dominated by these voices and it is one of the main reasons for the political rise of people like Trump and Orban.

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“Illiberal populists” like Trump reject democratic norms while claiming to speak for “the people.” They centralize power, attack institutions, and push nationalism over rights. Elections exist, but checks & balances erode. This is democracy in name, autocracy in action.

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The media landscape has changed drastically over the past two decades. The Internet and social media have changed how we interact online & how we consume media,but it has also become our main source of news. In many ways,social media companies have control over information.

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