In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Russo-Serbian-American actor, martial artist and carrot-enjoyer, Steven Seagal. He's best-known for allegedly pooping his pants, for his praise of dictators around the world, for being a dick, and for his sexual harassment lawsuits.
1/19
Seagal's roots go back to Russia, and his paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish (actual Russian Jewish, not the Donbass Devushka kind) immigrants. In an interview by Dmitry Borisov, ...
2/19
...he stated that his paternal ancestry can be located to the Siberian city Vladivostok but also to Belarus and St. Petersburg.
Steven got into the movie business in 1987, when he cooperated in Above the Law with Andrew Davis. With zero acting skills and ...
3/19
...experience in martial arts, he became one of the action movie B-listers, appearing in movies like Hard to Kill and Marked for Death. His wider success came from his 1992 movie, Under Siege. Until the early 2000s, Steven was somewhat successful action star, but after...
4/19
...the relatively successful Exit Wounds (2001), most of his movies have been released as direct-to-video.
His success during the early 90s also landed him a spot as a host on Saturday Night Live. The series' Lorne Michaels, David Spade and Tim Meadows described Seagal...
5/19
...as "show's worst host ever". They called on his humorlessness and on his ill-treatment of the cast and writers. Seagal also refused to do a skit with characters that had previously claimed they could "beat up Steven Seagal".
6/19
Seagal has also been involved in various business endeavors, of which most have failed to make money. In 2005, his company Seagal Enterprises produced an energy drink, "Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt", but the product was quickly discontinued.
7/19
He's also launched an aftershave, "Scent of Action". In 2013, Seagal teamed up with Russian weapons manufacturer, ORSIS, to promote his signature rifle known as "ORSIS by Steven Seagal". He's also lobbyed for lifting off the US import restrictions on Russian firearms.
8/19
In addition to collecting sword, Seagal also collects sexual harassment lawsuits. He's been involved in various harassment cases since the early 90s, and for example Portia de Rossi has told that he'd unzipped ...
9/19
...his pants after saying "how important it was to have chemistry off-screen" during audition.
He also told then 16-year-old Katherine Heigl in 1994 that "he had girlfriends the same age". Seagal's also been accused of raping an 18-year-old.
10/19
As so many Russian shills,Seagal has been involved in cryptocurrencies. In 2020, after failing to disclose payments for the promotion of Bitcoiin2Gen & agreed to pay a total of 314 000 USD as penalty. He's also been blamed by various stuntmen for intentionally hitting them.
11/19
While filming the movie Out for Justice, Gene LeBell choked Seagal unconscious after Steven had claimed that his "immune" to such attacks. As a result, Seagal lost control of his bowels. This incident may be the reason why Putin likes him so much.
12/19
Steven Seagal is a huge Putin fan, once describing him as "one of the great living world leaders". He showed strong support for the annexation of Crimea, and even appeared there in Aug, 2014, at an event organized by the motor cycle gang, Night Wolves. At the event, he ...
13/19
...depicted Ukraine as a "country controlled by fascists". In 2016, Putin handed out a Russian passport to Seagal at an orchestrated event, but he had gotten his Russian citizenship already in Nov 2014, few months after appearing at the absurd event in Crimea.
14/19
In May 2021, the fake opposition party A Just Russia - Patriots - For Truth announced that they are giving Steven an official membership card to their party. In Mar 2022, Seagal celebrated his 70th birthday in Moscow, with many guests under Western sanctions as guests.
15/19
Later that year Steven visited Olenivka in Donetsk, with former Ponzi schemer and leader of the puppet state DPR, Denis Pushilin as his host. According to Pushilin, Seagal also interviewed Ukrainian POW's, thus breaking the Geneve convention.
16/19
In 2013, Seagal was invited as a guest at Ramzan Kadyrov's birthday party in Chechnya. Steven called him a "great leader", and Kadyrov referred to him as “almost a Chechen national.”
17/19
When visiting Belarussian dictator Lukashenko, Steven was given one carrot and one watermelon as a gift. After receiving the watermelon, he commented "Nice. Nice."
18/19
In Feb 2023,he was awarded with the Russian Order of Friendship for his "major contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation".Earlier this month,it was reported that Russia has recruited Steven to teach martial arts to its soldiers.
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American propagandist, Florida Man and ex-cop, John "Badvolf" Mark Dougan (@RealBadVolf). He's best-known for his battle against the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, and for his propaganda work for the Kremlin.
1/21
Before he became a grifter for Moscow, Dougan worked as a cop. He actually wanted to be a super cop, and in his first job as a small town cop he wrote more traffic tickets than the 11 other officers combined.
2/21
But all this was too boring for an ex-marine wanting to get in on the real action, which is why he transferred Belle Glade, Florida, a hotspot of criminal activity and the HIV capital of the US of A.
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American pro-Russian propagandist, communist and "journalist", Caleb T. Maupin (@RealCalebMaupin). He's best-known for running a communist, cult-like, pro-Russian "think tank", Center for Political Innovation.
1/24
Caleb comes from a small, fanatic and ever decreasing group of people who call themselves communists. His activism goes back to at least to early 2000s, when he was active in the Workers World Party, and was publishing articles for their newspaper, the Workers World.
2/24
Maupin's also launched an organization called The Center for Political Innovation, or CPIUSA for short. According to Caleb, its mission is to "educate and foster visions for a future beyond capitalism".
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American propagandist and podcaster, Donbass Devushka. She's best-known for her fake Russian identity, for her pro-Russian podcast, and for spreading false, pro-Russian narratives on social media.
1/23
Donbass Devushka wasn't always working under this pseudonym - during the summer of 2022, her alias was Mila Medvedev or @LuganskforLife (and also CheburekiVibes, MeatballSubZero, YuGopnik, GhostofLugansk).
2/23
While active under this account, she's posted several photos of herself, and confirmed working also under the pseudonym "Donbass Devushka" through a link to her post on Patreon.
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.
1/22
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, ...
2/22
...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.
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll talk about post-truth politics and how they have changed our society - in my opinion - for worse. This analysis relies heavily on the work done by academic John Hartley, and by journalist Adam Curtis.
1/22
Post-truth politics refers to a political culture where the distinction between what's true and what's false has become almost irrelevant. This has created a political culture where instead of stating facts, the debaters appeal to the audience's emotions.
2/22
Of course, there was nothing new in politicians lying to people (that's just called "politics"), but at some point the people stopped caring about the factuality of these claims, and focused more on how it made them FEEL.
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American politician, conspiracy theorist and businessman, Donald Trump Jr. He's best-known for his dealings with the Russians, and for his work for The Trump Organization and for his father.
1/20
Trump Jr's early life was a wild ride - his parents divorced when he was 12 due to his dad's affair which estranged Don Jr. from his father for a year. After getting his BS, he lived in a truck and worked as a bartender until he returned to work for the Trump Organization.
2/20
It seems that the organization was closely tied to Russian money as early as 2008, when Don Jr. stated that "In terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," ...