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.
3/21
But Dougan had anger management issues, and he constantly ran into trouble with his colleagues. In 2006, he pepper-sprayed an off-duty officer, costing the county a 275 000 US civil judgment. In 2009, while working at his new job, John was accused of sexual harassment by...
3/21
..a female officer. The accusations ranged from inappropriate comments of sexual nature to repeated unwanted touching. In 2013, the case was settled out of court.
At some point he also realized that his colleagues were brutal and ruthless (and they actually were) with...
4/21
...their police work, so he decided to publish dirt on them on FB. Years later in another job - again out of spite against his fellow officers - he launched several websites where he'd smear his old colleagues and where people could share dirt on local authorities.
5/21
One of them, PBSOtalk.com, became a popular forum for leaking damning information. But he also used his various websites to spread fake news and doctored documents. According to Dougan, "A fake-news site is nothing without real news", and he used this strategy...
6/21
..on his websites, mostly publishing factual news and the adding some BS in between - a tactic commonly used by fake news blogs such as Zero Hedge.
In 2015, Dougan lured a general contractor into sharing information against his enemies over recorded phone calls by faking..
7/21
..being a woman called Jessica. The problem was that he couldn't share these calls with anyone without breaking the law, which is why he created a fake Russian hacker persona, Badvolf. He then created a website where he published all the recordings under his new pseudonym.
8/21
After this Badvolf started publishing personal information on federal agents, prosecutors, cops and judges. He'd gathered and combined the information from open sources and databases. Eventually FBI confiscated his computer, after which Dougan fled to Toronto, from where...
9/21
..he flew to to Moscow, leaving behind an angry (now ex-)wife and two children.Few years prior,Dougan had started visiting Russia regularly & on one of the trips he met with Putin's confidant,Pavel Borodin.His collaboration with the Kremlin probably started around this time.10/21
The Kremlin has utilized Dougan's notoriety in the US in a very effective way. He's shown as an Edward Snowden-type of figure, who is persecuted by the FBI for his "whistleblowing activities". RT even made a documentary, "Breaking Bad Wolf", about Dougan.
It's shit.
11/21
John has been attempting to monetize his silly antics in various ways. In 2018, he published a book with the most ridiculous title which I just shorten to "Badvolf".
12/21
In the book he claimed, that it was actually him who received the "DC Leaks" from "whistleblower" Seth Rich, and put them up online. The leaks were actually an operation by Russian hacker group/GRU intel unit Fancy Bear.
13/21
In Mar 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Dougan claimed that he'd go to Ukraine to "prove" the existence of bioweapons labs. The idea of these labs originated from a QAnon supporter, and was then picked up by trustworthy news sources such as RT, Sputnik,...
14/21
CCP-controlled Xinhua, and the Russian embassy in Sarajevo. And of course Tucker Carlson together with Glenn Greenwald.
In Jul 2022, Dougan interviewed a British-born prisoner of war, Aiden Aislin, a clear breach of the Geneve conventions.
15/21
In Mar 2023, Dougan, together with Mike "iEarlGrey" Jones, appeared on state-owned national TV channel, Zvezda, to talk about their humanitarian (read: propaganda) project in Donbas Oblast in Ukraine.
16/21
Twitter user @cossackgundi discovered, that John had also appeared in a propaganda video while wearing a mask. Cossack referred to it as a "pro-russian freakshow", and I agree with this statement:
Dougan has an active YouTube channel with around 50k subscribers. His videos propagate the Kremlin narratives and also usually blame the West for hypocrisy, war crimes, and probably Satan worshiping. He also visits other podcasts, probably just to earn a living.
18/21
My "Man in Moscow" had two comments about Badvolf: first, he said that "Everyone says Dougan can't go 5 minutes without bringing up his trips to donbas". His second comment was that "he'll say anything for a few rubles".
19/21
To conclude: Dougan is just one Kremlin mouthpiece & "RT correspondent" in the big swarm of paid shills. Most of these pathological liars are trapped by the propaganda factories like RT, since they're own channels have been demonetized and they can't get a job anywhere else.20/21
With charges of extortion and wiretapping hanging over his head, he probably won't ever be able to go back the US. Until then, he'll just have to publish videos on how great the supermarkets in Moscow are.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Cypriot politician and social media personality, Fidias Panayiotou (@Fidias0). He’s best known for his clickbait YouTube stunts and for voting against aid to Ukraine and the return of abducted Ukrainian children from Russia.
1/20
Fidias hails from Meniko, Cyprus. In 2019, he began posting videos on YouTube. After a slow start, he found his niche with clickbaity, MrBeast-style content featuring silly stunts, catchy titles and scripted dialogue. Today, Fidias has 2,7 million subscribers on YouTube.
2/20
Fidias’s channel started with trend-riding, but he found his niche in traveling without money — aka freeloading. In one video, he fare-dodged on the Bengaluru Metro. The train authority responded by saying they would file a criminal case against him.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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:
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
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
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.
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
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
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.