In today's #vatniksoup I'm going to talk about the "antiwar movement". After Putin organized the fake referendums in the four Ukrainian Oblasts,various pro-Kremlin parties started calling for immediate peace in Ukraine. Unsurprisingly, the movement was planned by the Kremlin.1/18
In Sep 2022, Russia organized referendums to join Ukrainian Oblasts of Kherson,Zaporizhzhia,Donetsk & Luhansk to the Russian Federation.The whole scenario was absurd - everyone knew that the referendums were totally fake & Russia didn't even control any of these areas fully.
2/18
And suddenly, hundreds of vatnik voices around the world started touting one thing, and one thing only: peace.
3/18
The same people who had spread lies about bioweapons labs, "Ukrainian neo-Nazis", "genocide in Donbas", had decided that it is time to forget all these atrocities, and called for immediate peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
4/18
On 25 Feb 2023, 13 000 demonstrators gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, calling for an end to the weapons supplies to Ukraine and yelling slogans like "Lift the anti-Russian sanctions!" and "Launch Nord Stream 2 immediately!".
5/18
As you can already guess, this was no coincedence. On 21 Apr 2023, WaPo with @CatherineBelton published an article on how the Kremlin has been trying to build "antiwar coalition" in Germany. These plans were exposed by a European intelligence service and reviewed by WaPo.
6/18
In many ways, it proved something that has been theorized on Twitter for a long time: the Russians are trying to unite the political opposites on the far-left (die Linke) and on the far-right (AfD).
7/18
The so-called horseshoe theory suggests that, rather than being at opposing ends on the political continuum, they closely resemble each other.
Proponents of theory suggest that both extremes tend to support authoritarianism or totalitarianism.
8/18
The documents showed that the Russian political strategists had met with Kremlin officials, and that the officials ordered the strategists to focus on building antiwar sentiment in Europe in order to reduce the support for Ukraine with slogans like "Buy gas, not war" and ...
9/18
"Ukraine wants war, Germany want peace".
The documents also revealed that one person close to far-left politician Sahra Wagenknecht, and several AfD members were in contact with Russian officials while these plans were being laid out.
10/18
The plan even included highly detailed, anti-US graffiti that would be painted on the walls across Germany.
These rallies were organized throughout Germany, from a small town of Neustrelitz to Stuttgart, and it included demonstrations led by the Reichsbürger, a movement...
11/18
... that rejects the legitimacy of the modern German state. 25 members of the group were arrested in Dec 2022, for allegedly planning a coup d'état in Germany.
12/18
The AfD is full of Putin apologists like MEP Maximillian Krah, stating that the war in Ukraine was started by the US, and that Russia was only defending itself. Various AfD members have also been offered all-expenses-paid trips to Russia throughout the years.
13/18
Now, this is exactly what has been happening in the US. The so-called "far-left", including the grifters from @TheGrayzoneNews blog, organized the lackluster Rage Against the War Machine event. And boy oh boy, was it a one big horseshoe gathering.
14/18
It featured, among others, the CodePink movement, the communists, and far-right figures like the white supremacists Matthew Heimbach and RapeWaffen (TG group advocating white supremacy extremism, neo-Nazi Satanism and and rape against women) member Shandon Simpson.
15/18
Recently one of the main speakers at Rage, Jimmy Dore, declared his candidacy for the presidential election of 2024. In the US, they call this pro-Russian movement "anti-neocon" and "anti-globalist", whereas in other countries it's mostly referred as the latter.
16/18
The "anti-globalist" movement often spices up their rhetoric with conspiracy theories involving George Soros, Klaus Schwab and the like, stating that there's a "deep state" trying to take control of all of us.
17/18
Now, when talking with these "antiwar people", it is important to ask them: when did you start supporting for peace? If there's no sign of them calling for peace negotiations before Sep 2022, there's a high probability that they're rootin' for Putin.
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:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.
1/21
Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.
2/21
While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.
1/22
Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…
2/22
…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.