Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
May 3, 2023 20 tweets 14 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American pro-Russian propagandist, Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13). He's best-known for his work for Sputnik, and for parroting the classic Kremlin narratives such as "Ukrainian Nazis", "genocide in Donbas" & the "corrupted Kiev regime".

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Like with so many Kremlin propagandists, Wyatt's motivation stems from his deep hatred for American imperialism, and as is tradition, Reed's praised "public intellectuals" like Noam Chomsky and John Pilger.

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Reed was also an author at the fake news blog, @TheGrayzoneNews, where he co-authored articles with Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton on Bolivia's political crisis in 2019. He hasn't published anything there after 2020, perhaps due to his contract with Sputnik.

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Wyatt has called himself an "impartial analyst", but naturally he's nothing but a paid mouthpiece for the Kremlin. He's worked for the Russian-state controlled Sputnik for several years.

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Reed's heavily involved in the circle jerk of pro-Kremlin propagandists who for some reason call themselves journalists. He's been interviewed by Katie Halper & Aaron Maté (@UsefulIdiotpod), Gonzalo Lira (@GonzaloLira1968), Liubov Sivaya (@liusivaya), ...

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Tara "Joe Biden raped me" Reade (@ReadeAlexandra), Lee Camp from RT (@LeeCamp), and of course by our own favorite "poor woman from Lugansk", Donbass Devushka.

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Wyatt's propagand relies heavily on the "genocide in Donbas" narrative. He's often reported from Donetsk, claiming that the "Ukrainian Nazis" are bombing civilian targets. Apparently for Wyatt the definition of a Nazi is "anyone who supports Ukraine".

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Between Mar and Apr 2022, Reed was constantly tweeting about Mariupol. He tweeted about the "Azov base" with "copious quantities of nazi paraphernalia", like the hat with the coat Nazi Germany Coat and Arms and SS Totenkopf logo that the Russians planted there.

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He's also shared several propaganda videos of crisis actors blaming the Azov for using them as human shields & forcing them to stay in the city.For some weird reason he did not tweet about the Mariupol theater or the maternity hospital bombings conducted by Russia.

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After Bucha, Reed attempted to muddy the waters with Ukrainian war crimes. He also referred to the event as "so-called Bucha massacre", and stating how the Western media is silent on the "clearing operation", referring to the eradication of Russian forces in the area.

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He was an "international observer" at the sham referendum in Sep 2022 in Sevastopol, Ukraine. "Everything I've seen so far has been very transparent, very open," he commented to TASS when asked about the situation at the polling station.

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In Oct 2022, Wyatt was all about that cold, gasless, European winter. He stated that "It's gonna be a long winter", and fantasized about Europeans huddling over a burning barrel and slowly roasting a rat carcass.

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In the end of Feb 2023, Reed was tweeting how "50,000 Germans came out [...] to call for peace and demand their government "stop the escalation of arms deliveries" to Ukraine". He just forgot to mention that these events were also orchestrated by the Kremlin.

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In his promo video for an "antiwar gathering", Reed accuses Ukraine of Russia's strategy of "double-tapping" (i.e. bombing twice) civilian targets.

In the same video he claimed that the whole war is waged because US needs to launder money to the "elite".

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Wyatt also likes to spice things up with historical revisionism. His claims that it was the Soviets who stopped the Nazis incidentally forgets to mention the military aid and involvement of the US, and the breakthroughs made from UK intel.

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He also forgot to mention that it was actually the Poles, Belorussians and the Ukrainians who lost the largest percentage of population.

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Wyatt is just another "independent journalist" who hails from the "far-left" - he parrots all the Kremlin-supported talking points, and in interviews and podcasts he speaks about his brief visit in Ukraine.

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Now that Russia is doing nothing but losing, he's making subpar propaganda on pretty much anything, including a "sexualized image of the Hindu goddess Kali".

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Oh, and as is tradition: Wyatt claims that the Uyghur genocide is "totally made up" and "CIA propaganda".

All these "journalists" are just predictable carbon copies of each other, toeing the line of totalitarian regimes around the world.

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Aug 18
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.

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Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.

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Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

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Read 25 tweets
Aug 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.

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Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.

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One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.

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Read 24 tweets
Aug 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.

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The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.

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From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 28
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.

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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.

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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.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
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.

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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!").

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Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

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Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
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.

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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.

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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.

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Read 23 tweets

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