Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
May 10 19 tweets 9 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a British politician and TV presenter, Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage ). He's best-known for his prominent role in the Brexit campaign, and for his bootlicking of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

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Farage joined the Conservative party at the age of 14. From early on, euroscepticism was at the core of his politics and he voted for the Green Party in 1989 due to their "sensible" policies towards the EU. He left the Conservative party in 1992 in protest to the signing...

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...of the Treaty on European Union, which forms the basis of the EU law. In 1993, Farage was a founding member of the Eurosceptic, right-wing populist UK Independence Party (UKIP). He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 1999, and was re-elected in...

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...2004, 2009, 2014. While in the EP, he exposed various political figures for their shady deals, including Jacques Barrot and the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso. He also attacked Belgian politician Herman Van Rompuy, declaring that...

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...he had the "charisma of a damp rag" and that he looked like "a low grade bank clerk".

In 2009, Farage boasted about using over 2 million £ of taxpayer money in staff, travel, and other expenses. In 2014 he declared 205 603 £ over ten years in gifts.

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A senior member, Kevin Ellul Bonici, of Nigel's parliamentary EU group was known for making trips to the Russian embassy in Belgium and for organizing smear campaigns against Kremlin critics. One former staffer stated that Ellul Bonici returned from each of these...

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...trips with "a bootload of propaganda". Ellul Bonici was also responsible for uploading Farage clips on "many fringe sites".

Since the beginning of his political career, Farage's politics has been all about one thing and one thing only: UK leaving the EU.

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He was one of the main drivers of the Brexit campaign, and was involved in both the Vote Leave and Leave.EU movements. Farage's main financial backer over the years has been businessman Arron Banks.

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When Obama flew to London to "convince" Brits to stay in the EU,Farage called it a "monstrous interference".Ironically,a month later,Farage himself said in an interview with Robert Peston that if"he were an eligible US voter he would vote for Trump in the 2016 presidential..
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... election". Few months later he visited the Republican convention with his aide, George Cotrell, and engaged in discussions with Trump's people. Before they could leave the US, Cotrell was arrested on 21 federal counts, including fraud, money laundering and extortion.

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In Aug 2016, Farage, his funder Arron Banks, and Andy Wigmore met with Trump at a fundraiser in Mississippi. Later they attended Trump's campaign rally, where he asked Farage to give a speech and introduced him as "Mr. Brexit".

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After Trump won the presidency, Farage stated that he "couldn't be happier".

In the same interview he described Obama as a "loathsome individual" and as "that Obama creature".

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Nigel was listed by the FBI as a person of interest in their investigation on the Russian interference in the 2016 US election due to his connections to Trump, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. One source claimed that "he's right in the middle of these relationships.

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He turns up over and over again. There's a lot of attention being paid to him." Farage had met with Assange and his lawyers, and Assange and his lawyer were even given an opportunity to contribute to the speeches given by the UKIP. In return, UKIP organized people...

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...for a pro-Assange demonstration in London. Documentarian Daniel DiMauro said that Farage had a dinner with Roger Stone and Alex Jones. In Oct 2017, Farage was attending a discussion on LBC radio station where one of the callers suggested that the pro-Israeli lobby in..

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...the US was equally dangerous to the Russian interference in the US politics. Farage called it a "reasonable point", and stated that "there are about 6 million Jewish people living in America, so as a percentage it's quite small, but in terms of influence it's quite big".
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Farage has also appeared alongside conspiracy theorists from LaRouche movement and InfoWars, and shared content from Pizzagate promoter and serial liar Jack Posobiec. He has also described George Soros as "the biggest danger to the entire western world".

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After his Brexit Party didn't gain any seats in the 2019 UK general election, Nigel traveled yet again overseas to work as a warm-up speaker for Trump in his 2020 campaign. In 2021 he did a six-week tour in the US, where he addressed Republican audiences across the country. 18/24 Image
Farage has also suggested that the UK should work more closely with Putin, and that "on this bigger overall battle we need to start recognizing we’re on the same side". If the "same side" he's referring to means that we have to conduct chemical attacks on children and...

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

May 11
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American political analyst and media executive, Steve Bannon.

He's best-known for being Trump's chief strategist, "flooding the zone with shit", and for attempting to unite far-right, pro-Putin political parties around Europe.

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Bannon worked as an officer in the US Navy in the late 70s and early 80s, after which he worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. He's also produced several Hollywood movies between 1991 and 2016. In 1980,Bannon was deployed to assist with the Operation Eagle Claw...
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.., a failed effort to save 52 embassy staff members from Tehran ordered by Jimmy Carter. In a 2015 interview, Steve stated that this marked a turning point in his political stance, turning him into a "Reaganite". This ideology of a battle between "good and evil" can be...

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Read 24 tweets
May 10
...in the Russian Embassy in 2013, Farage started appearing on the Kremlin-controlled RT, where he was allegedly paid 2000 £ per appearance. RT also supported and cultivated UKIP from at least 2011. Nigel himself said that the claims that he accepted more than half a...

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...million pounds from RT as "nonsense", stating that he had only "two small appearance fees". He also denied meeting with Mr. Yakovenko (in the photo with Farage below) in a 2018 segment on LBC.

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I'm sure you can already guess who Nigel blames for the "situation" in Ukraine? Of course it's the EU and NATO who aggressively have expanded towards the always-peaceful Russia, thus threatening the peaceful Russian people with... something.

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Read 6 tweets
May 9
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Swiss politician and journalist, Roger Köppel (@KoeppelRoger). He's best-known for his weekly magazine, die Weltwoche, and for his pro-Kremlin commentary on social and Russia-sponsored media, as well as on his magazine.

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Köppel has been the editor-in-chief at the Swiss weekly magazine Die Weltwoche since 2006. Before that he worked as the editor-in-chief at Die Welt. After his stint at Die Welt, he suddenly returned to Die Weltwoche and took over the majority of the shares that owned...

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the paper, never disclosing where the money for this purchase came from. Köppel's also been the member of the Swiss National Council since 2015, receiving a record of 178 090 votes. His political stance has been described as "right-wing conservative" - recently he spoke...

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Read 23 tweets
May 8
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American political activist, attention-seeker and TV presenter, Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec). He's best-known for his tendency to lie and spread conspiracy theories, and for his pro-Kremlin views on the Russo-Ukrainian War.

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Posobiec rose to popularity during the 2016 US presidential election, while working for Roger Stone's organization Citizens for Trump. Jack's style of promoting lies and making up stuff resembles Stone's "admit nothing, deny everything, and launch a counterattack"...

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...style of propaganda, in which there isn't any kind of commitment to the truth. Jack has also described himself as "Roger Stone's man". He worked in the United States Navy Reserve from 2010 until 2018. A former active duty naval intelligence officer stated that Jack...

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Read 26 tweets
May 5
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll talk about the Trump 2016 presidential campaign, and how it was connected to various Russian actors.

In this retrospect, I'll introduce some of the people who worked in Trump's 2016 campaign for the presidency, outlining their activities.

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After becoming the president of his father's real estate ventures in early 70s, he started expanding its operations aggressively by building hotels, casinos and whatnot. Trump's businesses have been involved in over 4000 legal actions & he's filed for bankruptcy six times.

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While studying in college during the Vietnam War era, Trump deferred draft four times. After his graduation, he was diagnosed with bone spurs, thus avoiding going to the war. This diagnosis was allegedly made by a podiatrist, Dr. Larry Braunstein, who rented his office from..3/23 ImageImage
Read 25 tweets
May 4
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll be talking about the Russian style of online propaganda and disinformation, "Firehose of Falsehood". It's a commonly used Kremlin strategy for Russian information operations, which often prioritizes quantity over quality.

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I have mentioned this particular strategy in many of my previous soups, but have never discussed it in more detail, so here goes. The term was originally coined by Paul & Matthews in their 2016 paper, The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model.

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They based this name on two distinctive features: 1) high volume, multi-channel approach, and 2) shameless willingness to spread disinformation.

Academic Giorgio Bertolin described Russian disinformation as entertaining, confusing and overwhelming.

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Read 24 tweets

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