Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
May 24, 2023 23 tweets 10 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Portuguese Major General and TV commentator, Agostinho Costa. He's best-known for his terrible, pro-Kremlin analysis on the Russo-Ukrainian War on @cnnportugal.

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Costa joined the Military Academy in 1977 and finished his training in 1982. His work history in the Portuguese Army is remarkable, and before retiring in 2021, he worked as a EUROFOR Chief of Staff, head of the GNR, and as vice president of Eurodefense Portugal.

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Like so many generals after retiring, he became an analyst and was invited by CNN Portugal to comment on the Russo-Ukrainian War. But his analysis had two big problems: he was 1) biased towards Russia, and 2) almost always wrong in his predictions.

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At the beginning of the war when the +60 km convoy was forming up and ran into logistical problems,Costa was making sure to not show the Russian army as incompetent.Even when the soldiers were exchanging food for gas,he outright refused to admit that Russia had a big problem.4/22 Image
Costa was also certain that the main objective of the Ruskies was to take Kyiv, actually saying that "the Russians are already in Kiev, right?", only to later change his mind, saying that it actually was NOT in the objectives.

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He was also against sending military aid to the Ukrainian Army, and he thought that for example sending missile systems to Ukraine is pointless as "they don't know how to use them." Costa referred to the attack on the Kerch bridge as a "subversive terrorist attack", ...

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...and when the interviewer compared the event to the Russian shelling of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to get it off the grid, Costa considered that Russia's actions were not terrorism. After Russia bombed the port of Odessa one day after the grain deal, Costa came to...
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...the rescue, saying that "Russians have not pledged not to attack ports and other infrastructure." He's often referred to the Russians as being gentle, saying that they're going easy to not hurt the civilian population. This bold claim seemed especially unbelievable...
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...after Russia killed 60 civilians with a missile strike to Kramatorsk railway station in Apr, 2022. In Feb 2023, he repeated the sentiment, stating that "We have already seen that Putin is not willing to accept many dead in this war."

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Missiles aren't the only military aid senhor Costa has criticized. He's also stated that the F-16's - that will be sent eventually - will make no difference, and nor do the Leopards that have been sent because of the "low numbers".

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He's criticized Portugal for sending 4 out of their 37 tanks to Ukraine,because Portugal is apparently under constant thread from its imperialistic neighbor, Spain. In the end of Jan 2023, Agostinho declared that "there is no doubt that Ukraine is about to lose this war",..
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...and that the Ukrainian Army is "about to collapse in terms of personnel, equipment, arms and ammo".

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Costa compared the assassination of blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in St. Petersburg to the tactics employed by the Daesh terrorists.

See Tatarsky's history in the video below.

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In Apr 2023, Costa declared that "Crimea will not move to Ukraine without a global confrontation using nuclear weapons." In May 2023, he spread the false narrative that 200 NATO officers were killed in a missile strike, but added 100 casualties just to keep it original.

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Finally, let's talk about Costa's favorite topic, which is the fall of Bakhmut. On 3 Dec 2022, he claimed that Bakhmut is "at risk of falling" to the Russians. The next day, he said that it would be captured by the end of the year. In Dec 2023, he said that the objective..
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...wasn't actually to capture Bakhmut, but to destroy the Ukrainian forces. On 7 Mar 2023, according to Agostinho, Ukrainian command had already abandoned the city. On 8 Apr 2023, he said that Ukraine will retreat "in a matter of days".

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Finally, on 20 May 2023 and after five months, he gets to be right - Bakhmut has fallen and senhor Costa can open the champagne.

General Agostinho is member of the Freemasons, and he's caused so much discomfort among his fellow masons that some of them have announced...

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...their views on him publicly. Generally, you should never talk about the organization or about its members in public, but I guess even the Portuguese Freemasons, unlike Putin, have their red lines that shouldn't be crossed.

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Costa and two other generals were accused of "pro-Russian positions" already at the beginning of the invasion. A former military officer said that all three had "a certain admiration for the doctrine and professionalism of the Russians," and fascination towards...

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...General Gerasimov and his doctrine of hybrid warfare. The two other generals saw the writing on the wall and sort of faded out from the spotlight, but Costa is still going strong.

Now, I feel like there's nothing wrong in inspiring to be a neutral military analyst.

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But, Agostinho Costa is nothing of the sort. He's a Portuguese version of Douglas Macgregor, never condemning the Russian Army and usually blaming and underestimating the Ukrainians. I'm sure that he garners a lot of attention and views, but as long as he's sharing his...

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..."wisdom" on this war, the credibility of @cnnportugal as a serious news outlet deteriorates, as it did with Bruno Carvalho:

Thank you for the sous-chef @Cbritinha and the rest of the Portuguese team for helping me to prepare this Caldo Verde.

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Support my work: buymeacoffee.com/PKallioniemi
Subscribe for my upcoming YouTube channel: youtube.com/@TheSoupCentral
Past soups: vatniksoup.com

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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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