In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Russian propagandist and blogger, Nina "Nina Byzantina" Kouprianova (@NinaByzantina). She's best-known for her full support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, for marrying neo-Nazis, and for translating fascist philosophers.
1/20
Kouprianova was born in Moscow in the late 80s, when the collapse of the USSR was just around the corner. She's blamed Jeffrey Sachs, Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton for ruining Russia in the 90s,neatly forgetting the involvement of oligarchs & various criminal organizations.
2/20
Nina met Richard Spencer, an American neo-Nazi, conspiracy theorist and general clown, back in 2009. He outright refuses to talk about Richard's tendencies to drift towards far-right policies. Richard was already at this point at the deep end - he was fired from...
3/20
...the American Conservative for being "a bit extreme" for the magazine. She finally married Spencer in Niagara Falls in 2010, and their fairy tale lasted until around 2016, when Spencer announced their separation in a Washington Post article.
4/20
Being married to a literal neo-Nazi for several years, Kouprianova refuses to put any labels on herself. She's said that she's "sympathetic" toward movements that "challenge the dominant and globally oriented post-Liberal ideology," probably meaning something...
5/20
...along the lines of "Fuck the US".
She later compared his ex-husband's treatment to Stalinist purges in the USSR in an article she wrote for the local newspaper. After their separation, she accused Spencer of physical abuse.
6/20
In order to distance herself from any far-right affiliations, Kouprianova has translated the works of a political philosopher Alexander Dugin, who's best known for his neo-fascist worldview and for his geopolitics, where eastern Ukraine is considered to "Novorossiya",...
7/20
...an essential part of the Russian empire. On her webpage, Nina lists Dugin's books as only book translations she's ever done. Dugin is a central figure in Russian imperialism, and his 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics has been considered to be a "blueprint" of Russian..
8/20
...invasions in the 21st century. Dugin also started networking with American neo-Nazi groups around 2015, while Kouprianova and Spencer were still unhappily married. He hosted an online lecture at the founding of the neo-Nazi group, US Traditionalist Worker Party.
9/20
During the same year, he gave a speech titled "American Liberalism Must Be Destroyed" at an event organized by another neo-Nazi, Preston Wiginton. Wiginton is best-known for winning the "Strongest Skinhead" contest at a skinhead festival called Hammerfest in 2005.
10/20
According to Kouprianova, Putin has chosen the path of "healthy debate", papering over the killings or locking up of journalists and all of political opposition. Since 2014, she's called the conflict in Eastern Ukraine a "genocide" conducted by the Ukrainians.
11/20
To Nina, Russia's invasion has always been a "liberation war", while quoting things like "There are no separate Russia or Ukraine, but one Holy Rus." As is tradition, she's called the 2014 Revolution of Dignity a "Washington- and Brussels-backed regime change"...
12/20
...and "bloody coup d’état", completely disregarding the huge Russian influence in the process.
She's called the Russian interference in 2016 US election a "hysterical narrative".
13/20
Kouprianova has spread various conspiracy theories related to the Ukrainian Army, including organ trading and of course the "Ukrainian Nazis" (the "wrong kind" of Nazis, I guess). It's time to ask this question again: If the reason for the war in Ukraine was to...
14/20
.."denazify" it,why did Putin trade all the Azov Brigade leaders to Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk? Wasn't the whole idea of the war to get rid (and possibly execute) the "evil Nazi Banderites"? Is this just some kind of 4-D chess that only Putin and Trump understands?15/20
She also has lots of love for PMC Wagner, the mercenary company best-known for demolishing Bakhmut, but also recognized for the rapes and mass murder they've conducted in the African states. Apparently, putting them on list of terrorists is a sign of their "success".
16/20
As a propagandist, "Nina Byzantina" is subpar - her YouTube videos garner only hundreds of views (she has less subscribers than me, and I have published 0 videos), her TG channel has less than 100 followers, and her Twitter posts have quite low engagement.
17/20
She's often basing her arguments on history ("Russian and Ukrainian people are one"),naturally cherry-picking the events that fit to her (and Kremlin's) narrative. She's decorating & romanticizing it all with "Russian traditionalism",meaning family values and all that jazz.
18/20
With all this hype around Russia, I only assume that Nina has moved back to Moscow, now that she's separated from Richard Spencer and allegedly has no longer reason to remain in the United States, the country she seems to...
19/20
...so much despise. As she's constantly praising Putin and her motherland, you'd assume that she had gone back to Moscow already.
It's time for a little dessert: a little bird on Twitter told me that while living in Toronto, Nina was already deeply connected to the far-right movement. Apparently she dated a skinhead & enjoyed going to satanic metal concerts, being the religious person she is.
Hey Richard!
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In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the Wagner Group, its founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, and the mutiny they started on 23 Jun 2023. The event marked the climax of the Wagner Group–Russian MoD conflict, and finally led to the deaths of Prigozhin and Utkin.
1/22
Wagner has been used in many conflicts around the world, but they came to global prominence during the war in Donbas in 2014-2015. Wagnerites helped the Donbas separatists fight against the Ukrainians during the conflict, which helped Putin to “outsource” the insurrection.
2/22
The group doesn’t have any central ideology, but many of its members and leaders have ties to various neo—Nazi movements in Russia. For example, Wagner leader Dmitry Utkin had several Nazi symbols tattooed on his body. Neo—nazi group Rusich has also fights as part of Wagner.
3/22
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an Amsterdam-based propaganda channel, Bonanza Media (@bonanzamedia2). It’s best-known for producing & spreading online pro-Kremlin propaganda videos while closely coordinating & collaborating with the Russian intelligence agency GRU.
1/19
Russian intelligence has been extremely active in the Netherlands for a long time. For example in 2018, four GRU agents were caught while trying to hack into OPCW,an organization that monitors the use of chemical weapons. In addition, the International Criminal Court (ICC)…
2/19
…and the MH17 investigation have become targets for the Russian intelligence and propaganda operations. These operations are often complemented with “investigative journalism” media outlets, that often echo the Kremlin’s propaganda and disinformation.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll talk about the recent EU elections and what are their implications for both the Kremlin and Ukraine. Right-wing political parties, some pro-Kremlin, won a lot of seats around Europe, and this result can also change the EU’s stance on Ukraine.
1/19
But before we start, I want to promote a truck fundraiser I'm doing together with the fantastic @ArturRehi and @69thSB.
Our goal is 20 000 USD, and you can contribute to this important fundraiser here:
EU’s support of Ukraine is essential for their survival against genocidal Russia. So far,this support has been delayed mostly by Orban’s Hungary (& to some degree, Fico’s Slovakia). Now, this support will probably be challenged by many new members of the European Parliament.
3/19
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss a specific propaganda/disinformation that the Kremlin likes to use – antisemitism. I also talk about how the Russian society itself has become riddled with antisemitism & how this has led to a decrease in Jewish population in the country.
1/19
Russian antisemitism works on many levels, and their narratives vary depending whether they’re targeting a local audience or people in Europe and the US. For example for the latter, Russia attempts to create a false narrative of Ukraine being an antisemitic “Nazi state”.
2/19
But before diving deeper, let’s look at a survey data of Russians in 2023: Nearly 30 million Russians harbour antisemitic attitudes, and 15% of those surveyed believed that “Jews were responsible for most of the world’s wars.” 38% think that the Jews have...
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian media personality and propagandist, Diana Panchenko (@Panchenko_X). She’s best-known for betraying her own country by peddling anti-Zelenskyy and anti-Ukraine propaganda and disinformation for the Kremlin.
1/22
Panchenko was born in 1988 in the Mykolaev Oblast in Ukrainian SSR in 1988. She studied publishing and editing at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and later graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree in law.
2/22
After graduating, Diana worked briefly for the news site . Between 2010 and 2015, Panchenko was a presenter for KyivTV, but she found her true calling as a pro-Kremlin propagandist after she was hired by a national “news channel” called NewsOne.