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!
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the agenda-setting and flood of disinformation that spread on X and other platforms right after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It’s far from the first or last time a tragedy has been weaponized for political purposes.
1/18
Every major political event, especially those involving violence, attracts massive attention. In the immediate aftermath, reliable information is scarce, making it highly vulnerable to both coordinated and improvised disinformation campaigns.
2/18
As I’ve mentioned in my previous soups and lectures, in disinformation campaigns, being first with a narrative is crucial, as people often remember the first version best — psychology studies show it sets the mental schema, and later updates rarely overwrite it.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American social media personality David Freeman, AKA Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman). He’s best known for spreading political disinformation on X and shamelessly sucking up to Trump, Putin, and other authoritarian leaders.
1/22
David is a textbook example of someone profiting from MAGA grievance politics. He uses extreme, provocative language to farm engagement on X and never hesitates to flatter anyone who might give him more exposure — or money.
2/22
But David wasn’t always like this. At some point, in his mid-40s, he even tried a real job: he trained to become a cop. He spent three years with the Metro Transit PD, but after that he either got fired or quit, and never looked back.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian-Estonian businessman, Oleg Ossinovski. He is best-known for his deep ties to Russian rail and energy networks, shady cross-border dealings, and for channeling his wealth into Estonian politics.
1/14
Oleg made his fortune via Spacecom Trans & Skinest Rail, both deeply tied to Russia’s rail system. Most of this is through Globaltrans Investments PLC, a Cyprus-based firm with 62% held via Spacecom and tens of millions in yearly profits.
2/14
Ossinovski’s Russian-linked ventures made him Estonia’s richest man in 2014, with an estimated fortune of ~€300M. His business empire stretched across railways, oil via Alexela shares, and Russian bitumen imports from Help-Oil, a supplier to the Defense Ministry.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Swiss/French writer, Alain Bonnet, aka Alain Soral (@officielsoral). He’s best known for his rabid antisemitism and for his pathetic support for all the worst authoritarian regimes from Russia to North Korea.
1/22
Alain’s childhood was problematic, as his father has been characterized as a “narcissistic pervert” who beat his children and did jail time for fraud. Alain himself has said he was “programmed to be a monster.” Born Alain Bonnet, he took the stage name of his sister,…
2/22
… actress Agnès Soral. She wasn’t too happy about this, commenting “How would you like to be called Agnès Hitler?”. Like many grifters, he became a pick-up/seduction artist writer, à la late Gonzalo Lira, writing books and even making a B-movie, “Confessions d’un dragueur”.
3/22
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.
1/24
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.
2/24
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.
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.
1/23
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.
2/23
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.