In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a British musician and activist, Roger Waters (@rogerwaters). He's best-known for his involvement in Pink Floyd, and for his love for the totalitarian regimes and their lies around the world.
1/26
It actually pains me to brew this soup, as Waters' music, especially the album titled Animals, has been among my favorites for a very long time.
But one should never meet their heroes, they say, so here goes.
2/26
As with many pro-Kremlin propagandists, Waters has been heavily involved in support of Palestine in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He's supported an international campaign, BDS, that boycotts Israel. He visited the Israeli West Bank barrier for the first time in 2006.
3/26
He's compared the Israeli treatment of Palestinians to Nazi Germany, by saying that "The parallels with what went on in the 1930s in Germany are so crushingly obvious." Water himself has said that he's anti-Zionist instead of antisemitist. Some of his gigs have been...
4/26
...cancelled due to his staunch "anti-Zionist" takes. He also made the weirdest connection between Israeli Defense Force and the death of George Floyd, saying that the US police learned the technique that killed Floyd from the Israeli Army.
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Recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called Waters a "global hero", only to delete his tweet later, stating that he had "only recently learned about some of his other views, which I do not share." He then added that he supports Israel's right to exist within secure borders.
6/26
Former Pink Floyd Lyricist Polly Samson tweeted that Waters is "antisemitic" to his "rotten core", also calling him Putin apologist and misogynist. David Gilmour, Roger's former band mate and Samson's husband, fully agreed with this assessment.
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Waters has also denied Bashar al-Assad's involvement in the chemical attacks around Syria. He's called the Syrian humanitarian aid NGO, White Helmets, who save civilians from disaster areas a "fake organisation" that produces propaganda for "jihadists and terrorists".
8/26
When it comes to Russia, Roger has been lately digging himself deeper and deeper into the pro-Kremlin trenches. One week before Russia launched their full-scale invasion in Ukraine, Waters was interviewed by RT. In this interview, he claimed that any rumours...
9/26
...about Russia attacking were "bullshit" and anti-Russian propaganda.
After Russia launched their attack, Waters blamed Joe Biden for "fueling the fire in the Ukraine... that is a huge crime," neatly putting 'the' in front of Ukraine to emphasize its assumed role as ...
10/26
.."the borderlands" - a contested region and a part of the "buffer zone". Based on Roger, Russia had only attacked because it was provoked to do so by the NATO - the classic delusional view of uncontrollable "NATO expansion", which according to him "they promised they...
11/26
...wouldn't do when Gorbachev negotiated the withdrawal of the USSR from the whole of Eastern Europe." He's called the war in Ukraine "probably the most provoked invasion ever" and that won't look at Russia from the "current Russo-phobic perspective." After the First...
12/26
Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska appeared on BBC in Sep 2022, Waters published an open letter where he called for the stop of military aid to Ukraine, since the Western countries were "prolonging the war with their support."
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He's also stated that Ukraine broke the Minsk agreements, but yet again forgets to mention that the treaties were broken by both parties, and Russia was funding and arming the separatist movement in Ukraine, as well as sending their own troops to instigate unrest in there.
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In 2022, in an interview by RT, he reminded the US of the "one China" policy, suggesting that Taiwan is actually part of China. He also called the ongoing Uyghur genocide in Xinjian, China, "absolute nonsense", telling the interviewer to "go away and read about it."
15/26
He's also given an interview to Chinese state-controlled CTGN, calling all US media "propaganda".
In Sep 2022, he wrote an open letter to Putin, calling for peace in Ukraine. In the letter, he called Putin a "gangster", but basically stated that Russia has the right to...
16/26
...take Crimea and the Donbas, but that Putin and his forces "want to overrun the whole of Europe, starting with Poland and the rest of the Baltic states", which would lead to a nuclear war.
In Feb 2023, he was asked to appear in front of the UN Security Council on...
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...behalf of Russia. In his speech, he condemned Russia's attack "in the strongest possible terms", but immediately "condemned the provocateurs [US and NATO] in the strongest possible terms". Few days before this, he was interviewed by Berliner Zeitung, in which he...
18/26
...doubled-down on his previous statements regarding Ukraine and Russia. He blamed the US for orchetrating a "coup d'état" in Ukraine in 2014, and even went as far as blamed Zelensky for being a warmonger. As a cherry on top, he promotes the ridiculous Sy Hersh story,...
19/26
...full of holes, on the US involvement in the Nord Stream sabotage. In the same interview, he also mentioned that the reason for Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine was launched because of a) the genocide in Donbas, and b) to denazify Ukraine.
20/26
He'd exchanged letters with a Ukrainian girl that had written to Waters that "I am 200% certain there are no Nazis in Ukraine," to which he replied "I'm sorry Alina, but you are wrong about that. How can you live in Ukraine and not know?"
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Then he basically explains the script of the propaganda piece "Ukraine on Fire", with "evil genocidal Banderites" and the US staging a coup in Ukraine. Then he talks about how "huge majority" of Ukrainians in the Donbas and Crimea voted to join Russia. Of course he also...
22/26
..mentions that the sanctions are hurting the West, that people in the UK have to choose between "eat or heat", and finally he called everyone who disagrees with him "brainwashed" and "idiots". He also gave The Telegraph an interview during that same month, in which he...
23/26
..said that calling Putin "may have been unfair" and that he "changed his mind" on the matter after watching a podcast called "The Duran".He said that after watching the show,he's had more respect for Putin:"It may be that he’s leading his country to the benefit of all of..
24/26
...the people of Russia."
Roger is a big fan of fake news blog @TheGrayzoneNews. He probably gets most of his information from this site, as his views are very much in line with the "journalists" like @aaronjmate and @MaxBlumenthal. He was also their guest in Oct 2022.
25/26
Recently Waters wore an uniform similar to the ones that the SS war in Nazi Germany. This "antifascist" show has been part of his repertoire since 1982, but it's still absurd when it's done by someone who seems to love totalitarian regimes in Russia, Syria and in China.
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.
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.
1/20
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.
2/20
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.
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.
1/20
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.
2/20
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.
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.
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.
1/21
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.
2/21
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.