In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American podcaster, RT columnist and former political aide, Tara Reade (@ReadeAlexandra). She's best-known for her allegation about Joe Biden sexually assaulting her, and for supporting Putin and Russia's genocidal war in Ukraine.
1/22
Reade rose to popularity in Mar 2020, when she alleged that Joe Biden had sexually assaulted her in 1993 while she was working as his staff assistant. After a thorough investigation by various journalists, it was discovered that her story was full of holes and she even...
2/22
...lied under oath. In addition, according to Associated Press, "Over the years, Reade spoke favorably about working for Biden." CNN reported that Reade had "praised Biden on social media on numerous occasions". Incidentally, these allegations came out just before...
3/22
...the 2020 US presidential election. Russia has been really pushing these allegations."Foundation to Battle Injustice",a propaganda organization ran by Prigozhin,is featuring Reade on their front page with a quote from Tara saying "Joe Biden raped me and ruined my career".
4/22
Eventually the story died down, but it had apparently left a strong mark on Reade. After she became "unhirable" in the political sphere in DC, she gradually drifted towards the "anti-establishment" movement and eventually started promoting outright Russian propaganda.
5/22
But some, including @gregzhouse, have suggested that she'd been influenced by the Russians already back in 2018. In 2019 she tweeted about the new Russian "foreign agents" law, that requires foreign journalists to register as foreign agents or face fines.
6/22
In May 2020, she published an article on Medium titled "Why a Liberal Democrat Supports Vladimir Putin". In the article, she wrote that "President Putin brought a chaotic and failed nation to become a vibrant, creative, economic force within a decade,"...
7/22
...continuing "Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness."
Few weeks before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in Ukraine, Tara was interviewed on RT where she claimed that she was "threatened" for her views on Russia. She also repeated her...
8/22
...allegations against Biden, saying that her case was "more serious" than the others reported. She referred to herself as a "whistleblower".
Reade hosts a podcast called "The Politics of Survival with Tara Reade", in which she discusses the war with "neutral voices"...
9/22
...like former spy Maria Butina, who was sent to the US as a sleeper agent, slept with bunch of men, got caught, and was booted back to Russia. She's also had a chat with "independent journalists" like Wyatt Reed, Johnny Miller, Alina Lipp, and documentarist/propagandist...
10/22
...Igor Lopatonok, the director of the Ukraine on Fire documentary:
Her narratives are the same as all the others: inflation and price hikes in the West, "NATO expansion launched the proxy war", calls for peace after Putin annexed the four...
11/22
...Ukrainian Oblasts, "Ukrainian Nazis" and the "Kiev regime", and of course "genocide in Donbas" with 14 000 "Russian casualties". There is absolutely nothing new or original in Reade's propaganda.
12/22
She was also one of the speakers at the "antiwar" Rage Against the War Machine event, in which she blamed Biden's administration, among other things, for organizing a "money laundering scheme" in Ukraine.
13/22
She's written several op-eds for RT. In Feb 2021, Reade published an article for RT titled "I believe AOC when she says she is a survivor of sexual assault. Why could she not say the same about me?"
14/22
In Aug 2022, she was awarded an award for... something by The Center for Political Innovation, a pro-Russian and communist association ran by Caleb Maupin.
15/22
In Oct 2022, she discussed about the loss of "Western hegemony" and its "failed states", praising Putin and the new multipolar world rising in the East. According to her, "China and Russia are flourishing," while forecasting a "cold Winter" (that never came) for the West.
16/22
In Dec 2022, Semafor reported that Russian diplomats had attempted to bring Ms. Reade to a UN meeting on "weapons diversion". She's not any kind of weapons expert and was refused the platform, and the plan was probably to bring him there to defame Biden, anyway.
17/22
In the US politics, she has promoted the pro-Kremlin MAGA gang, including @RepMattGaetz and @RepMTG, who both have called to end the US military aid to Ukraine. The two had interviewed Reade, and wanted her to testify against Biden in Congress.
18/22
Reade also appeared on Tucker Carlson, where she repeated the allegations against Joe Biden. According to Tara, Joe Biden took her "future", but I'm pretty sure it was Ms. Reade herself who took it by making things up.
19/22
On 30 May 2023, Reade gave an interview to the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik. With the help of her friend, Maria Butina, she had defected to Russia. Apparently Butina is trying to fast track Tara's citizenship request, comparing her "whistleblowing" to Edward Snowden.
20/22
The propaganda event they referred to as "press conference" lasts only 9 and half hours, so I suggest you give it a listen.
Now that she's in "Snowden land" and out of reach from US authorities, we will probably see an uptick in "Joe Biden raped me" BS from Ms. Reade.
21/22
She might even do a collab with an actual convicted sex criminal, Scott Ritter! Meanwhile, she can have hot girl summer in Moscow with the failed spy Maria Butina and convicted drug trafficker Oksana "Mira Terada" Vovk:
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.
1/5
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!").
2/5
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.