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Pekka Kallioniemi

@P_Kallioniemi

Jun 17, 2023 • 26 tweets • 14 min read • Read on X

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In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American politician, media personality and businessman, Donald Trump. He's best-known for serving as the 45th president of the US, and for promoting pro-Kremlin viewpoints regarding Putin and the Russo-Ukrainian war.

1/23

After becoming the president of his father's real estate ventures in early 70s, he started expanding its operations aggressively by building hotels, casinos and whatnot. Trump's businesses have been involved in over 4000 legal actions,and he's filed for bankruptcy six times.
2/23

While studying in college during the Vietnam War era, Trump deferred draft four times. After his graduation, he was diagnosed with bone spurs, thus avoiding going to the war. This diagnosis allegedly made by a podiatrist, Dr. Larry Braunstein, who rented his office from...
3/23

...Donald's father, Fred Trump. Dr. Braunstein’s daughters later said that they "know it [the diagnosis] was a favor" to Donald's father.

Yuri Shvets, a former Soviet intelligence officer who worked as a Major in the KGB from 1980 to 1990, and as a resident spy in DC...

4/23

..between 1985 and 1987, has stated that Trump "was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years & proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow." According to Shvets, KGB considered Trump as "extremely vulnerable intellectually,..
5/23

...and psychologically," and also vulnerable to flattery. Based on Journalist Craig Unger's book "American Kompromat", Trump first appeared on the KGB's radar in 1977 when he married Ivana Zelnickova.

When Trump visited Moscow and St. Petersburg, he was flattered by...

6/23

...the KGB operatives, also floating the idea that Trump should get into politics. Soon after returning from this trip, Trump started looking into possible presidential run in the Republican party and ran a full-page ad on NYT criticizing US foreign policy.

7/23

Trump has had a lot of business interests in Russia. He had undertaken a project to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow. This idea came to be during his visit to Moscow in 1987, and was later pushed by Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman with mob connections.

8/23

In 2008 he sold a Palm Beach mansion to Russian oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev for 95 million USD, while four years prior he only paid 41 million USD for the estate.

Even though the Mueller report didn't conclude conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians, an...

9/23

...initiative called Moscow Project found 272 known contacts and 38 known meetings between the Trump team and Russia-linked operatives.

And there's no doubt about Russian influence in the US 2016 presidential election. Days before Trump became president in 2017,the Obama..
10/23

...administration released an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) which assessed that "Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic...
11/23

...process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency." Trump ignored these reports, and in 2017, he said that he had spoken with Putin about forming a cyber unit with Russia to fight "election hacking".

12/23

So how did Donald help Russia and Putin? First of all, he "watered down" the toughest penalties the U.S. had imposed on Russian entities after Putin annexed Crimea in 2014. He even questioned the sanctions altogether, stating that "why would anybody have sanctions if...

13/23

...somebody’s doing some really great things?" He also supported Russia's return to the G7 and eased sanctions on Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.

In 2017, Trump revealed highly classified information to foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and to the Russian ambassador...

14/23

...Sergey Kislyak. US media was not allowed in this meeting, but there was a Russian photographer present.

On many occasions, Trump has praised Putin, calling him a "genius" and "savvy" after Putin invaded Ukraine. He's said that Putin has done "a really great job...

15/23

...outsmarting our country."

In 2019, he temporarily froze US aid worth 391 million USD for Ukraine. The Trump administration had previously stalled sales of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine in fear of angering Russia and Putin.

16/23

Trump also hired Paul Manafort, who had spent a good decade promoting pro-Russian politics in Ukraine, to run his 2016 presidential campaign. He was later sentenced to over 7 years in prison. One of his crimes was evading taxes on the 60 million USD he made in Ukraine.

17/23

Before leaving his presidency, Trump pardoned five people who were convicted as a result of investigations on the Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, including Michael Flynn, Roger Stone and Paul Manafort. He also pardoned GOP strategist Jesse Benton, who was...
18/23

...sentenced again in Feb 2023, for funneling Russian money into the Trump campaign.

Trump's style of politics is almost wholly based on lies. Actually, after becoming the President, Trump's lying became so common that the Washington Post started tracking the factuality..
19/23

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1646440679369744385

...of his statements with their fact-checking department: by Jan 2021, Trump had lied over 30 000 times during his term as the President. You can read my previous thread on this type of "post-truth politics" here:

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1646440679369744385

20/23

Recently Trump was hit with yet another set of charges, this time federal. An investigation found out that he held classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort. He even discussed over classified war plan documents with people who had no security clearance.

21/23

Lately he's been trying to pin the blame on his aide Walt Nauta. There are at least 7 cases between 2017-2023 where US citizens have been sentenced under the Espionage Act to prison time for storing classified documents at home.

22/23

What would Trump's presidency mean to Ukraine? Even though the support from US has been strongly bipartisan, he could have some veto power over military and humanitarian aid. Also, the sanctions against Russia could be eased or even lifted. Either way, Ukraine will prevail.
23/23

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

CORRECTION TO TWEET 22/23:

This Trump's Truth Social post regarding Walt Nauta is allegedly a fake.

Confirmation here:

https://twitter.com/Shayan86/status/1669071521137000448?t=eEkYmK8iOOW2HOFylq6jag&s=19

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Pekka Kallioniemi

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Mar 14

In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Serbian academic, Ratko Ristić. He’s best known for engaging in pro-Kremlin, ultranationalist politics and propaganda while undermining business ties between Serbia and the EU.

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Serbia, along with Belarus, remains Russia’s staunchest European ally amid its aggression against Ukraine. Not only have they refused to impose sanctions, but Serbia has also become a regional disinformation hub, destabilizing the wider region.

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Beyond foreign malign influence, Serbia’s nationalist-revisionist regime – rooted in the 1990s – has aligned with Russia’s aggressive, anti-liberal nationalist bloc. Serbian far-right groups are also well-known supporters of Russian imperialism.

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Mar 8

In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce Oleg Bessedin, a videoblogger and Russia’s favorite mouthpiece in Estonia. Through social media, online groups, and media networks, Bessedin has played an active role in pushing pro-Kremlin narratives to divide Estonian society.

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Oleg is a content creator and businessman with strong ties to pro-Kremlin networks. He runs multiple Facebook groups and media platforms that regularly share Russian state propaganda. Estonia’s Internal Security Service (KAPO) has flagged his platforms as disinfo hubs.

2/13

Bessedin presents himself as an independent journalist, but his content is heavily biased in favor of Russian narratives. He portrays Estonia and the West as corrupt, aggressive, and anti-Russian while defending Russia’s actions on the world stage.

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Pekka Kallioniemi

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Mar 5

In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll discuss the Russian shadow fleet: a network of ships that operate in secret, dodge sanctions, smuggle oil, and undermine the security of Europe’s seas while keeping Putin’s war machine running.

1/15

To understand the shadow fleet, let’s rewind to 2022. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the West responded with economic shockwaves. Sanctions were imposed, Russian oil was banned, and a price cap was introduced. For Russia, this was a disaster.

2/15

But Putin is well-familiar with economic warfare. Russia quickly created a “shadow fleet” – an armada of rusting oil tankers with false identities and forged paperwork,and illegal trade routes designed to dodge Western sanctions and keep the rubles flowing.

3/15

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Pekka Kallioniemi

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Feb 28

In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce the American-British social media personalities, Tristan and Andrew Tate (@tatethetalisman and @cobratate).

They’re best-known for their social media grifts and allegations of human trafficking and rape.

1/22

The history of the Tate brothers was introduced thoroughly in my original Vatnik Soup thread, but since then so much has happened that this pathetic duo needs another review. The soup will go through a lot of the evidence and videos in which the Tates incriminate themselves.
2/22

The Tates became (relatively) rich through their webcam (pimping?) businesses and self-help courses targeted at young, desperate (incel?) men. At some point, they had up to 75 women working for them, and the brothers later admitted that the business was a “total scam”.

3/22

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Pekka Kallioniemi

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Feb 24

In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce Russia’s main narratives and explain how they are being spread online by Russian operatives and MAGA Republicans. After three years of war, Russia still relies on old narratives, now amplified by the Trump administration.

1/25

Throughout the years – or even decades – Russia’s narratives against the West have remained largely the same. Many of them date back to the Cold War era, when the KGB and CIA were bitter enemies. But since then, the media landscape has drastically changed.

2/25

Russian propaganda and disinformation revolves around four main themes:

1) Russia is the victim,
2) Historical revisionism,
3) The “decadent West” is collapsing,
4) The CIA and/or “evil Anglo-Saxons” are behind every revolution & anti-Kremlin activity.

3/25

Read 26 tweets

Pekka Kallioniemi

@P_Kallioniemi

Feb 22

In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a former Ukrainian politician and president, Viktor Yanukovych. He’s best known for selling his country to Russia, trying to turn it into an authoritarian state, and eventually fleeing to Moscow once his plan failed.

1/22

Now that Russia and the US are planning to replace president Zelenskyy with someone who’s more willing to sell the country to them (most probably Viktor Medvedchuk or one of his cronies), it’s a good time to remind people how Yanukovych and Putin almost took over Ukraine.

2/22

Yanukovych’s first attempt at power came in 2004, when he “won” the Ukrainian presidential election through massive fraud. The rigged vote sparked the Orange Revolution, a wave of protests that forced the election to be re-run. His opponent, pro-Western candidate…

3/22

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