Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jul 10, 2023 26 tweets 15 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Canadian lawyer and politician, Dimitri Lascaris (@dimitrilascaris). He's best-known for parroting the Kremlin propaganda regarding NATO expansion and the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, and for traveling to Russia amidst the war.

1/24
Dimitri refers to himself as an "ecosocialist" and has been previously active in the Canadian Green Party. In 2020 he was a candidate for leading the group, but lost the final vote 50-42%. One of his campaign people was @RadDesai, whose known for organizing conferences..
2/24

...that promote the interests of both the Russian and Chinese governments. Before this, Dima was working for the Real News, a pro-Kremlin blog that platforms people like Scott Ritter and Lawrence Wilkerson. Wilkerson is best-known for his anti-Semitism and calling the...

3/24

..Ghouta chemical attack a "false flag operation" orchestrated by Israel. Ritter, on the other hand, is best-known for exposing his genitals to a police officer he thought was a 15-year-old girl.

On 19 Mar 2022, a month after Russia started their brutal attack in Ukraine,..
4/24

...Lascaris suggested that Ukraine shouldn't defend themselves as it'll probably result in the "destruction of one's country," and that the rational course would actually "pursue compromise" with Russia.

His takes on history could come directly from the Kremlin...

5/24
His takes on history could come directly from the Kremlin. First of all, he states in one of his blog posts that in 2014 Crimea "merged" with Russia - no mention of the illegal annexation, little green men, none of that. Then he refers to a news article from TASS that...

6/24
.."97% of voters reportedly supported Crimea's reunification with Russia," a sham vote that was condemned by basically everyone other than Russia.
Dima's reasoning for Russia's genocidal war in Ukraine is based on two of the most used Kremlin narratives: 1) NATO expansion..
7/24

...and the broken promise to Gorbachev (which, based on Gorbachev, was never even made), and 2) the "US-facilitated coup" and the infiltration of "neo-Nazis" in Ukraine in 2014.But with the latter he goes a few steps further: he states that what followed was a "right-wing,..
8/24



..anti-Russian regime," providing absolutely no further explanation.

Lascaris' final conclusion immediately after Russia's full-scale invasion started was that: "An objective and fair-minded review of the historical record leads inexorably to the conclusion that Russia...
9/24
...has legitimate grievances in this conflict," and later he declared that the evidence for the US and British governments actively provoking war in Ukraine is "overwhelming."

In Apr 2023, Dima traveled to Russia, where he had meetings with officials of the Russian...

10/24

...Ministry of Foreign Affairs and gave a speech at the Valdai Conference. As a staunch supporter of peace between Russia and Ukraine, surely Lascaris spoke about the peace negotiations? Well, no - his speech was about the destabilization of the dollar and how Russia...

11/24
...could compete with the dollar. Later, he admitted that some of his meetings during the trip were organized with the Russian Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, and his old fiend Desai and campaign worker also joined the Valdai meeting.

12/24
While in Russia, he visited various Kremlin-funded "NGO's" that provide nonlethal equipment and firearms accessories to the Russian troops. One of these organizations, We Are Together – Sevastopol, is presented to the Westerners as an NGO that "helps refugees".

13/24





The group's leader, Victoria Kashlyakova, admits that they also provide the invaded areas with propaganda materials such as board games praising Mother Russia.

On his way to Crimea, Lascaris also interviewed a PMC Wagner sniper called "Sokol". Ironically, his hate for...

14/24





.."neo-Nazis" doesn't extend to the Russian ones, as he doesn't offer a single shred of criticism towards the mercenary group and its affiliations and history of literal neo-Nazis like Alexei Milchakov and Dmitry Utkin.



15/24 https://t.co/4QIz0pWreS


As a human rights activists, Dima speaks very little of actual human rights violations in Ukraine. I couldn't find any of his commentary on the Bucha massacre, mass graves, torture and castration in Izium or the FSB-run children's torture chambers in Kherson.

16/24



He hasn't mentioned the 700 000 Ukrainian children abducted by the Russians, which by international law constitutes as a genocide. @dimitrilascaris, you must have written about these topics, maybe you can point me to the tweets and/or articles?

17/24
Lascaris has also been very critical of Ukraine's Zelensky. In Jul 2022, he posted an article criticizing the Ukrainian president, calling him an "anti-hero" who has "degraded whatever democracy existed in Ukraine." He also blames Zelensky for his ties to oligarch...

18/24



...Ihor Kolomoyskyi, whose Ukrainian citizenship Zelensky later stripped, and whose assets the Ukrainian state has also nationalized. He preaches about the corruption in Ukraine, and how Zelensky has been unable to prevent it. This corruption is a remnant of the...

19/24



..Soviet history, and Zelensky has taken impressive measures to reduce it. Actively fighting corruption while you're being attacked by a genocidal maniac is probably quite challenging, so we can probably judge Ukraine's battle against corruption only after Russia has been..
20/24
..driven away from the country. Now, how about the country that Dima has praised and recently visited? In the 2022 Corruption Index, Russia was at the 137th place.

As an "ecosocialist", Dimitri is a staunch supporter of Russia, one of the biggest exporter of fossil fuels.

21/24

He also hasn't said a word of Russia's ecocide in Ukraine, resulting in the destruction of Ukraine's flora and fauna and also its cultural heritage sites.
To conclude, Dima is a classic Kremlin propagandist touting the "not one inch eastward" and "US-orchestrated coup" BS.
22/24

He seems to openly support Russia's genocidal war in Ukraine, and hasn't criticized it after the initial days of the invasion. His prospects to do anything meaningful in Canada are probably over, and in my view Dima is a potential future resident of the Russian Federation.

23/24

And yes, I know I said I'd stop #vatniksoup, but the vatniks spring up like mushrooms, and these networks need to be exposed.

So, as long as there are vatniks and people who read my silly threads, I'll continue doing this work.

24/24
Sources:

https://t.co/VVwE69kIT2

Ping: @Alexey__Kovalev

Support my work: https://t.co/QgUl6jpNNe
Subscribe for my YouTube channel: https://t.co/1gnCOdcGoa
Past soups: https://t.co/9k5rQx4cgbcanadianinfluencewatchdog.blogspot.com/2023/07/why-ar…
medium.com/@alexey__koval…
buymeacoffee.com/PKallioniemi
youtube.com/@TheSoupCentral
vatniksoup.com
And Dima,let me ask one more thing: If James Baker's verbal promise to "not expand NATO eastwards" (that referred to East Germany, by the way) should be respected,what about Putin's statement that Crimea is Ukraine? I mean, if not, then we can probably agree that Putin is a liar?

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Aug 6
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.

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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.

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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.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 28
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.

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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.

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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.

3/20 Image
Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
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.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

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Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
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.

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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.

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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.

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Read 23 tweets
Jul 14
While Ukrainians are terror bombed on a daily basis, rich Russians live in Europe like kings and queens.

This young lady lives in Portugal, and travels freely to Ibiza...
...the Alps...
... and of course Paris.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 7
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.

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Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.

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Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.

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Read 23 tweets

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