In today's #vatniksoup,I'll introduce a Russian diplomat, SVR officer & First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry Alekseevich Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un). He's best-known for promoting Western,pro-Kremlin fake news blogs & individuals like @TheGrayzoneNews.
1/22
Dima was previously stationed in Warsaw, from where he then moved on to work in New York to work under Vasily Nebenzya, the current Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, and the man who had to announce the infamous "Ukrainian combat mosquitos".
2/22
Now, before we move on, it's worth mentioning that Dima is actually an officer of SVR, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.He comes from the so-called PR or Public Relations line, so he's not exactly the James Bond of the agency, but he still has a lot of influence & power.3/22
Now, there's nothing new at using agents as diplomats, and Russia has utilized this strategy since the days of the KGB. For example,in Finland 1/3 of Russian embassy staff in Helsinki were intelligence agents & a lot of them were expelled recently from the Nordic countries.
4/22
He's relatively happily married (we'll get to that later), and his daughter, Anastasiya, was married to a Georgian man. Now, Dima absolutely despises Georgians. Which is why he was extremely happy when his daughter and her Georgian husband decided to file for a divorce.
5/22
So, Dima (allegedly) lives a happy life in Manhattan, New York, and apparently enjoys his life in the biggest NATO country out there, eating at the fanciest restaurants. At the same time, he's constantly trashing the oh-so decadent West.
Hypocrisy much?
6/22
Often tweeting against the "decadent West", it seems that Dima has also been corrupted by it - he's had intimate, extramarital relations with Lenka Houskova White AKA @whitelenka, a former Sputnik journalist and model from the Czech Republic.
7/22
Unfortunately, Dima and Lenka recently split up and he now has a new mistress from the office where he works at. They still like and comment on each other's tweets, though, which is kinda cute!
We couldn't reach out to Dmitry's wife, Maria, for a comment on the matter.
8/22
Polyanskiy seems to have his tentacles everywhere in the Western vatnik space. His favorite outlet seems to be the Grayzone blog, and he's appeared with the GZ boys @MaxBlumenthal and @aaronjmate on few occasions. Here he is denying any invasion before the war started.
9/22
He's also appeared on Hinkle's "The Dive", @ReadeAlexandra's podcast, and even allegedly talked with Sarah "Donbass Devushka" Bils. She's a pathogical liar, though, and everything she says should be taken with skepticism.
10/22
I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually Dima who invited both Max and Aaron to speak at the United Nations Security Council on behalf of Russia. Actually, I'm gonna take this a step further - I wouldn't be surprised if Dima was the handler of these two and Hinkle.
11/22
In general, Russia has turned United Nations' Security Council into a circus, inviting pro-Kremlin grifters like Blumenthal and Maté to spread the Russian lies. Hell, they even invited Ray McGovern who spent his 15 minutes of fame speaking German and singing peace songs.
12/22
Considering how much The Grayzone boys, Hinkle and Ritter hate the "deep state" and the Western version of the three letter agencies, they seem to have no problem in interacting with their Russian counterparts like the SVR.
13/22
I guess we can also take a look at Dmitry's tweets and appearances, but the content is pretty much what you'd expect: "Ukrainian Nazis", "8 years of shelling in Donbas", the corrupt and hypocritical West, Holodomor denial, mainstream media cannot be trusted, yada yada...
14/22
Initially, Polyanskiy was certain that Russia wasn't going to attack and blamed the West for propaganda. Of course, this story has since changed from "Russia won't invade Ukraine" to "NATO forced us to invade" now that Putin's genocidal war in Ukraine is evident.
15/22
Ironically, Dima's profile states that he "rejects hatespeech, lies and fake news," but that's pretty much the only thing you can find on his feed. He's shared content from "citizen journalists" and "analysts" like Hinkle, @MyLordBebo, @GonzaloLira1968 and @narrative_hole.
16/22
Many of the people Dima follows have been featured on #vatniksoup previously: Sonja van den Ende, Kim Dotcom, David Sacks, Richard Z AKA Trollstoy88, Nina Byzantina, Wyatt Reed... The whole thing is just absurd, considering he's a high-rank UN official.
17/22
Dmitry loves talking about the "Ukrainian Nazis", often citing "journalists" like Maté and Johnny Miller. Of course he knows that the "neo-Nazi problem" in Ukraine is mostly fabricated, and it's actually Russia that has a problem with Nazis:
If we disregard the absurdity of the "de-nazification" conducted by actual Nazis, maybe Dima can answer this question: Why were the Azov leaders exchanged for corrupt Ukrainian oligarch, Viktor Medvedchuk, during a prisoner exchange?
19/22
It's almost like it was never about the "de-nazification" rather than about putting Putin's friends into power in Ukraine. Of course, most of us knew that already, which is why the whole "Ukrainian Nazis" narrative is being ridiculed all over social media.
20/22
On 14 Jul 2023, Dima appeared on "Maverick News" together with elite war analyst and convicted sex criminal, Scott Ritter. The discussion revolved around "NATO expansion", "money laundering" in Ukraine, evil "Ukrainian Nazis" and how Zelensky "let down the Ukrainians".
21/22
To conclude: Polyanskiy is an SVR officer who keeps close contact with many of the Western vatniks, probably even collaborating and coordinating together with them.
This soup was brewed together with the fellas known as the Unintelligence Agency.
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.
1/21
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.
2/21
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.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.
1/15
Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.
The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.
2/15
The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.
1/21
Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.
2/21
While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.
1/22
Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…
2/22
…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.