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 cover the agenda-setting and flood of disinformation that spread on X and other platforms right after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It’s far from the first or last time a tragedy has been weaponized for political purposes.
1/18
Every major political event, especially those involving violence, attracts massive attention. In the immediate aftermath, reliable information is scarce, making it highly vulnerable to both coordinated and improvised disinformation campaigns.
2/18
As I’ve mentioned in my previous soups and lectures, in disinformation campaigns, being first with a narrative is crucial, as people often remember the first version best — psychology studies show it sets the mental schema, and later updates rarely overwrite it.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American social media personality David Freeman, AKA Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman). He’s best known for spreading political disinformation on X and shamelessly sucking up to Trump, Putin, and other authoritarian leaders.
1/22
David is a textbook example of someone profiting from MAGA grievance politics. He uses extreme, provocative language to farm engagement on X and never hesitates to flatter anyone who might give him more exposure — or money.
2/22
But David wasn’t always like this. At some point, in his mid-40s, he even tried a real job: he trained to become a cop. He spent three years with the Metro Transit PD, but after that he either got fired or quit, and never looked back.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian-Estonian businessman, Oleg Ossinovski. He is best-known for his deep ties to Russian rail and energy networks, shady cross-border dealings, and for channeling his wealth into Estonian politics.
1/14
Oleg made his fortune via Spacecom Trans & Skinest Rail, both deeply tied to Russia’s rail system. Most of this is through Globaltrans Investments PLC, a Cyprus-based firm with 62% held via Spacecom and tens of millions in yearly profits.
2/14
Ossinovski’s Russian-linked ventures made him Estonia’s richest man in 2014, with an estimated fortune of ~€300M. His business empire stretched across railways, oil via Alexela shares, and Russian bitumen imports from Help-Oil, a supplier to the Defense Ministry.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Swiss/French writer, Alain Bonnet, aka Alain Soral (@officielsoral). He’s best known for his rabid antisemitism and for his pathetic support for all the worst authoritarian regimes from Russia to North Korea.
1/22
Alain’s childhood was problematic, as his father has been characterized as a “narcissistic pervert” who beat his children and did jail time for fraud. Alain himself has said he was “programmed to be a monster.” Born Alain Bonnet, he took the stage name of his sister,…
2/22
… actress Agnès Soral. She wasn’t too happy about this, commenting “How would you like to be called Agnès Hitler?”. Like many grifters, he became a pick-up/seduction artist writer, à la late Gonzalo Lira, writing books and even making a B-movie, “Confessions d’un dragueur”.
3/22
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.