In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an attempt to create a pro-Kremlin fifth column in Ghana, Africa. This attempt was done by two prominent propagandists, @DD_Geopolitics (DDG) and Simeon "AussieCossack" Boikov.
This research was conducted by the Unintelligence Agency.
1/20
Recently, Niger became another African country where the army seized control of the government and ditched the remnants of the French colonialism. Before this, the same had happened in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Chad, all former French colonies.
2/20
Now, there's nothing wrong with getting rid of old colonial powers, but one should remember that all this was done with strong presence of pro-Kremlin powers like PMC Wagner. They've been accused of executing and raping civilians in Mali, and many of the new military...
3/20
...leaders have hailed Russia as their strategic allies. As I have written before, Russian media networks RT and Sputnik have strong presence in Africa, and there are no real alternatives to their narratives:
Therefore it's difficult to imagine these uprisings being grassroots events,rather than coup d'états with strong support coming from Russia.And apparently, the next country they'll try to "flip" is Ghana. In Aug 2023,a ridiculous ad for "West African Freedom Rally" surfaced.
5/20
Soon after, both DD Geopolitics and Boikov started promoting the rally, claiming that they'd send "food, water, and clothing" to the event, and that they'd also, for some weird reason, send Russian flags to this grassroots "freedom rally".
6/20
.@DD_Geopolitics is just a rebranding of the Donbass Devushka, an English-speaking, pro-Kremlin network that was exposed in Apr 2023. The leader of the network turned out to be Jersey girl and LARPer Sarah Bils. This network now has administrators from over 10 countries.
7/20
The other organizer, Simeon Boikov is a pro-Kremlin mouthpiece who is cowardly hiding in the Russian consulate in Sydney, after he pushed an elderly man down the stairs. Boikov has been responsible for organizing several pro-Russian demonstrations in Australia.
8/20
Soon after Boikov's contribution, Bils started asking for donations to their PayPal. She claimed that she'd use her ad share revenue from X to fund the rally, and that she doesn't actually use PayPal for anything even though the DDG donation link goes to straight to PayPal.
9/20
During the same Twitter Spaces event, they introduced their contact in Ghana, a man named Michael Asiedu. Boikov declares that they've sent "hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of [Russian] flags" to Michael, and that the Soviet Peace Fund is very interested in their project.
10/20
Michael says that he's representing TNT Radio (Boikov's channel) and DDG, and that he's organizing the rally on the ground. But the rally is already facing problems - the police had contacted Michael, saying that the rally didn't align with Ghana's politics towards Russia.
11/20
The group was also planning to burn the French flag, dance with the Russian flags and if needed, "beat the police and military".
Boikov claims that Michael is backed by "Russia, Wagner, by him personally".
12/20
Eventually, Bils gets frustrated over the "boys fighting", has a total breakdown and leaves the event. It seems that planning a coup in foreign countries is hard work and can stress out even the best of us.
13/20
Boikov's claims were later challenged by another man, who said that Boikov and DDG can't guarantee Asiedu's safety and that they might get arrested for the event as they had been warned beforehand by the police.
14/20
She also seemed to have difficulties to decide whether the event was a political rally or a charity event where DDG fed a thousand hungry Africans.I mean,they could've just spent the money on food rather than on useless Russian flags that'll probably be outdated soon,anyway.15/20
Then, on 13 Aug 2023, the rally happens. Naturally, as with most things organized by DDG, it's a complete failure as only around 20 people turn up. DDG account quickly explains that it's not actually the main event, but people mock the rally for the lousy turn up.
16/20
Even though Boikov stated that Michael and his crew were under protection, they were eventually allegedly arrested by the Ghanaian authorities.
But as always, both Bils and Boikov seem to have no interest in actually protecting these people they use as pawns.
17/20
When it comes to the money, some transactions were allegedly made to fund the rally. Bils declared that DDG bought 200 Russian flags for the rally, but these were actually bought by Boikov. There is also discrepancy between what DDG claims to have sponsored and the...
18/20
...prices of the items, but we'll let the authorities sort that out. Many states in the US also have laws regulating the solicitation of funds for charitable purposes, but I'm sure the DDG posse has all this figured out.
19/20
To conclude: Many pro-Kremlin actors are instigating violence and unrest in African countries, and some of these campaigns have led to actual coups. The example shown here was a farcical show, but it outlines the strategies these actors often use.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about Finland and how pro-Kremlin propagandists have become more active in the Finnish political space since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the first time since 2022, they’ve gained some political power in Finland.
1/16
Russia’s political strategy in countries with Russian-speaking minorities (such as Finland and the Baltics) is typically quite similar: it seeks to rally these minorities around issues like language and minority rights, and then frames the situation as oppression.
2/16
At the same time, Russian speakers are extremely wary and skeptical of local media, and instead tend to follow Russian domestic outlets like Russia-1 and NTV, thereby reinforcing an almost impenetrable information bubble.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll discuss the Ukrainian SBU’s “Spiderweb” operation and the main disinformation narrative vatniks have been spreading during the afterfall. While domestic Russian media stays silent, the vatniks and Russian milbloggers have been extremely loud.
1/20
This operation was probably the most impactful strike since the drowning of the Moskva, massively reducing Russia’s capability to bomb Ukrainian cities (or anyone else’s). It involved smuggling 117 FPV drones hidden in trucks into Russia. Once near airbases,…
2/20
…the roofs opened remotely, launching drones in synchronized waves to strike targets up to 4,000 km away. The mission took 18 months to plan. The unsuspecting Russian truck drivers who transported them had no idea they were delivering weapons deep behind their own lines.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian movie director, propagandist, and former priest: Ivan Okhlobystin. He’s best known for his strong support for the war on Ukraine and for his radical views, which are often used as a testbed for the domestic Russian audience.
1/20
Ivan was born in 1966 from a short-lived marriage between a 62-year-old chief physician and a 19-year-old engineering student. She later remarried, and the family moved from Kaluga province to Moscow. Ivan kept the surname Okhlobystin from his biological father.
2/20
After moving to Moscow, Ivan began studying at VGIK film school. He soon became a playwright for theatre productions and also wrote for Stolitsa magazine, which he later left because, as he put it, “it had become a brothel.”
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian-born former State Duma deputy, Vladimir Medinsky. He is best known as one of the ideologues of the “Russkiy Mir”, for his close ties to Vladimir Putin, and for leading the “peace talks” in Turkey in 2022 and 2025.
1/20
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Medinsky interned as a correspondent on the international desk of the TASS news agency, learning the ways of propaganda at an early age. Some time later, he earned two PhDs – one in political science and the other in history.
2/20
As is tradition in Russia, Medinsky’s academic work was largely pseudo-scientific and plagiarized. Dissernet found that 87 of 120 pages in his dissertation were copied from his supervisor’s thesis. His second dissertation was also heavily plagiarized.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American social media influencer, Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson). He’s best known for his plagiarism while working as a clickbait “journalist”, and for being paid by the Kremlin to spread anti-Ukraine and anti-Democratic narratives.
1/23
Benny graduated from the University of Iowa in 2009 with a degree in developmental psychology. His former high school buddy described him as the “smartest, most articulate kid in school,” and was disappointed to see him turn into a “cheating, low standard hack.”
2/23
After graduating, Benny dived directly into the world of outrage media. Benny’s first job was writing op-eds for far-right website Breitbart, from where he moved on to TheBlaze, a conservative media owned by Glenn Beck, and a spring board for many conservative influencers.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Cypriot politician and social media personality, Fidias Panayiotou (@Fidias0). He’s best known for his clickbait YouTube stunts and for voting against aid to Ukraine and the return of abducted Ukrainian children from Russia.
1/20
Fidias hails from Meniko, Cyprus. In 2019, he began posting videos on YouTube. After a slow start, he found his niche with clickbaity, MrBeast-style content featuring silly stunts, catchy titles and scripted dialogue. Today, Fidias has 2,7 million subscribers on YouTube.
2/20
Fidias’s channel started with trend-riding, but he found his niche in traveling without money — aka freeloading. In one video, he fare-dodged on the Bengaluru Metro. The train authority responded by saying they would file a criminal case against him.