In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an Austrian communist and social media personality, Roman GK AKA @GeromanAT. He's best-known for promoting pro-Kremlin perspective on the Russo-Ukrainian War and for trying to monetize his apparent social media addiction.
1/17
.@GeromanAT belongs to the "big three" of pro-Russian Twitter analysts/political commentators, the other two being a Serbian nurse, @200_zoka whose account has since been deleted, and German Russia-LARPer, @Trollstoy88, who's still pretending to be someone he's not.
2/17
As much as he would like to be a Serb, Roman is actually German-Austrian and lives in Austria. So, we have yet another vatnik and fan of authoritarian regimes living comfortably in the West.
Why these people never move the countries they so much seem to like?
3/17
Roman has worked in IT support for a long time, but apparently the business hasn't been exactly booming lately.
Perhaps due to this, he's started a side hustle of spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda. At the moment he makes around 200 USD a month, or around 70 cents per hour.
4/17
What he lacks in knowledge and skill, he makes up with volume - since 2015, he's tweeted almost 400 000 times,averaging to around 120 tweets/day. He's also in X's subscription program.
Fortunately his partner makes decent money, otherwise he'd probably be homeless already.
5/17
Roman is a strong supporter of various conspiracy theories. He believes in the most ridiculous Russian lies, including "US-funded bioweapons labs in Ukraine", that Ukraine is infested with "Nazis", and that the 2014 Revolution of Dignity was an "illegal NATO coup".
6/17
In the Geroman-world, absolutely everything that somehow supports Ukraine or the West is a "psyop".
Here are some examples of events Roman considers to be "psyops": Bucha massacre, QAnon, Anonymous, Pentagon leaks, Chinese spy balloons,...
7/17
...Ukraine's attack on Kherson, Uyghur genocide, White Helmets in Syria, MH17 and Skripali poisoning. He also absolutely despises Bellingcat, probably due to their exposes on Russia's crimes against humanity around the world.
8/17
In Roman's view, Russia can and will do no harm to civilians or civilian structures, and if they do, it's because the evil "Ukrainian Nazis" are hiding out in these civilian buildings. Of course in his twisted world, the evil Ukrainians are targeting civilians all the time.
9/17
The most disgusting of these alleged "psyops" is his denial of the Bucha massacre. He's stated that "We did not see a single video showing Russians killing civilians in Bucha" and that the whole thing was "done by AFU".
10/17
He called the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson and Kharkov planned and professional retreats, and before Ukraine re-captured Kherson, Roman was highly optimistic on Russia actually attacking in both of these directions in addition to southeastern Donbas region.
11/17
He considered the battle of Bakhmut a "designated meat grinder" that was supposed to deplete Ukraine of its troops. Recently his focus has been on Robotyne, saying that UAF is "running down a valley secured by RF held high grounds and will suffer even more casualties."
12/17
Roman thinks that "communism will be the leading world power soon." He's also declared that capitalism has "killed much more people all over the world than Communism" & that you can see that "communism works" by looking at totalitarian,hyper-capitalist countries like China.
13/17
Roman absolutely despises NAFO, probably because they're the ones who always call on his BS. He calls all NAFO members "nazis" and supports so-called "NAFO hunters" who report pro-Ukrainian accounts in order to get them banned.
14/17
He also has a Telegram channel with around 15 000 subscribers. In Aug 2023, Z-supporter Merdan E doxxed the wrong Pekka Kallioniemi and posted his phone number and a flat he was selling on various platforms. This failed doxx was also posted to Roman's TG and is still there.
15/17
It must feel extremely empowering to doxx the wrong people and put them in harm's way.
Apparently Roman has also collaborated somehow with the @DD_Geopolitics collective. It's still unknown if this collaboration extended outside of sharing the failed doxxing information.
16/17
Considering that he seems to loathe all "Nazis", he talks surprisingly little about Russian Nazis like Alexey Milchakov or Yan Petrovsky of the Rusich Group or the Russian Imperial Movement:
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.
1/20
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.
2/20
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.
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.
1/5
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!").
2/5
Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.
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.
1/21
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.
2/21
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.
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: