In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Russian political scientist and head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Sergey Karaganov. He's best-known for his imperialistic policies since the early 1990's, and for calling the destruction of the West and of Ukraine.
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Karaganov created a doctrine carrying his name in the early 90's. The basic idea of the doctrine is that Russia should always protect, even by force, the ethnic Russian population in other countries. In the beginning, it was mostly targeted at the Baltic states.
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He's also a strong proponent of Eurasianism, and argues that Russia and China should cooperate economically to triumph over the Western regions. Basically, his views were the precedent of the BRICS agreement. He considers China as Russia's closest
ally.
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Sergey's policies and views are extremely hawkish. He's called Russia a "genetically authoritarian power", and claimed that Russia's main foreign policy goal is to force its dominance on the globe and break the security order put in place after the end of Cold War in 1991.
4/21
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion in Ukraine in Feb 2022, Karaganov stated that "The process of restoring Russian statehood, Russian influence, Russian power, which had been going on for quite a long time, had simply come to the surface."
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Already in 2014, he warned that Russia may attack Ukraine, and that "hell would break out" unless Ukraine stayed out of NATO and if the Russian-speaking regions in eastern and southern Ukraine are not granted broad autonomy.
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Apparently Karaganov at some point supported the idea of Russia joining NATO, as in 2019 interview he claimed that leaving Russia out was "one of the worst mistakes in political history" and that by doing this the West would eventually "sacrifice Ukraine".
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He formulated many of the core ideas leading to Russia's invasion in Feb 2022. Right before the attack, he declared that the "situation is so dire that war is inevitable" and that Russia could only achieve its goals by military force.
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In the same article, he stated how Russia had no economic, political, cultural or ideological benefits the could offer to Ukraine, and that Russia's neighbors saw the West offering more attractive political and economic models. Finally, someone in Russia speaks the truth!
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For the Russian elites, he's called the war in Ukraine an "existential war", and declared that Ukraine's leadership should be changed to "pro-Russian government" and that there should be "real security" for the "Donbas republics".
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He's claimed that the ongoing war will be used to "restructure Russian elite and Russian society", pushing out the non-patriotic elements from the elite & making the country more militant-based and national-based.Maybe that's why that old drunk Medvedev is being so hawkish?
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He's said that Russia's "demilitarization" of Ukraine consists of complete destruction of Ukrainian military forces, and that after this Ukrainians "will become much more peaceful and friendly to us." He's compared the situation to what Russia did previously in Chechnya.
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In his fantasies, Russia would cause the complete disintegration of Ukraine. He's said that "It is possible that something may go to Russia, something to Hungary, something to Poland, and something may remain a formally independent Ukrainian state."
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In Jun 2023, Karaganov called for the use nuclear weapons against some NATO member states in Europe. He said that if Russia were to nuke, say Poznan, the US would stay away from the conflict to save their own cities, and that "the Global South would feel satisfaction from..
14/21
...the defeat of their former oppressors." In the end of Aug 2023, Karaganov among other Russian political scientists published a report called "Problems and Lessons of the Recent History of Russian Foreign Policy (and Possibilities for Correction)". In this report,...
15/21
...they advised Kremlin to nullify all nuclear weapon control treaties, to terminate OSCE membership and scrap the treaty on nuclear non-proliferation (NPT). It also suggests the use of nuclear weapons against NATO countries. The report encouraged Russian authorities...
16/21
...to accelerate infrastructure projects in the eastern Russia and in Siberia. Karaganov et al. also call for exploiting Ukraine and use its resources. According to them, Ukrainian POWs should be used as forced labor to work on various infrastructure projects, and 1-2...
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million Ukrainians should be forcefully deported to the new Siberian settlements. Then comes the most absurd and barbaric part: Karaganov et al. want to turn Ukraine into barren, de-populated buffer zone against the Western states. After Ukraine has been occupied,...
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...its infrastructure should be - according to this group of maniacs - completely destroyed. This would include the destruction of its road and rail network, energy production, industry, and all large settlements.
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The goal of this would be to deprive Ukraine's possibility to exist as a state and make it an agrarian outpost.
They also claim that this would make Ukraine "uninteresting to the West," and based on the West's slow arms deliveries, this may already be the case.
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To conclude, Karaganov is the person who is voicing the Kremlin's goals and aspirations after it's stripped off its diplomatic rhetoric. The madman's genocidal lunacy includes the use of nuclear weapons against the West and complete destruction of Ukraine as a state.
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Thanks to @mfphhh, @jakluge and @usv1980 for bringing Karaganov's latest plan for genocide to the English-speaking public.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the sad (but funny) state of Finnish vatniks. After Russia launched their full-scale invasion against Ukraine, the Finnish pro-Kremlin/conspiracy theorist scene experienced a dramatic devaluation and hasn’t been able to bounce back since.
1/20
I often get asked about the current state of the Finnish vatnik club, and there’s usually not much to report.
It’s not because these people have stopped, but because today their work has only comedic value.
So here’s the latest:
2/20
Master vatnik and traitor Johan Bäckman has relocated to Russia, and he was recently given a Russian citizenship. It’s obvious that Johan was recruited by Russia’s intelligence agencies a long time ago. He’s still producing videos on YouTube on his…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Romanian politician and conspiracy theorist, Călin Georgescu (@calin_georgescu). He’s best-known for his pro-Kremlin and conspiratorial views, running for president of Romania, and doing it by only campaigning on TikTok.
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Georgescu has a doctorate in pedology (a branch of soil science), and held various positions in Romania’s environment ministry during the 90s.
Between 1999-2012, he was a representative for Romania on the national committee of the United Nations Environment Program.
2/25
He was proposed as Romania’s prime minister in 2011, 2012 and 2016 by Romanian far-right parties, but he rose to international infamy in 2024, when he ran for president of Romania independently and obtained the most votes (22,95%) out of all candidates in the first round.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Canadian journalist and alleged Soviet/Russian spy, David Pugliese (@davidpugliese). He’s best-known for his articles about “Ukrainian Nazis”, and for allegedly being a spy for both the Soviet Union and later Russia.
1/21
Several months ago I was anonymously sent a pile of documents from the mid-80s originating from the KGB archives in Kyiv. These documents outlined a KGB recruitment into “Stuart”, or David Pugliese who “works in foreign mass media” and who is…
2/21
..“studied with the perspective of possible operative use”. Another document described “Stuart’s” contact “Ivan”, who allegedly became his handler.Some have speculated that “Ivan” is Fred Weir, a correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor.He’s lived in Moscow since 1986.
3/21
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American far-right social media personality, Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes). He’s best-known for his white supremacist, misogynistic and antisemitic rhetoric, and for being the poster boy for the so-called incel movement.
1/17
Like so many from the white supremacist movement, Fuentes dropped out of university after his freshman year. He studied introductory international relations, which apparently made him a geopolitics expert. Nick was introduced to the white supremacist movement at an…
2/17
..early age - he took part in the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,Virginia. In 2017, Fuentes launched his political talk show “America First”. Initially the show was aired on Trump-aligned Right Side Broadcasting Network, but it was dropped after the rally.
3/17
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss foreign malign influence operations during the 2024 US elections. As in 2016 and 2020, these recent elections were also a target of massive disinformation and hacking campaigns originating mostly from Russia and Iran.
1/17
First of all, my opinion is that these influence operations alone didn’t affect the elections so much, that they actually made a difference.
Unlike in 2016, Trump’s win over Harris was clear and these short-term campaigns didn’t really change that much this time.
2/17
Yet, many of these online campaigns attacked both Harris and Walz on various social media platforms. Especially Walz became a big target after his nomination, and many Russian efforts attempted to defame him.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a social media personality and TV presenter, Raisa Blommestijn (@rblommestijn). She’s best-known for her far-right rhetorics, spreading conspiracy theories, and spreading anti-Ukraine and pro-Kremlin narratives on Dutch television.
1/24
Raisa studied philosophy of law at Leiden University. The faculty is best-known for one of its professors, Paul Cliteur. He’s a member of the pro-Kremlin party Forum voor Democratie (FvD), where he is one of the leading figures.Cliteur is also known for supervising the FvD…
2/24
…founder Thierry Baudet’s doctoral thesis, and can be considered a central figure in this Dutch “anti-establishment” movement. While studying at Leiden, Raise also met her best friend forever, Eva Vlaardingerbroek: