In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an international pro-Kremlin network called DD Geopolitics (DDG; @DD_Geopolitics). They're best-known for spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation, and for collecting and donating money to Russian outlets like Rybar and Killnet.
1/22
When discussing about Donbass Devushka/DD Geopolitics, the focus has been solely on its founder and owner, Sarah Bils. But as she has stated, it's actually a bigger group of people from around the world, and today's soup will introduce some of them.
2/22
In case you need to catch up on Donbass Devushka/DDG, read this article:
DDG is basically just a re-hash of the Donbass Devushka brand with some admin changes (for example, @squatsons is no longer part of the group).
This research spans over 8 months of work by The Unintelligence Agency using open data sources. All people introduced in these soups had administrator privileges on the DDG Telegram channel.
4/22
As of today, DDG has over 120 000 followers on X/Twitter, and even with artificial inflation it's one of the largest English-speaking, pro-Kremlin social media networks online. Recently, the account was shadowbanned, probably due to the inorganic growth via troll farms.
5/22
The group's Telegram chat is extremely intolerant and pro-Russian, and the discussions range from fantasizing about killing Ukrainians and criticizing the "woke culture" to calling for genocide in Ukraine.
Pretty much the only topic that's shunned is supporting Ukraine.
6/22
At least in the past, the group has strongly supported the notorious PMC Wagner. Back in Spring 2023, the channel's logo featured the Wagner logo and sledgehammer, and DDG members have often discussed about how to actually join the group.
7/22
The group has promoted donations to West-sanctioned DPR & LPR, and the Kremlin-connected neo-Nazi Rusich Group. DDG has also allegedly sent money to pro-Russian hacker group Killnet,that has conducted cyberattacks on several Western countries due to their support of Ukraine.
8/22
DDG is part of the larger "vatniksphere" who often collaborate on various projects. Recently, they've been coordinating a pitiful coup d'état attempts in Ghana together with Simeon Boikov (@aussiecossack), who's best-known for attacking pensioners and coercing his grandma.
9/22
But as was mentioned earlier, DDG is not just a one person (even though Bils sometimes claims otherwise), so let's take a look at some of the administrators of the DDG Telegram group.
10/22
David E AKA david - The son of a German Die Linke politician who has deep hatred for Ukraine and its people. He is a big Wagner fanboy, collects their patches and allegedly even helped have foreign volunteers tracked down and killed in Ukraine.
11/22
On 18 Sep 2023, Die Welt published an article on David and his activities:
His anti-Ukrainian rhetoric reminds me of the so-called "4chan lingo" with a genocidal twist. When interviewed by @KatjaBody, he claimed to be "regretting" his...
...radicalization and stated that he had left the group back in Apr 2023, but in reality he was still wishing for the death of Ukrainians and even participating on a Telegram channel that focuses on doxxing anyone who helps Ukraine and Ukrainians.
13/22
Matt M AKA akhMATT sila - US citizen LARPing as a survivalist. Constantly calls for domestic political violence while stocking up on guns, armor and ammo. Prays for the end of society so that he can "kill whoever to take what I want." At some point wanted to join Wagner.
14/22
Matt was often grooming the younger members, including David, to more radical thinking and lifestyle. He also likes to collect pro-Russia and Wagner patches and constantly calls for murder of Ukrainian civilians. He often dreams of the collapse of the US society.
15/22
Here's some additional messages from the DDG chat from Matt:
16/22
Kristopher Karl Barrett - Barrett, a Wyoming resident, participates in the chat under his real name. He describes himself as "firearms and aviation enthusiast" as well as "pro-Russian". He also dreams of a total collapse and civil war, and for being a 62-year-old...
17/22
...he writes like an edgy teenager. At one point, he tried running for public office, but failed miserably. According to the man himself, he's involved in the American Village Project in Russia,...
18/22
...which attempts to relocate American fascists, far-right extremists and white nationalists to live in a village in Russia.
I'm not an expert on The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), but this really stinks like one.
19/22
Justin F AKA Konstantin - A Canadian who actually moved to Russia a long time ago and got married there, unlike so many other Kremlin fans. He cheers for the made-up republics of DPR and LPR, often refers to Ukrainians as Nazis, and refuses to call Ukraine a real country.
20/22
Joe J AKA @rocknrollAL. He's one of the original founders of the group and is partly responsible for the group's merch designs. He's currently one of the main admins on DDG's chat. Many of the Z-merch designs you might've seen probably came from Joey.
He also loves yoga.
21/22
In the next #vatniksoup, I'll introduce more of the DDG admins from countries like Slovenia, Russia (most live outside of Russia, of course), Romania, UK, France and Mexico. I'll also talk about how the group's connected to the rest of the "vatniksphere".
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.
1/ 21
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.
2/21
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.
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll discuss about one of the less-known events of the Russo-Ukrainian War: the 2014 Odessa clashes.
It's often used by pro-Kremlin propagandists to prove that the "neo-Nazis" in Ukraine were "persecuting" the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine.
1/22
The Odessa Trade Union House fire is not as widespread propaganda narrative, probably due to the lack of any US-involvement. It's still spread by Kremlin mouthpieces like @aaronjmate, who framed the incident as done by "neo-Nazis".
2/22
GRU asset and former RT journalist Yana Yerlashova even made a propaganda "documentary" of the event, putting the blame on the "Ukrainian neo-Nazis". The incident has been often used to incite unrest between the Ukrainian and Russian-speaking populations inside Ukraine.
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Swiss writer and editor of Serbian origin, Slobodan Despot (@despotica). He's best-known for his conspiratorial views, for translating and publishing prominent far-right figures, and for supporting and spreading Kremlin propaganda.
1/21
Frequent guest of both extreme right and mainstream media in Switzerland & France, Despot originally gained notoriety for his denial of Srebrenica genocide, in which more than 8000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed. These killings were led by Serbian Ratko Mladić.
2/21
Despot's world view has been influenced by Alexander Dugin and Eduard Limonov of National Bolsheviks (Nazbols in short). He's been involved in publishing pro-Kremlin propaganda in French-speaking media pretty much since then. For a long period, he worked as a translator,...
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Russo-Italian politician, Irina Osipova. She's best-known for her ties to European and Russian neo-Nazi groups like Golden Dawn and Rusich, for her close ties to various Russian officials, and for her new job at the Italian senate.
1/17
She was born in Moscow, Russia in 1987 and his father is Oleg Osipov, former director of the Russian Center of Science and Culture in Rome. The organization is basically a form of Russian soft power & aims to establish contacts between the influential Russians and Italians.
2/17
Today, the organization is led by Dariya Pushkova, former RT propagandist and daughter of prominent Russian politician Aleksey Pushkov who also happens to be the President of the "Commission on Information Policy".
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?
The @elonmusk soup was supposed to end the whole series, but there were still too many vatniks to cover and I decided to come back from retirement. Later it was revealed that Musk actually spoke with Putin.