In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Swiss social media personality, investment banker and journalist, Vadim Loskutov (@runews). He's best-known for praising Russia and its politics, and criticizing the West while living comfortably in Switzerland.
1/16
This research was conducted in collaboration with the Swiss NAFO fellas and The Unintelligence Agency.
Loskutov allegedly originally hails from the Republic of Kalmykia, located in the North Caucasus region of Southern Russia.
2/16
According to some Wikibin entries, Vadim was allegedly building a career as a media personality in Russia. Based on the text, he worked as a presenter and video jockey on various Russian music shows during the 90s, and he allegedly also voiced radio advertisements.
3/16
The whole biography seems extremely sketchy, as he would've been just 13-years old when he was working as a music presenter on Russian national TV, and 18-years old when was a video jockey, producer and a host on Russian MTV.
4/16
There is hardly any proof of this, and the whole career history could be completely made up to hide his intelligence background or to help him getting employed in Switzerland. Whatever the truth is, we couldn't locate any evidence that a man named Vadim Loskutov ever...
5/16
...worked in the Russian music business. But we do know that Vadim had a show called RussenRadio! in Swiss alternative radio channel called LoRa. The show featured Russian music, news and comedy sketches for German and English speaking audiences.
6/16
According to Loskutov, he is a "seasoned journalist" with over 20 years of experience on "reporting on Investments, Cryptos, and Geopolitics". He also allegedly worked as a senior trader at Glencore, one of worlds biggest commodity trading and mining companies.
7/16
His public commercial records reveal that between 2012-2020 he was approved to make signatures (and from 2015 acted as the VC of their Zürich branch) for CBH, a Swiss private bank. The company has been involved in many alleged controversies, including money laundering.
8/16
Loskutov is also a big fanboy of Elon, and he's also a strong proponent of his "free speech absolutism" on X. It would be interesting to hear what Vadim has to say about specific search terms in relation to the conflict in Middle East that are now censored on this platform.
9/16
When it comes to Ukraine, Vadim's propaganda focuses on the Kremlin's main narratives: money laundering in Ukraine, Ukraine must negotiate truce, the US is falling apart whereas Russia is thriving.. & all this from the comfort of his allegedly nice apartment in Switzerland.
10/16
He seems to be a strong opponent of the "woke culture", often using the common phrase "go woke, go broke" whenever any big brand tries a marketing strategy involving "woke" elements like trans people or men wearing pink clothes. He also seems to hate the "woke" Swiss media.
11/16
Once the story about Donbass Devuska came out, he created a theory that WSJ was taking revenge on Russia after one of WSJ's journalists, Evan Gershkovich was arrested. He's also called WaPo a "NATO propaganda machine".
Vadim's favorite Swiss media seems to be Weltwoche.
12/16
In Apr 2023, the @runews account informed that he starts writing for pro-Kremlin outlet called Die Weltwöche. This connects the @runews account to Vadim Loskutov.
Weltwoche is a media project launched by the Swiss grand-vatnik Roger Köppel:
Ironically,he's complained about the lack of press freedom in Europe,while in his home country anyone who criticizes the Kremlin gets either murdered or imprisoned.He also supports German politician Sahra Wagenknecht's populist, pro-Kremlin policies:
14/16
Vadim also seems to be a raging antisemite. He called the 30 Oct 2023 pogrom of mob storming the Makhachkala airport in search of Jewish passengers from Israel a "protest". The term 'pogrom' refers to violent attacks by local non-Jewish populations on Jews in Russia.
15/16
In Feb 2023, Vadim tweeted that he was allegedly "charged" by the Swiss police & he called for @RusEmbSwiss to help him. It's a perfect example of how the 5th column lives in the West: they enjoy its luxuries, but whenever they run into trouble,they call for Russia to help.
16/16
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:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.
1/21
Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.
2/21
While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.
1/22
Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…
2/22
…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.