In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Dutch politician and leader of the Party of Freedom (PVV), Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv).
He's best-known for his populist, anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric, and for his warm and close relations to the Kremlin.
1/21
After graduating from school, Geert dreamed of traveling around the world. He went to Israel and volunteered in an agricultural community known as moshav in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. After saving some money, he also traveled extensively...
2/21
...to the neighboring Arab countries, calling them "magnificent countries" but also "chaotic". After returning home from Israel, he claimed to be having a "special feeling of solidarity" towards the country. Since then, he's visited Israel over 40 times.
3/21
After working in the health insurance industry for a while, Geert got interested in politics. He started writing speeches for the Netherlands' People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), after which he became parliamentary assistant to the party leader Frits Bolkestein.
4/21
Bolkestein was the first Dutch politician to talk about the consequences of mass immigration of Muslims for Dutch society, which Geert seemed to admire greatly. Wilders copied Bolkestein's confrontational speaking style and his anti-immigration rhetoric.
5/21
After becoming VVD's public spokesman in 2002, he became well-known for his criticism of Islamic extremism. He also resisted Turkey's entry to EU. Due to this, he was expelled from the VVD parliamentary party, only to form his own, Party for Freedom or PVV for short.
6/21
In 2005, Wilders published his political manifesto, suggesting changes like a ban on Islamic headwear in public, closing of all doors for asylum seekers, stop on enlargement of EU, ban on Islamic schools, and deportation of criminals with dual citizenship.
7/21
In 2014 elections for the EU Parliament, PVV received four seats & tried to form a new parliamentary group together with France's Front National. This coalition was then joined by Italy's Lega Nord & Austria's FPÖ. Each of these parties have had close ties to the Kremlin.
8/21
In Oct 2023, investigative journalism platform Follow the Money (@FTM_eu) published an article by @LaurensGR92 about Wilders' and PVV's connections to the Kremlin. The story was based on leaked documents that were allegedly hacked by a Ukrainian hacker group.
9/21
It exposed various collaborations between Russian officials and PVV members, and most of this was coordinated through the Russian Peace Foundation,a pro-Kremlin propaganda organization of the right-wing populist Parliamentarian Leonid Slutsky. The hacked documents showed,..
10/21
...that Slutsky and his foundation have influenced and bribed Western politicians and decision-makers for at least ten years. These people were invited to election observation missions, events promoting "traditional values", conferences and anti-NATO and anti-EU events.
11/21
The leaks also show that Wilders and PVV have tried to conceal its ties with the Kremlin. In one of the leaked e-mails from 2016, Wilders demanded that the general public would not see the Russian guests present at a meeting of European sister parties.
12/21
This collaboration was also evident from Wilders' and PVV's comments. In 2016, Wilders described Vladimir Putin as a "true patriot" and an ally in the war against Islamic extremism. In the same year, Geert opposed the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine.
13/21
In 2017, Geert claimed that there was "hysterical Russophobia" in the Dutch government and that he wanted to counter this. This was after The Dutch Safety Board had issued its final report on the downing of MH17, concluding the crash was caused by a Russian Buk system.
14/21
In 2018, he traveled to Russia and met with several senior Russian officials in the Duma. Before his trip, he tweeted "Russia. Moscow. Duma. Stop the Russiaphobia. It's time for Realpolitik. Partnership instead of enmity!" His trip was criticized harshly by the relatives...
15/21
...of Dutch victims of the MH17 disaster, blaming Wilders for disregarding the Kremlin's involvement in the tragedy. On the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022, he tweeted "Do not let Dutch households pay the price for a war that is not ours."
16/21
Wilders' PVV supported a (unsuccessful) motion to declare Dutch neutrality in Feb 2022 and to end sanctions on Russia in June 2022. He justified this by the rising inflation and the European energy crisis, completely disregarding Russia's genocidal war in Ukraine.
17/21
Later in 2022, Wilders and PVV condemned the invasion, but strongly argued against military aid to Ukraine. Recently, in one of the last debates before the recent Dutch election, Geert stated that he would not support sending Ukraine more weapon.
18/21
Does Wilders' win mean that the Netherlands will stop their aid to Ukraine? Probably not. They got 35 out of 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament, and PVV will have hard time making it to the government without watering down their political manifesto:
As a nation, the Dutch are overwhelmingly in favor of arming Ukraine. They were one of the first countries to promise F-16's to Ukraine, and even donated Ukraine tanks even though they don't even own any.
20/21
We should always respect the results of a democratic elections, but the Dutch election is still a wake up call for the whole of Europe - pro-Kremlin political parties have been extremely successful in EU and NATO countries like Hungary, Slovakia & now in the Netherlands.
21/21
I have paused personal donations for now, please support @U24_gov_ua by donating to the #HopakChallenge and sending me the receipt:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.
1/24
Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.
2/24
Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.
1/23
Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.
2/23
One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.
1/20
The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.
2/20
From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.
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.
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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!").
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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.