In today's Holiday #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American social media personality and fifth columnist, @Zagonel85. He's best-known for his strong anti-Ukraine rhetoric, and hosting Spaces on X featuring prominent vatniks like convicted sex offender Scott Ritter.
1/18
This investigation was done in collaboration with @UnintelAgency.
Looking at the description, you can clearly see that he's just your typical social media vatnik, spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda.
What you probably didn't know is that he's also a Tolstoy.
2/18
Let's start with the rather interesting bit - Mr. Tolstoy is, as a matter of fact, the great grandnephew of author Leo Tolstoy, and son of the late Count Vladimir Tolstoy. Vladimir was influential figure in Russian emigree circles in Washington DC until his death in 2020.
3/18
Count Tolstoy helped with the development of the St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral, and organized the Annual Russian Ball popular in the "White Russian" (exiled Tsarists) community.
The Tsarist community are by and large not fans of Communists or Putin's fascist regime.
4/18
Tolstoy even worked briefly an Office Manager at the Cathedral where his father was Sub-Deacon, a job his father no doubt got for him.
Incidentally, the Cathedral is currently collecting donations for Ukraine.
5/18
Tolstoy really doesn’t like the "decadent West" and its values, often complaining about LGBT+ issues and calling Ukraine’s supporters "f**gots" when the identity of @vonClownsewitz was revealed.
Incidentally, Tolstoy's brother regularly attends Pride parades.
6/18
For obvious reasons, Tolstoy has been extremely hostile against many published investigations conducted by @UnintelAgency and yours truly, saying that there's "a cold place in hell" for us. In his case, he probably wants to protect the family name.
7/18
It probably goes without saying, but Tolstoy is very anti-Ukraine. Interestingly, his views contrast with public statements made by The Russian Ball of Washington.
But we all should be entitled for our own opinion, even when it has no basis in reality.
8/18
He's claimed that "there's zero evidence of Russian genocide [in Ukraine]", and that Bucha was fabricated by the SBU. According to him, the shoot down of MH17 was "propaganda", and that Euromaidan and the following Revolution of Dignity were an "illegal coup".
9/18
He's also supported various false claims, including the one where Zelenskyy allegedly bought a 5 million USD villa in Egypt. Then there are the "Ukrainian Nazis" - according to Tolstoy, Ukraine is simply full of them!
10/18
In addition, he's called the January 6 Capitol Attack a "democrat BlueAnon conspiracy theory", said that "white supremacist militias aren't real", and that the West is constantly attempting to "provoke Russia". He also thinks Zelenskyy is a drug addict.
11/18
According to Tolstoy, Ukrainian soldiers are "holed up" in civilian buildings, and that this strategy was actually recommended to the Ukrainians by NATO. Apparently, the Russians can do no harm and have not targeted any civilian targets in Ukraine, Syria or Chechnya.
12/18
As is the case with many of these extremely hostile accounts, there's an infinite amount of examples like this. In addition, he's made fun of Ukrainian PoW's, compared Hamas with Zelenskyy, and used plenty of ethnic slurs against Ukrainians.
13/18
Tolstoy's also commented on conflict in the Middle East, calling Oct 7 terrorist attack a "military action against Israel". He's also called Israel a "Russian cuck".
14/18
There have been some hints about Tolstoy's connections to Russian power figures: he once even claimed to have met Putin himself, continuing that he has "extensive Russian connections". These family connections have been to Tolstoy's personal advantage,...
15/18
...although given he lived with his mother until recently, it doesn't seem he took advantage of them. His employment history contains a series of internships followed by an attempt at launching an app. These days, he averages ~17 hours on social media.
16/18
Most of this time is spent on X's Spaces, where he hangs out with like-minded people like the decadent Westerner and sexual deviant Scott Ritter, X's biggest liar @ShaykhSulaiman, neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, and Malaysian US expert and RT columnist @stillgray.
17/18
To conclude: Tolstoy is a great example of a "kid" (to be fair he's almost 40) who tries too hard to distance themselves from their parents and their heritage, and hangs out with fellow communists like @vonClownsewitz.
Ironically, he's also a Lockheed Martin share owner.
18/18
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, we’ll introduce an American conspiracy theorist, podcaster & antisemite, Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO). She’s best known for spreading conspiracy theories, attacking Ukraine, promoting pro-Kremlin BS, and becoming a favorite of Russian state media.
1/21
Candace started her career as an intern at Vogue magazine but later moved into political commentary. Her early career focused on criticizing Republicans, calling their antics “bat-shit crazy.” In 2016, her blog even published an article about Trump’s penis size.
2/21
That same year, she launched a doxxing website called SocialAutopsy. In response, people began posting Owens’s personal information online. During the controversy, she gained support from figures such as @Nero and @Cernovich. And just like that, she became a conservative.
In today’s Wumao Soup, we’ll talk about Taiwan, the sovereign country the Chinese Communist Party insists is not a country, but constantly threatens to invade just like a country, while the “antiwar” crowd is eagerly encouraging them to start that war, endangering millions.
1/20
Taiwan is a country, a state. It has its own territory, government, army, police, courts, taxes, passports and elections, just like any other country.
The only difference? Its neighbor, imperialist China, wants to invade it, and other countries try to please the big bully.
2/20
Taiwan’s official name is the Republic of China, or ROC. The ROC was founded in 1912, after the fall of the Qing dynasty. The People’s Republic of China, or PRC, was founded by democidal dictator Mao Zedong and his communist party, in 1949, after fighting against the ROC.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll introduce Russian propaganda operations around military targets like Starobilsk. For over a decade, the Kremlin has used similar strategies, combining crisis actors, “independent journalists” and fabricated evidence.
1/13
First, let’s go back to 2014. Russia funded separatist groups and sent its mercenaries to Donbas, which led to the creation of two puppet states, Donetsk and Luhansk, governed by Russian propagandists and soldiers like Igor Girkin.
The fake genocide was touted as one of the main reasons for Russia’s war during the early stages of the full-scale invasion, and the claim was made even by Putin himself. Before his mutiny, late Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said that all this was fabricated bullshit.
In this 9th Debunk of the Day, we’ll discuss “legitimate military targets”. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, with no declaration of war, hiding behind a “special military operation”. Yet vatniks & useful idiots pretend Russia has any legitimate or lawful targets in Ukraine.
1/8
Russia started the war in 2014 by seizing Crimea with unmarked soldiers, “little green men”. Russians have been waging an undeclared, illegal war with endless war crimes ever since, whether it’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children with genocidal intent…
… the concentration camps for Ukrainians under occupation, conscripting Ukrainians from occupied territories, or the terrorist, deliberate bombing of civilians, including their infamous “double tap” strikes.
So no, Russia does not have any “legitimate targets” in Ukraine.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce Hasan Piker, a Turkish-American streamer and millionaire. He’s best known for his champagne socialism, rabid criticism of the US and Israel, support for the Soviet Union and for Chinese and Russian invasions, and for mistreating his dog.
1/20
Born in 1991, Piker grew up in a privileged and well-connected environment. His father held senior roles at big corporations and his uncle, Cenk Uygur, is the founder of The Young Turks media network. He graduated cum laude from Rutgers, a top-tier university in New Jersey.
2/20
His main activity and primary source of income consists of hours-long livestreams on Twitch where he comments on news and yells at videos. He also keeps his dog in place the whole time with a shock collar.
What you see happening here is coordinated strategic communication by the Trump cult. Elon’s baby mama and former MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair explained this ecosystem in a long video. They have built platforms where people can find narratives to spread and get paid for doing so.
Even though the system technically breaks the platform's ToS, this is perfectly fine for @nikitabier and the rest of the X crew, because Elon pays their salaries and this is part of his election interference machinery.
If you wanna know how the system works, read this:
Here’s Ashley’s video, where she explains how the system works. She was immediately attacked by various MAGA actors, which suggests that what she said hit a nerve.