In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Finnish academic and political scientist, Heikki Patomäki. He's best-known for his euroskepticism, anti-NATO stance, and for his complete misunderstanding of Vladimir Putin and his regime.
1/16
Patomäki currently works at the Helsinki University as a Professor of Political Science, and he's also a supervisor of the Doctoral Programme in Political, Societal and Regional Change.
2/16
Previously, he was involved in politics as a member of a Finnish left-wing party Vasemmistoliitto, but resigned in May 2022 after Finland applied to join NATO.
3/16
Patomäki started his political career in the right-wing Youth of the National Coalition Party, but eventually shifted towards the environmentalist greens with strong emphasis on advocating peace.
(text translated from Finnish to English)
4/16
In 2007 he published a book "Uusliberalismi Suomessa" ("Neoliberalism in Finland"), in which he compared neoliberalism to fascism. Incidentally, in his book Patomäki called former Finnish PM Paavo Lipponen, who was involved in the development of Nord Stream, a neoliberal.
5/16
In Sep 2014, he wrote an op-ed on Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, in which he criticised the sanctions set against Russia after the annexation of Crimea. He also blamed NATO expansion and EU's collaboration offers to Ukraine for the conflict.
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In 2015, he stated that Putin's Russia "completely lacks Hitler's racist ideology, which led to genocide." In retrospect, we can clearly see that Professor Patomäki was dead wrong on this.
7/16
In the same interview, he also stated that Russia under Putin is "still a liberal democracy that respects human rights". At this point, Putin had already murdered and imprisoned several journalists in Russia and assassinated many of its own citizens abroad.
8/16
To me it seems like Patomäki observes geopolitics through a Mearsheimerian lense of offensive realism, where empires have their "spheres of influence," and smaller, sovereign nations just have to obey their "masters":
In an interview on 5 Jan 2024, Patomäki stated that peace in Ukraine can only be achieved if they give up their goals of joining NATO. He also stated that the regions invaded by Russia should be controlled by the UN, and that their fate should be decided through...
10/16
..diplomacy & by holding a referendum. By his view, Ukraine's willingness to join NATO was the "red line" that started the war.He also repeated the myth over the West "sabotaging the peace talks",even though Russia controlled large area of Ukraine & had no desire for peace.
11/16
Accord to Patomäki, Ukraine can't win even if they got full support from the West, even though Ukraine has been defending bravely against Russia's meat waves for almost 700 days now, and even re-captured several areas like Kharkiv and Kherson.
12/16
He admits, that even if there is an agreement on truce, there are no guarantees for permanent peace. Many have speculated, that Russia would use this time to re-group and eventually attack Ukraine again.
As a reminder, there was a SECOND Chechen War, after all.
13/16
Finally, the Professor criticises the Finnish discussion culture revolving around the Russo-Ukrainian War. He claims that the "public debate in Finland is not in a very good place at the moment," suggesting that you're not allowed to "disagree with the mainstream opinion".
14/16
In my view, Mr. Patomäki just has difficulties to see Russia as it is: an authoritarian and genocidal empire trying to expand its borders slowly but surely:
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the Wagner Group, its founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, and the mutiny they started on 23 Jun 2023. The event marked the climax of the Wagner Group–Russian MoD conflict, and finally led to the deaths of Prigozhin and Utkin.
1/22
Wagner has been used in many conflicts around the world, but they came to global prominence during the war in Donbas in 2014-2015. Wagnerites helped the Donbas separatists fight against the Ukrainians during the conflict, which helped Putin to “outsource” the insurrection.
2/22
The group doesn’t have any central ideology, but many of its members and leaders have ties to various neo—Nazi movements in Russia. For example, Wagner leader Dmitry Utkin had several Nazi symbols tattooed on his body. Neo—nazi group Rusich has also fights as part of Wagner.
3/22
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an Amsterdam-based propaganda channel, Bonanza Media (@bonanzamedia2). It’s best-known for producing & spreading online pro-Kremlin propaganda videos while closely coordinating & collaborating with the Russian intelligence agency GRU.
1/19
Russian intelligence has been extremely active in the Netherlands for a long time. For example in 2018, four GRU agents were caught while trying to hack into OPCW,an organization that monitors the use of chemical weapons. In addition, the International Criminal Court (ICC)…
2/19
…and the MH17 investigation have become targets for the Russian intelligence and propaganda operations. These operations are often complemented with “investigative journalism” media outlets, that often echo the Kremlin’s propaganda and disinformation.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll talk about the recent EU elections and what are their implications for both the Kremlin and Ukraine. Right-wing political parties, some pro-Kremlin, won a lot of seats around Europe, and this result can also change the EU’s stance on Ukraine.
1/19
But before we start, I want to promote a truck fundraiser I'm doing together with the fantastic @ArturRehi and @69thSB.
Our goal is 20 000 USD, and you can contribute to this important fundraiser here:
EU’s support of Ukraine is essential for their survival against genocidal Russia. So far,this support has been delayed mostly by Orban’s Hungary (& to some degree, Fico’s Slovakia). Now, this support will probably be challenged by many new members of the European Parliament.
3/19
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss a specific propaganda/disinformation that the Kremlin likes to use – antisemitism. I also talk about how the Russian society itself has become riddled with antisemitism & how this has led to a decrease in Jewish population in the country.
1/19
Russian antisemitism works on many levels, and their narratives vary depending whether they’re targeting a local audience or people in Europe and the US. For example for the latter, Russia attempts to create a false narrative of Ukraine being an antisemitic “Nazi state”.
2/19
But before diving deeper, let’s look at a survey data of Russians in 2023: Nearly 30 million Russians harbour antisemitic attitudes, and 15% of those surveyed believed that “Jews were responsible for most of the world’s wars.” 38% think that the Jews have...
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian media personality and propagandist, Diana Panchenko (@Panchenko_X). She’s best-known for betraying her own country by peddling anti-Zelenskyy and anti-Ukraine propaganda and disinformation for the Kremlin.
1/22
Panchenko was born in 1988 in the Mykolaev Oblast in Ukrainian SSR in 1988. She studied publishing and editing at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and later graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree in law.
2/22
After graduating, Diana worked briefly for the news site . Between 2010 and 2015, Panchenko was a presenter for KyivTV, but she found her true calling as a pro-Kremlin propagandist after she was hired by a national “news channel” called NewsOne.