In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Russian scientist, businesswoman and former acrobatic dancer, Katerina Tikhonova née Putina. She's best-known for being the daughter of Vladimir Putin, and for making hefty profits after investing in AI and drone technologies.
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Katerina was born in Dresden, East Germany, but some years later, after the collapse of the Communist East German government, they moved to Leningrad (soon to be St. Petersburg). Putin then started working for former professor & soon to be mayor of Leningrad,Anatoly Sobchak.
2/14
Later, during Russia's violent gang wars, Katerina and her sister were sent to Germany to safety, and were safeguarded by Putin's old friend, Matthias Warnig.
Perhaps due to the babysitting, Warnig was later given a big role in the Nord Stream pipeline project.
3/14
Allegedly large part of Tikhonova's wealth came from his first husband, oligarch Kirill Shamalov. Their combined assets were worth around 2 billion USD in 2013. According to Bloomberg, the couple separated around 2015.
4/14
In the midst of the 2022 Russian mobilization and the Great Exodus, Katerina's dad called those who leave Russia and turn to the West "scum and traitors to their homeland," continuing that "their mentality is there, not here, with our people".
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This hasn't stopped Katerina from traveling around Europe, though. Between 2015 and 2020, she traveled to Munich (and other places, including Sweden) more than 50 times with an entourage of allegedly armed bodyguard - unnoticed by German authorities.
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On most of her trips, she was meeting her boyfriend Igor Zelensky – one of Russia's most successful ballet dancers and former director of the Bavarian State Ballet. He has had a big role in promoting Russia's war in Ukraine, and he even appeared alongside Putin in Crimea.
7/14
Tikhonova's hobbies include acrobatic rock'n'roll. In the video below, she's dancing in a dance competition in Krakow, a month after the annexation of Crimea.
Moscow even built a 20 million USD rock'n'roll dance school, probably to honor her legacy and "achievements".
8/14
It appears that Putin has been grooming Katerina into success - for example, she's the director of Innopraktika, a $1.7 billion development project to create a science center at Moscow State University. She got her PhD in 2019, but it's not clear if she wrote the...
9/14
... dissertation by herself or if it was completed by someone else, like his father's. In Jul 2022, Tikhonova was awarded with a job as a co-chairman in a powerful business lobby that's trying to beat the impact of international sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
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In Nov 2023, opposition channel Vjorstka and The Moscow Times reported that Innopraktika, led by Tikhonova, had bought 10% share of Russian drone manufacturer Geoskan. Geoskan produces drones for Russia's genocidal war against Ukraine & they are a lucrative business.
11/14
At the early stages of the full-scale invasion, Russia was heavily dependent on Iranian Shahed suicide drones, but Putin's daughter investing into national companies is a clear sign that they have managed to ramp up their own production of drones.
12/14
Starting in Nov 2023, Katerina started leading Russia's efforts to expand their influence in Africa.
Due to her involvement in Russian defense industry and her family ties to Putin, Tikhonova has been sanctioned by the US, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the EU.
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As is tradition, Tikhonova has become extremely wealthy with his father's help and through Russian kleptocracy. As usual, she's also been keen on spending time in the "decadent West", like so many other wealthy Russians who apparently got bored of the glorious Russkiy Mir.
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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.