Thread by @P_Kallioniemi

In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an Irish social media personality and propagandist, Chay Bowes (@BowesChay). He's best-known for his collaboration with a Russian SVR operative @Dpol_un, and for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda while working as a correspondent for RT.

1/20

For years, Bowes was looking for his place in this world, trying his wings as a gunshop owner and health insurance middle manager. At some point, he did some online studies so that he can put up "MA in strategic studies" in his bio to gain some credibility.

2/20

For some years, Chay has claimed to be an "investigative journalist". In 2021, Chay, businessman Paddy Cosgrave and few others launched an Irish political news website called The Ditch. It was funded by Cosgrave, and Chay was one of the three main shareholders.

3/20

Bowes' buddy Cosgrave is also the founder of the annual technology conference called Web Summit. Paddy platformed Chay at the conference, and strongly defended him on Twitter in Jan 2022, stating that Chay being pro-Kremlin is nothing but a "conspiracy theory".

4/20

Cosgrave also invited The Grayzone boys over to Web Summit after the full-scale war broke out in 2022, but eventually cancelled their attendance after strong protests. Eventually, Bowes faded away from The Ditch and moved to Moscow to work as a...

5/20

..correspondent (read: propagandist) for RT. In Oct 2023, after commenting on the Israel-Hamas war, Cosgrave was forced to resign as CEO of Web Summit. After this,Web Summit's remaining board members cut all funding to The Ditch & Chay became fully dependent on the Kremlin.

6/20

As Cosgrave was defending his old buddy, Bowes was living a double-life: he had an alternative Twitter account called "Truth Defender", that already in 2014 was spewing out the extremely pro-Kremlin, and most racist, homophobic, conspiratorial content one can imagine.

7/20

Even though already in 2015 "Truth Defender" was calling for Russia "to enter Ukraine and destroy these nazi dogs" and "murdering liars", on the day that Russia launched their full-scale invasion, Chay posted a series of tweets on his main profile, condemning all violence.

8/20

Now Chay, if you're so anti-war, why don't you organize anti-war protests in Moscow? Putting enough domestic pressure on Putin would surely end the war. Because it's not the "profit-fueled neo-liberal hegemony", as you refer to the West, that attacked Ukraine. It's Russia.

9/20

Anyway, like so many failed journalists who can't manage to land a job in Europe, Chay moved to Moscow where he was quickly employed by the Kremlin's biggest propaganda factory. His main job at RT is to bash the West and at the same time seem relatively professional.

10/20

Listening to Bowes spout about Ukraine is very similar to listening to any other pro-Kremlin mouthpiece. For example, he claims that the 2014 Revolution of Dignity was a coup orchestrated by the Nuland gang, which led to a "far-right regime" taking over Ukrainian politics.

11/20

Like his propagandist fellow @aaronjmate, Chay likes to share a made-up version of the Odesa fire of 2014, leaving out the fact that the fire department failed to act accordingly and the fire chief later fled to Crimea where he got a well-paying job:
12/20

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1704058527864569958

He spread conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer's crazy theory about a US neo-Nazi Kent McLellan fighting in Ukraine. The story was quickly debunked by @bellingcat and others, and most people saw through Loomer's crude photoshop edits of McLellan's photos.

13/20

In one of his most disgusting takes (and there are many!), Bowes claimed on RT that the Christchurch mass shooter Brenton Tarrant was "trained by Ukrainian neo-Nazis", a claim without a shred of real evidence. Who comes up with this vile garbage? It's @M_Simonyan, isn't it?
14/20

He also sees Nazis absolutely everywhere BUT in Russia. Chay, any thoughts on openly neo-Nazi Russian figures like Alexey Milchakov,Dmitry Rogozin,Pavel Gubarev & Yan Petrovsky? As an "unbiased journalist", you should probably have some sort of neutral take on these people.
15/20

Due to his online course in strategic studies,he provided a thorough analysis on how Russia in 2022 retreated from both Kherson & Kharkiv in "good order" & how Ukrainians allegedly lost 20 000 men while recapturing the former.He's also called Russian leadership "pragmatic".
16/20

Then there's of course the Kremlin propaganda "classics" like bringing up alleged corruption, "genocide in Donbas", jailing of "journalists", banning the "opposition", and refusing to hold elections during war time (which is forbidden by the constitution).

17/20

Bowes is a well-known guest on many vatnik podcasts. Right after the full-scale war begun, he was guest on @georgegalloway's Kremlin-sponsored Sputnik show. He also appeared on the Donbas Devushka podcast, hosted by a US-citizen who claimed to be a "poor girl from Lugansk".
18/20

Like the Kremlin stooges @aaronjmate and @maxblumenthal, Chay was also invited to speak at the UNSC on behalf of Russia by the SVR operative, @Dpol_un, where he was introduced as a "scholar specialising in small arms and munitions" and as a "famous journalist".

19/20

And Chay, I understand - you sold your soul to an authoritarian regime and now you simply have to produce them propaganda so you have some food on the table.

Because Russia is pretty much the only place (or maybe China later!) where you're not ridiculed and despised.

20/20

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Was it something I said, Chay? I thought we were having a nice conversation!