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Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
@P_Kallioniemi
Mar 30 • 15 tweets • 9 min read • Read on X
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In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce confirmed cases where the Kremlin has funded or otherwise influenced European politicians & parties in order to gain their support with issues like conducting business with Russian businesses, aid to Ukraine & sanctions against Russia.

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On 28 Mar 2024,the Czech Republic & Poland exposed a Kremlin-backed propaganda network that paid European politicians & spread anti-Ukraine narratives on media. According to the investigators, the Voice of Europe website was used as a vehicle to pay politicians.

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But first of all, let's look at how to motivate people to work on behalf of a foreign agent. I have previously written about the acronym MICE, which translates to Money, Ideology, Compromise and Ego. More on this here:



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There are many journalists, political parties and individual politicians who have provenly received funding from the Kremlin or from the CCP. One of the most famous examples is the Latvian MEP, Tatjana Zdanoka exposed by the @InsiderEng:



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In Belgium, two politicians from the far-right party Vlaams Belang, Filip Dewinter and Frank Creyelman, have received payments from Chinese spies.

Vlaams Belang is currently polling around 28% for the upcoming elections:



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In Germany, another far-right party, AfD, has extremely close relations with the Kremlin, and many of their politicians have received gifts and free luxury trips to Russia. They have also received funding and instructions from their masters:



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A former German journalist, Hubert Seipel also received funding through shell companies for providing positive coverage of Vladimir Putin. Most of the "macho imagery" of him comes from Seipel's work.

More on Hubert:



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Austria is a hotbed for Russian espionage. Recently, @InsiderEng revealed that the Wirecard conman Jan Marsalek has been working for GRU for a decade,
and for example gave confidential documents to Austrian far-right party FPÖ:



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In Italy, an aide to Italy's then deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini held secret talks with Russian officials to pump Russian oil money to Italian far-right party Lega Nord:



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In France, former MEP, Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, organized loans from Russia to Marine Le Pen's National Rally party. Schaffhauser and other pro-Kremlin politicians are currently being investigated by the French Intelligence.



10/14

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In the Netherlands, there have been speculations on FvD leader Thierry Baudet being paid by the Kremlin. His party member and MEP, Marcel de Graaff is also being investigated for his Russian connections:



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In Bulgaria, the Russian state paid politicians, famous journalists, analysts and political scientists 2000 EUR monthly for their pro-Kremlin takes on both traditional and social media.

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And of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. Most of these covert operations will never be exposed, and there are probably hundreds of politicians and policymakers who receive cash and crypto payments from Russia, Iran and the CCP.

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Naturally, there are also politicians and propagandists who were funded more or less openly by RT, Sputnik and other Kremlin mouthpieces. Some of these include Nigel Farage and George "The Cat" Galloway.





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Find us also on other socials:

instagram.com/vatniksoup/
youtube.com/@TheSoupCentra…

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jun 26
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.

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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.

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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

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Read 23 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jun 20
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.
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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)…
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…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.

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Read 20 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jun 14
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.

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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:

2/19artursarmy.com/contribute/reh…
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
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Read 20 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jun 14
None of these clowns (Wallace, Zdanoka and Daly) were elected to the European Parliament.

It's a bad day for authoritarian regime apologists around the world.

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Zdanoka:



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Wallace:



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Read 4 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jun 12
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.
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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”.

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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...

3/19
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Read 20 tweets
Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jun 5
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.

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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.

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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.

3/22 Gazeta.ua

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Read 22 tweets

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