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.
1/14
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.
2/14
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:
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
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.
13/14
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.
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.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.
1/21
Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.
2/21
Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.
1/15
Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.
The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.
2/15
The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem: