In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll intoduce an Italian propagandist, Vittorio Nicola Rangeloni. He’s best-known for producing pro-Kremlin propaganda from Donbas for the Italian-speaking audience, and for breaking the Geneve conventions by interviewing prisoners of war.
1/19
Rango grew up in Lecco, Italy. His mother was Russian, and because of this young Vittorio was told about the virtues and wonders of Russkiy Mir and the superiority of the communist system.
2/19
In his early 20s, Rango was yet to discover his role in this world. He enjoyed traveling, and decided to take his humble savings of 3000 EUR to relocate to his dream destination in the newly formed and completely made-up Donetsk People’s Republic.
3/19
While there, he met Janus Putkonen, a Finnish master vatnik/propagandist in charge of now-closed Doni News and the largest Finnish pro-Kremlin fake news blog MV-Lehti. Janus took the young Italian under his wing, showing him the ropes of the daily "journalism" he was doing.
4/19
It’s worth noting, that Putkonen’s connection to the Kremlin was confirmed through the leaked e-mail dump Egorova Leaks, which showed that Janus received around 1200 monthly for his low-quality propaganda. More on Janus Putkonen here:
5/19
Vittorio, aged 24, aspired a similar path and got into reporting himself. Vito would later state the militia had enough soldiers, probably due to the generous funding coming from the Kremlin, but that there weren’t enough "journalists" to cover the Kremlin’s lies.
6/19
Both Putkonen and Rangeloni were featured in VICE’s 2017 documentary about rave parties in DPR, in which they could freely spread false narratives about the culprits of the war (or the civil war, as they referred to it). Both of course claimed that Ukraine was the aggressor.
7/19
During his trip, Rango also met the DPR "Prime Minister" and terrorist Alexander Zakharchenko. Zakharchenko was notorious for his human right abuses, stating in an interview that he "won’t feel sorry for the civilians or anyone else". In 2018, a bomb in a café took his life.
8/19
Since 2014, quite a few Italians had joined the war in Ukraine, where the split was about 50/50 on the Ukrainian and Russian side. Rango was the go-to-guy for those who wanted to join the Kremlin’s side. Many of the volunteers were part of the Italian far-right movement.
9/19
Rangeloni set up his own "news agency" called LNR Today-Italia, that covered news from the puppet states of Donetsk and Luhansk. It was organized information warfare targeted for the Italian-speaking audience. Soon after this, Ukrainian and Italian intelligence services...
10/19
..started to take interest in the young Italian. In 2021, he was awarded with "One of the most important honours" of the Donbas. This strategy of awarding made-up medals is commonly used by the Kremlin and even the Defense Minister Shoigu has made up hundreds of medals.
11/19
Politically, Rango seems to be all over the place. While he has strong communist sympathies, he’s also leaning towards far-right ideologies, thus confirming the famous horseshoe theory. Some have suggested that his Kolovrat tattoo might be connected to Russian Rusich group.
12/19
Rangeloni, like his fellow UK propagandist Graham Philips, interviewed a prisoner of war against their will, breaking the Geneve convention. I would suggest everyone to report the video on YouTube:
13/19
In 2023, Rango was producing propaganda around Mariupol, and accidentally showed bodies lying on the streets of the city. Naturally, this caught the interest of Ukrainian officials, who downloaded the report as potential evidence for Russian war crimes. Oops!
14/19
As a propagandist Rango lacks any creativity, and he’s just parroting the Kremlin’s classic fake narratives such as the "8 years of genocide in Donbas". He’s also calling the conflict a "civil war".
These messages are then packaged and spread for the Italian audiences.
15/19
In Italy, he sympathizes with Lega, a political party that had a strong alliance with Putin’s United Russia before the full-scale invasion.
In 2019, Buzzfeed revealed that the Kremlin attempted to funnel millions to Lega to support their political ambitions.
16/19
Rangeloni runs a Youtube and Telegram Channel, he’s active on Vkontakte & has even written a book. Rango's also a quite well-known figure in the Italian far-right circles, and spreading Russian propaganda to these marginalized groups is a common Kremlin strategy.
17/19
To conclude, Rango is a pro-Kremlin propagandist serving the typical bullshit propaganda for Italian-speaking audiences. Together with the likes of Janus Putkonen, Graham Phillips and Patrick Lancaster, he produces biased "journalism" for Russia.
18/19
Now here’s a little action point for anyone who thinks that Rango’s awful propaganda shouldn’t be funded - you can report his PayPal through this link:
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.
1/5
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!").
2/5
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.