In today´s #vatniksoup REBREW, I´ll introduce a Hungarian lawyer and politician, Viktor Orbán (@PM_ViktorOrban). He´s best-known for turning Hungary into an authoritarian state, and for cooperating with other authoritarian regimes like the Kremlin, the CCP and Iran.
1/24
Orbán has been Hungary´s Prime Minister since 2010, and under his leadership the country has basically become the first nondemocracy in the EU. Orbán himself has described Hungary as an "illiberal state", and he´s used the Kremlin playbook to create it.
2/24
He created a nationwide right-wing media network and interfering with independent media has plummeted Hungary´s Press Freedom Index into 67th place, one of the worst in the EU. The state has also spied on Hungarian journalists by using the infamous Pegasus spyware.
3/24
After taking over the media, Orbán started working on the court system, firing anyone he saw as a threat. Later he reshaped the voting system to favor his party Fidesz, a process that´s often referred to as "gerrymandering", giving Fidesz supermajority in Parliament.
4/24
Some have suggested that Orbán´s closeness to Russia and Putin stems from his early days as a politician, when he allegedly received cash from Russian mafia boss Semyon Mogilevich. The incident was allegedly recorded and then passed over to Russian secret services.
5/24
Orban´s fans in the West see him as a Christian conservative who´s standing up to "woke" European bureaucrats. But when taking a closer look at his policies in the last 14 years, we quickly see that his government´s most consistent policy direction has been embracing China.
6/24
His (alleged) Christian conservatism has also made him a rock star of US conservative politics & he was recently interviewed by the infamous pro-Kremlin conspiracy theorist,@tuckercarlson. Orbán also hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference.
7/24
This year´s CPAC featured many prominent conservative speakers, including Orbán himself, Prime Minister of Georgia, PVV leader Geert Wilders, Jack "Agent Poso" Posobiec and Trump lackey @VivekGRamaswamy, who has incidentally named China as the biggest adversary of the US.
8/24
Usually, authoritarian states tend to become allies and do business together. Since 2009, Orbán has been very close with the Kremlin and Putin, but what people often forget is that he´s been doing close cooperation with the Chinese leadership at least since 2010.
9/24
Already back in 2011, Orbán was praising the CCP regime because it "was not dominated by that Western, liberal idea that fiddling with the books is the way to get the best economic indicators." After this, Chinese investments started pouring into Hungary.
10/24
By 2022, China had become the largest foreign investor in Hungary. For example, Huawei´s largest logistics center in Europe is located in Hungary, and China is financing the Hungary-Serbia railway, the Kaposvar solar power station, and the Debrecen battery factory.
11/24
Interestingly, the Trump administration banned Huawei & many of its subsidiaries from the US due to a trade war, espionage and other national security threats. Canadian authorities even arrested Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou at the request of the US in 2018.
12/24
While meeting Trump in the US in Mar 2024, Orbán also met with Heritage Foundation leadership and @VivekGRamaswamy. Ironically, Heritage (and Ramaswamy) calls Orbán´s closest ally, the CCP, "the most persistent and consequential threat facing the American people today".
13/24
For Hungary, the CCP is a great source of funding without any string, like advocating human rights, attached. But like with Russian energy imports, it also increases Hungary´s dependency on China. This cooperation and money flow can also create a "debt trap" for Hungary.
14/24
As they´ve done in many other countries, the CCP is also attempting to promote the Chinese culture within Hungary. Hungary hosts five CCP-funded language and cultural centers, known as "Confucius Institutes," and they´ve also attempted to build a...
15/24
..Shanghai Fudan University campus in Budapest. This sparked large protests, & the Budapest mayor even announced that the streets around the university would be renamed to commemorate human rights abuses by the CCP. The university was labeled as a "CCP influence operation."
16/24
Orbán has also invited the Chinese police to patrol in Hungary. Setting up Chinese police stations in the EU is of course alarming, not only because the CCP has a "well-documented history of harassing and intimidating overseas Chinese citizens and diaspora members".
17/24
And it appears that the CCP already has leverage on Hungary - In 2016, Hungary blocked an EU statement on China´s maritime claims in the South China Sea, and vetoed an EU statement condemning CCP´s security law in Hong Kong.
18/24
In Feb 2024, Hungary again blocked EU´s sanctions package against Russia. But according to diplomatic sources, the package wasn´t blocked because of Orbán´s friendship with Russia, but because the sanctions also targeted four Chinese companies.
19/24
For Orbán, all this seems to be a straightforward transaction: a source of money and influence as China’s leading partner in Europe. In the meantime, Chinese companies can build factories in the heart of Europe with little apparent oversight.
20/24
This deal has led to Hungary becoming the CCP’s most valuable ally in Europe, with economic ties evolving into common security interests. As Hungary is also a NATO member, this has raised concerns on issues such as intelligence sharing.
21/24
This is also the reason why the CCP leader Xi Jinping will be meeting Orbán during his Eurotrip. Due to dire economic conditions, Hungary is desperately seeking for a economic support, which the CCP can of course offer. Xi´s other official visits will be to France & Serbia.
22/24
To conclude, Orbán is a typical politician whose words & actions hardly meet. He´s good friends with the most anti-CCP organizations in the US,while at the same time he´s doing massive deals with China, making himself rich & his country more dependent on this foreign power.
23/24
This has led to a absurd situation, in which Orbán is considered a rock star in the US even though his political decisions and EU voting is undermining the American interests in the geopolitical arena.
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Russian social media personality and vatnik archetype, Mr. G (@Wagnersfamily). He's best-known for sharing the most outrageous Kremlin lies, albeit previously being extremely anti-Putin and Kremlin, even coining the term "vatnik".
1/19
It's worth noting, that G is an extremely irrelevant account and person, but his almost comical descent from an anti-Putin, fully fledged Russian Liberal, to full blown vatnik, who doesn't hesitate to lie and naturally lives outside of Russia, is worth demonstrating.
2/19
In his liberal days G was dedicated to popularizing the vatnik meme. He ran the site together with his friend, and also the @trueVATNIK Twitter account, which went inactive in 2015, but was popular in circles opposed to Putin's imperialist ambitions.
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.
I've actually noticed this trend on TikTok with our videos - they do relatively well on YouTube, Instagram and X, but fail miserably on CCP's spying app. In the second photo you can see views for our videos, on other platforms these ranged from 500 to 120 000.
"TikTok is more focused on entertainment, dance videos and such" - Well, not really. According to a study, account registered as a 13 year old was quickly served with conflict-related content, and the account quickly delved deep into the conflict rabbit hole.
I decided to do a little non-scientific test: I created an account, used VPN to relocate myself to the US, and just watched what the TikTok algorithm offered me. I didn't like or comment any videos and finished every video that was shown. My age was set to 18.
1/4
At first, the algorithm seemed to show me some of the most popular videos on the platform, mostly consisting of cute animals, comedy and babies.
Then, after 30 or so videos, I was shown this video demonstrating the "superiority" of Chinese kindergartens.
2/4
Then, a few more cute animals and a relatively attractive girl dancing. Then, again video about Chinese kindergartens. This time I wanted to see what happens if I interact with the post, and I liked the video.
In today´s #vatniksoup REBREW, I´ll introduce a Canadian propagandist & social media personality, Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate). He´s best-known for whitewashing al-Assad´s & Russia's war crimes in Syria & for denying Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.
1/24
Maté´s biography reads an awful lot like his collaborator @MaxBlumenthal´s. Another failson of a well-to-do and famous father, in this case, of bestselling Canadian pop psychologist Gabor Maté, Aaron similarly fought a losing struggle to make a career in liberal journalism.
2/24
Maté´s personal life is also a bit weird. Records show he was married to a former NPR reporter named @StarleeKine, yet neither he nor Kine have ever publicly acknowledged their marriage on social media,even at the time it took place. Perhaps this is because it also...
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American propagandist and political commentator, Ben Swann (@BenSwann_). He's best-known for spreading conspiracy theories related to 9/11, vaccines & Pizzagate, and for running several Kremlin-funded disinformation channels.
1/20
Homeschooled with nine brothers and sisters, Benny turned out to be a talented young man, earning his Master's degree in history at the age of 16.
He was also working as a youth pastor at his local Baptist church at the age of 15.
2/20
Ben's family was heavily involved in TV, and he also started working for various channels, first as a cameraman and later as an investigative journalist. Eventually he launched his own news segment called Reality Check, in which he promoted libertarian views and Ron Paul.
In today's #vatniksoup REBREW, I'll introduce an American propagandist and social media personality, Max Blumenthal (@maxblumenthal). He's best-known for his great admiration towards authoritarian regimes, and for launching the fake news blog @TheGrayZoneNews.
1/24
Max started his career as a fairly mainstream left-wing journalist, publishing in the New York Times and elsewhere. His father Sydney is a former journalist and distinguished adviser to former US President Bill Clinton. He's an intimate associate to both Bill and Hillary.
2/24
Blumenthal Senior stood a good chance of entering the White House again in 2017, had the presidential election in November 2016 gone a different way. As we know, Russia intervened in that election in every way possible to help Donald Trump win: