In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Russian businessman and financier, Yury Kovalchuk. He’s best-known for being a close friend, confidant and "personal banker" of Putin's, and for strongly supporting the Kremlin's genocidal war against Ukraine.
1/21
Kovalchuk was born in 1951 in St. Petersburg. He started his career during the 80s at the Loffe Physico Technical Institute, eventually becoming the institute's first deputy director. But Yury aspired for more & the fall of the iron curtain gave room for his business plans.
2/21
Kovalchuk quickly learned that one didn't have to play fair to become rich in Russia during the 90s. He joined the board of directors of the Joint Ventures Committee, a government body involved with restructuring companies and finding (foreign) partners.
3/21
Yury's first big mission was to restructure the Rossiya Bank. It had played a major role in the coup attempt of 1990, and many KGB & communist leaders had secretly funneled their money there. Kovalchuk then transformed it into a modern vehicle for foreign investment.
4/21
Rossiya Bank also supported Putin's political rise during the 90s, and Kovalchuk was already at that point working from behind the scenes. The two became close, and Kovalchuk's "dacha" outside of St. Petersburg was right next to Putin's.
5/21
In 1996, all residents of the area united their properties under one umbrella collective called "Ozero" ("The Lake"). Putin didn’t forget about his old neighbours, they all got prominent positions after he rose to power in 1999. Kovalchuk first became the director...
6/21
...of the biggest Russian brewery, Baltica. Later he directed Rossiya Bank, where he had a 41% stake. Due to his powerful political connections, Kovalchuk became a household name in Russia's richest list. Forbes ranked him spot 53 in 2008 with an estimated fortune...
7/21
...of close to $2 billion. His wife's fortune was estimated to be around 600 million USD in 2019. Oppostion figures Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov pointed to Kovalchuk's Rossiya Bank in relation to laundering more than 60 billion USD via the Gazprombank to...
8/21
...offshore accounts during 2000-2010. Therefore, Kovalchuk was an essential cog in Putin's organised cronyism. As is tradition, Kovalchuk’s son Boris got a few prominent positions at an early age, as he was appointed as the director of "The Department of National Projects".
9/21
Media is an essential instrument when it comes to solidifying power. For Putin, Kovalchuk has been an essential ally because of his media empire called National Media Group. This company controls many popular TV channels, newspapers, digital media and production studios.
10/21
@anders_aslund has stated that "When people say Russian state television,they really mean Kovalchuk television." The Kremlin together with their cronies have utilized this same media ownership strategy in Ukraine and Georgia.
In 2015, Putin used the Foreign Agents Act to smoke out any dissidents from media companies, after which Kovalchuk's NGM bought channels like CNN Russia and Cartoon Network to their portfolio, further reinforcing his media monopoly.
12/21
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Kovalchuk's media channels have broadcast the most lunatic conspiracy theories and propaganda, ranging from "US-funded bioweapons laboratories" to "Ukrainian Nazi regime".
13/21
In 2021, Kovalchuk acquired the Russian social media platform VKontakte from another oligarch, Alisher Usmanov. This powerful propaganda platform is both an important platform for spreading the Kremlin narratives but also for aggressively collecting data of its users.
14/21
After the takeover, VK fired most of its management, who were then replaced by Kovalchuk's close confidants and relatives. The site has also been actively used for recruiting mercenaries to the meat grinder in Ukraine.
15/21
Some have also speculated that after the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's death, it was Kovalchuk who took over Prigozhin's infamous troll farms. If this is true, it means that these online trolls are now under direct control of the Kremlin.
16/21
Putin and Kovalchuk are extremely close, and journalist Mikhael Zygar considers Yury to be "number 2" in the Kremlin's pyramid of power. After COVID-19 hit Russia, Putin retreated to his Valdai residence together with Kovalchuk where they quarantined together.
17/21
While there, the two plotted on the return of the "Great Russia". They share an extremely anti-Western, conspiratorial and imperialist worldview with a hint of Russian Orthodox mysticism thrown in the mix. In Jun 2020, Putin published an article on "National Interest"...
18/21
...titled "The Real Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War II". In this extremely revisionist take on history, Putin blamed Poland for Hitler's invasion and of course Ukraine and Stepan Bandera for acting as "cronies of Hitler and the Nazis".
19/21
In 2021, the Navalny team exposed that the dacha where Putin and Kovalchuk spent time was actually owned by Kovalchuk since 2003. Yury quickly struck back by starting a massive smear campaign with leaked data such as e-mails against Navalny through his media empire.
20/21
To conclude, Kovalchuk controls two extremely important factors in the Kremlin's genocidal war: funds and media. Allegedly, he also has a strong influence on Putin and has affected his revisionist and delusional worldview.
21/21
This soup was prepared in collaboration with sous-chef @SLAVAUA2022NAFO.
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.
1/22
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.
2/22
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
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.
1/19
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)…
2/19
…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.
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.
1/19
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:
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
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.
1/19
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”.
2/19
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...
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.
1/22
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.
2/22
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.