In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the Kremlin’s funding of Tennessee-based media company TENET Media. TENET Media is best-known for their promotion of Russian narratives and for strong support for Donald Trump in the upcoming 2024 US elections.
1/20
First, it’s worth stating that the funding originated from Kremlin-controlled RT, and that the funding was masked through shell companies in countries like Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Mauritius, with the money being described as payments for electronics.
2/20
The two individuals involved from RT, identified as Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). These two also instructed the content creators.
3/20
TENET was founded in 2022 by Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who is also the president of the company. Chen is a contributor to Charlie Kirk’s non-profit Turning Point USA and she also wrote opinion pieces for RT between 2021 and 2022.
4/20
I have previously written about the shift in tactics of Russian information operations, suggesting that instead of using bot & troll accounts with limited following, they’ve started supporting social media superspreader accounts with huge reach.
Next, let’s look at the people involved in TENET media. Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Lauren Southern are probably the biggest names in the bunch, and this group alone has a combined follower count on X of around 7 million. They also produce content on YouTube.
6/20
Out of the four, Pool was the one who went ALL IN with his videos. In one of his videos, he claimed that “Ukraine is the enemy of this country”, that Ukraine triggered the conflict by blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, also suggesting that “we should apologize to Russia”.
7/20
Tim’s also been vocal over Ukraine on X, and especially on the US military aid to the country. He’s also suggested that Trump could potentially de-escalate the war quickly. Incidentally, these posts became much more common after TENET got their funding from Russia.
8/20
Johnson’s main talking points have revolved around stopping the Ukraine aid and emphasizing the domestic problems in the US (naturally caused by the evil Democrats). Apparently, he was paid 400,000 USD per month and also received a signing bonus of 100,000 USD.
9/20
In the case of Lauren Southern, the Russian connection is more evident - in 2018, she visited Moscow to meet with Aleksandr Dugin, a political philosopher who provided the blueprint for Russian imperialism in his 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics.
10/20
Apparently the Russian operatives could influence the content posted by TENET media: Afanasyeva had requested the media company to post Tucker Carlson’s visit to Russian/French grocery store, even though one of the producers felt like it was “overt shilling”.
11/20
In another example, Afanasyeva told the company they should blame Ukraine for the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, even though ISIS had previously claimed responsibility for the massacre. Chen replied that one of the influencers was “happy to cover it.”
12/20
According to the indictment, TENET media founders knew that both Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva were Russian, yet chose to work with them anyway. TENET media’s creators have a huge online reach - their 2,000 YouTube videos have amassed over 16 million views.
13/20
Dave Rubin has already claimed that him and the other commentators were “victims of this scheme”, but apparently they had no trouble in receiving money from a fake persona called “Eduard Grigoriann” without doing background checks or performing their due diligence.
14/20
Benny also referred to himself and the other influencers as “victims”, and, as a strong advocate for freedom of speech, threatened to sue anyone who claims otherwise.
So I’m not gonna call him a Russian agent, but I really do think he is both greedy and naive.
15/20
On the other hand, this shows how easily these online political commentators can be bought to share specific political narratives, even when they’re formulated by the spin doctors of a foreign state. I guess anything goes when you’re paid 400,000 USD a month.
16/20
In reality, the Russian intelligence services prefer if you don’t know you’re working for them. A foreign agent can be witting (knowingly working for a foreign govt) or unwitting (unknowingly working for a foreign govt). The latter are often referred to as “useful idiots”.
17/20
Fortunately, it seems that US officials have become more efficient in detecting foreign influencing in the US elections - in 2016 and 2020 they fumbled badly, but this time they were able to report on a massive funding scheme before the elections actually took place.
18/20
Of course,the usual suspects have already started deflecting on the subject. For example, David Sacks has shifted the topic to “paid Ukrainian influencers”, completely oblivious to the fact that some people might actually defend a sovereign nation completely free of charge.
19/20
To conclude, Russia has shifted its online influencing strategy, and in addition to using vast bot and troll networks, they now provide monetary support for social media superspreader accounts via shell companies. And I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.
20/20
My book titled “Vatnik Soup - The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” will be published on 20 Sep 2024, you can now pre-order it from here (comes with extra goodies!):
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American social media personality, Tim Pool (@Timcast). He’s best-known for being funded by the Kremlin, his right-wing media empire, his connections to several American conspiracy theorists, and for his cool beanie.
1/23
Tim Pool rose to fame during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests, which he livestreamed together with a former realtor, Henry Ferry. He was one of the pioneers of doing livestreams where he also interacted with the audience and even let them direct him on the ground.
2/23
Pool’s footage was aired on NBC and other mainstream networks, and Time dubbed him as “the eyes of the movement”. In 2011, Pool described himself as “an activist 100%”, stating that he doesn’t consider himself a journalist. A year later things had changed…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American politician, Jill Stein (@DrJillStein). She’s best-known for her visits to Moscow, bids for the US presidency, blaming of NATO for the war in Ukraine, and for her inability to condemn Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.
1/23
Stein’s background is in medicine, and she graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1979. During the 90s Stein turned to activism and subsequently received various environmental awards for her work. Stein began her political career by running for governor of Massachusetts...
2/23
...in 2002, but only got 3,5% of the total vote. Her following campaigns were also massive failures, and the only election in which she managed to secure a seat was the local legislative body in Lexington. But that didn’t stop Jill, as in 2012 she decided to run for...
In today’s #vatniksoup I’ll introduce a Russian filmmaker, Anastasia Trofimova. She’s best-known for her latest controversial documentary “Russians at War”, and for working as a producer for Russian state-funded media outlet RT.
1/19
Soft power has been part of the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare for a long time. It refers to the “ability to get what you want through attraction rather than through coercion” and which can “be cultivated through relations with allies, economic assistance, and cultural exchanges.”
2/19
Russia has been using soft power to sow division and distrust in the West for decades. Documentaries like Ukraine on Fire offer a revisionist and pro-Kremlin view on what happened in Kyiv and in Ukraine in 2014. It was directed by the Russian master…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss why I think it’s important for Ukraine & for Europe that Donald Trump does not become the next president of the US. I’ll share my insights on how Trump has been undermining democracy and supporting authoritarian leaders around the world.
1/19
First of all, I think Trump supports Russia more than Ukraine. Trump has a long history of doing business with the Russians, and he’s even held private meetings with Putin and other high-ranking Russian officials while sharing highly classified information with them.
2/19
In addition, Trump withheld a 400 million aid to Ukraine because Zelenskyy wouldn’t help him dig dirt on the Biden family. He also “watered down” the toughest penalties the U.S. had imposed on Russian entities after Putin annexed Crimea in 2014.
As there's clearly not much to say about the debate other than Trump was deranged and he'd clearly abandon Ukraine and appease Russia, I'm just gonna post the best memes and posts about the whole thing.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce further details about South African-American businessman and social media figure, Elon Musk (@elonmusk). He’s best-known for running companies like Tesla, SpaceX & Twitter/X, and for using the latter for political campaigning.
1/25
In this soup, I will focus on how his social media platform Twitter/X has become a cesspool filled with racism, propaganda & conspiracy theories. Elon himself, living fully in denial, has stated that “X has the truth” & that X is actually “the only place to find the truth”.
2/25
Elon has claimed that X’s community-driven content moderation program, Community Notes, corrects disinformation spread on X. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as most made-up stories are never Community Noted. And if they do, the notes are hardly ever seen by anyone.