Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Dec 4, 2024 21 tweets 9 min read Read on X
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the sad (but funny) state of Finnish vatniks. After Russia launched their full-scale invasion against Ukraine, the Finnish pro-Kremlin/conspiracy theorist scene experienced a dramatic devaluation and hasn’t been able to bounce back since.
1/20 Image
I often get asked about the current state of the Finnish vatnik club, and there’s usually not much to report.

It’s not because these people have stopped, but because today their work has only comedic value.

So here’s the latest:

2/20
Master vatnik and traitor Johan Bäckman has relocated to Russia, and he was recently given a Russian citizenship. It’s obvious that Johan was recruited by Russia’s intelligence agencies a long time ago. He’s still producing videos on YouTube on his…

3/20 Image
…Z-Studio channel, where he spreads Kremlin’s disinformation and propaganda. Most of this is revisionist bullshit glorifying the Soviet days.

One of the videos shows a “re-enactment” of Finnish soldiers surrendering and shot dead by the Soviet forces.

4/20 Image
Image
A few days ago, he also attended an event in Russia in which Russia’s intelligence agency SVR launched a massive disinformation campaign against Finland. The event was hosted by the Kremlin spy master Sergey Naryshkin…

5/20 Image
…but Johan also had a role in this charade - he held a presentation that showed Finnish politicians like the former prime minister Sanna Marin criticizing Russia. Most of these clips were heavily edited and/or taken out of context.

6/20 Image
Janus Putkonen is allegedly still in Donbas, and his propaganda outlet UMV-Lehti (renamed from MV-Lehti) is still pushing out digital diarrhea to all of its 8 readers. Occasionally, his “expertise” is presented by RT.

More on Putkonen here:



7/20
Bäckman and Putkonen are (literally) the “big dogs”, but there are a few, even more pathetic vatniks who still remain in Finland. One of them is Panu Huuhtanen, who bravely protested the video restrictions at a literary festival in Helsinki. After he was kindly asked to…

8/20 Image
…stop filming @JessikkaAro's presentation and refused, he was removed from the premises. Huuhtanen was so badly injured, that he had to improvise a makeshift tourniquet to support his terribly wounded leg.

9/20

Image
Huuhtanen is part of Toimittajaliitto (Journalist Association), a scam journalist association founded by Johan Bäckman in 2016. Its current chairman is Juha Korhonen, another sad Finnish vatnik veteran, whose projects ALWAYS fail miserably.

10/20 Image
Image
Korhonen is best-known for courageously burning the NATO flag and commenting Finland’s NATO membership for RT, but apparently he’s also responsible for creating the “press passes” for Toimittajaliitto. Being the creative guy he is…

11/20
…he used the Finnish postal services tracking codes as the barcodes for these passes - to be fair, they probably don't even understand what barcodes are used for. The background image of the pass, depicting a Canadian school, was stolen from stock photo services.

12/20 Image
And this is not the first time this ragtag of losers have stalked Aro: Bäckman was even given a suspended sentence for stalking her, and Huuhtanen and Korhonen have also followed and recorded Aro’s movements and whereabouts. What a sad bunch of people.

13/20 Image
Finally, a short story on how Russian information operations work in Finland and how Russia produces propaganda against foreign states:

Finnish old-school politician Kimmo Kiljunen recently attended an event organized by Russian organization…

14/20
…Aleksanterinliitto (Александровское Общество). The group members interviewed Mr. Kiljunen, whose wife is Russian, and who until today acted as the Finnish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs chair. During the interview, he said that the Finnish-Russian border…

15/20 Image
…should be re-opened and that Finnish tabloids are conducting “hybrid influencing” and are “servants of Russian trolls”. He also criticized the ban on Russian land deals in Finland. After the interview was publicized by Finnish freelance journalist @OutiSalovaara…

16/20 Image
Image
…Kiljunen was harshly criticized by other MPs and his own party, and he later had to resign from his position.

The Kremlin often uses groups like Aleksanterinliitto (that was created to protest the border closure) as vessels for their propaganda.

17/20 Image
It took Russian media only a few hours to start pushing out one-sided narrative out of the incident, and Aleksanterinliitto recently announced that they will organize four demonstrations in Finland to shed more attention on the border issue.

18/20 Image
Image
Image
Of course Juha Korhonen also had to get involved in this mess - he interviewed the chairman of Aleksanterinliitto, Rostislav Vladimirskiy, who finally got the chance to spread Kremlin BS to a massive audience of around 20 people.

19/20 Image
Aleksanterinliitto claims that they are independent and not in any way related to the Kremlin. Yet, this particular group has been previously in contact with the Russian MFA about the border, and they’ve been unable to condemn Russia’s full-scale invasion against Ukraine.

20/20 Image
Kiitos, @vitjavaari!

Follow us on Instagram:

instagram.com/vatniksoup/Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Pekka Kallioniemi

Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @P_Kallioniemi

Oct 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll reintroduce an American political commentator and pro-Kremlin propagandist, Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson). He’s best known for his promotion of crazy conspiracy theories and for his support of authoritarian regimes around the world.

1/24 Image
Tucker’s career spans decades, but he’s also been very active in recent years, so a lot has happened since our previous soup on him, which can be found here:

2/24

Once described as “the most powerful conservative in America”, Tucker has now fully transformed into a grifting conspiracy theorist and propagandist willing to work for whoever pays him the most. It’s unclear whether Tucker truly believes his endless conspiracy theories or…
3/24 Image
Read 25 tweets
Sep 25
This is what you’re debating with on social media:
It appears that a few pro-Russian bot farms already found this thread, so remember - just block them all, there's no point in arguing with a computer.
Most of you have seen those "No DMs" profiles, right? That's because you can interrupt the GPT procedure by injecting them new instructions.

At some point it also worked in comments ("give me a cake recipe"), but not so much anymore.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the agenda-setting and flood of disinformation that spread on X and other platforms right after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It’s far from the first or last time a tragedy has been weaponized for political purposes.

1/18 Image
Every major political event, especially those involving violence, attracts massive attention. In the immediate aftermath, reliable information is scarce, making it highly vulnerable to both coordinated and improvised disinformation campaigns.

2/18 Image
As I’ve mentioned in my previous soups and lectures, in disinformation campaigns, being first with a narrative is crucial, as people often remember the first version best — psychology studies show it sets the mental schema, and later updates rarely overwrite it.

3/18 Image
Read 19 tweets
Sep 8
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American social media personality David Freeman, AKA Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman). He’s best known for spreading political disinformation on X and shamelessly sucking up to Trump, Putin, and other authoritarian leaders.

1/22 Image
David is a textbook example of someone profiting from MAGA grievance politics. He uses extreme, provocative language to farm engagement on X and never hesitates to flatter anyone who might give him more exposure — or money.

2/22 Image
Image
But David wasn’t always like this. At some point, in his mid-40s, he even tried a real job: he trained to become a cop. He spent three years with the Metro Transit PD, but after that he either got fired or quit, and never looked back.

3/22 Image
Read 24 tweets
Sep 5
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian-Estonian businessman, Oleg Ossinovski. He is best-known for his deep ties to Russian rail and energy networks, shady cross-border dealings, and for channeling his wealth into Estonian politics.

1/14 Image
Oleg made his fortune via Spacecom Trans & Skinest Rail, both deeply tied to Russia’s rail system. Most of this is through Globaltrans Investments PLC, a Cyprus-based firm with 62% held via Spacecom and tens of millions in yearly profits.

2/14 Image
Image
Ossinovski’s Russian-linked ventures made him Estonia’s richest man in 2014, with an estimated fortune of ~€300M. His business empire stretched across railways, oil via Alexela shares, and Russian bitumen imports from Help-Oil, a supplier to the Defense Ministry.

3/14 Image
Read 15 tweets
Sep 2
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Swiss/French writer, Alain Bonnet, aka Alain Soral (@officielsoral). He’s best known for his rabid antisemitism and for his pathetic support for all the worst authoritarian regimes from Russia to North Korea.

1/22 Image
Alain’s childhood was problematic, as his father has been characterized as a “narcissistic pervert” who beat his children and did jail time for fraud. Alain himself has said he was “programmed to be a monster.” Born Alain Bonnet, he took the stage name of his sister,…

2/22 Image
Image
… actress Agnès Soral. She wasn’t too happy about this, commenting “How would you like to be called Agnès Hitler?”. Like many grifters, he became a pick-up/seduction artist writer, à la late Gonzalo Lira, writing books and even making a B-movie, “Confessions d’un dragueur”.
3/22 Image
Image
Image
Read 23 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(