In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce how the Elon’s Election Interference Machine™ (EIM) works. Since Musk & his broligarch allies won the presidency for Trump, they’ve now harnessed the machine to interfere in European elections, including the ones in Germany & Romania.
1/23
At this point it is clear why Elon bought Twitter – his grand plan was to promote “free speech absolutism” (which, of course, doesn’t even exist on the platform) and tweak the algorithms so that they allow him to promote political parties that align with his worldview.
2/23
First, let’s talk about “freedom of speech” that the Trump administration, especially Musk and VP Vance constantly rant about. Incidentally, they only blame the EU for “limiting free speech”, and there’s a good reason for this: they are driving for political change.
3/23
Have you noticed how when Vance and Musk talk about “freedom of speech”, they only refer to social media? It’s because when you look at other media, they’re actually MUCH worse than the EU (Press Freedom Index). Musk and Trump have sued people and companies for tens of…
4/23
…millions of dollars, just because they criticized either Trump or Elon and/or his companies. Elon’s DOGE has also fired anyone who criticizes their activities or publicly decries the organization’s legality. The reason why they attack “traditional media” is…
5/23
…simple: they know they can’t control it. Experienced investigative journalists and editors-in-chief can’t usually be bought, which is why Trump has attacked “left-leaning” media since 2015. The goal is to remove its legitimacy but also decrease its influence.
6/23
The Trump team understands the power of social media, and this was easy to realize when you looked at the people at the first row at Trump’s inauguration – Zuck, Elon and Bezos (Amazon owns Twitch). This is also why Trump is looking for a potential US buyer for TikTok.
7/23
And today, Elon has turned X/Twitter into the EIM. Let me tell you how it works: by far, the biggest account on X belongs to its owner, Elon Musk. With almost 220 million followers, he can make or break any account on the platform, and he’s already helped…
8/23
… several pro-Trump accounts (@inevitableWest, @stillgray, @KanekoaTheGreat, just to mention a few) grow into massive pro-Trump influence operations. But that’s not everything he can do – he can also drive massive amounts of ad share revenue to these people…
9/23
…by re-tweeting them and commenting on their posts. This massive increase of income has also been evident with Elon’s love interests, who have reported monthly payments of up to 20,000 USD. In other words, EIM can provide its targets both visibility and money.
10/23
EIM also aims to make X extremely biased, and focuses on promoting and growing those accounts that support the Trump administration and Elon’s DOGE. The “freedom of speech absolutist” Musk isn’t afraid to silence and censor accounts that speak against his actions.
11/23
Musk is ready and willing to use censorship when the requests come from countries like Turkey and India. He’s removed a BBC documentary about India’s Modi, and banned accounts of critical journalists in India. Elon also enabled censorship before the elections in Turkey.
12/23
By growing and promoting pro-Trump accounts, EIM “collects” large social media superspreader accounts that then fully support Trump’s and Musk’s policies. Because these accounts quickly garner a large following, they are also promoted to any new user joining the platform.
13/23
This way Elon has created a very effective echo chamber, where dissenting voices are present but rarely heard. By removing academic’s access to analytics tools and hiding likes, any kind of manipulation and inorganic activity is extremely difficult to detect.
14/23
And now that the Trump administration seems to have allied with Russia, the two can cooperate and perform massive-scale influence operations that use both automated systems and large social media accounts to promote pro-US/pro-Russia messages.
15/23
In Germany, both Vance and Musk have shown their support for the most pro-Kremlin party, AfD. The party’s leader, Alice Weidel, recently called for lifting of sanctions against Russia, and one of their employees even helped the FSB to stop or slow military aid to Ukraine.
16/23
It’s now safe to say that Trump administration’s goals align with AfD’s, otherwise both Musk and Vance wouldn’t be pushing for their victory so aggressively. Germany is the biggest economy in Europe so it would be beneficial to have them along in this unholy alliance.
17/23
So far, Elon has been campaigning massively for AfD, even organizing Twitter Spaces with Alice Weidel and speaking remotely at their campaign event. Today, AfD still polls firmly at 20%, and other parties are very hesitant to work with them, so this plan probably fails.
18/23
In the UK, Elon has been promoting Reform UK party. For a while, he promoted the party leader Nigel Farage and even allegedly planned on donating up to £100 million to get him elected as the Prime Minister. Their relationship went sour after Farage failed to root for…
19/23
…football hooligan/career criminal Tommy Robinson. Elon, along with his Dubai cronies quickly turned against Farage, who is now supporting Ukraine’s membership in NATO. After this, EIM was turned on to support @RupertLowe10:
Next step is to try and influence the presidential elections in Romania, where the first round of elections was annulled due to alleged influence campaign from Russia. In 2026 they’ll do the same in Hungary, where Orbán has been losing steam lately.
21/23
Meanwhile, the Trump administration ramps up their own censorship efforts – whether it’s banning journalists who refuse to use their made up terminology, or outright banning use of specific words in government projects.
But at least you can still praise Hitler on X!
22/23
To conclude, here’s a short reminder on how MEI works:
1) get rid of “traditional media” with lawsuits and threats 2) remove all guardrails & safety measures 3) promote and fund Elon's allies, silence enemies 4) play the algorithm 5) blame resistance as censorship
23/23
The 2nd edition of “Vatnik Soup — The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” is officially out!
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
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
… 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
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.