Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Mar 14 20 tweets 8 min read Read on X
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Serbian academic, Ratko Ristić. He’s best known for engaging in pro-Kremlin, ultranationalist politics and propaganda while undermining business ties between Serbia and the EU.

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Serbia, along with Belarus, remains Russia’s staunchest European ally amid its aggression against Ukraine. Not only have they refused to impose sanctions, but Serbia has also become a regional disinformation hub, destabilizing the wider region.

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Beyond foreign malign influence, Serbia’s nationalist-revisionist regime – rooted in the 1990s – has aligned with Russia’s aggressive, anti-liberal nationalist bloc. Serbian far-right groups are also well-known supporters of Russian imperialism.

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Ratko Ristić is a professor at the University of Belgrade (UB), working in the Faculty of Forestry. His expertise in forestry has apparently made him a “geopolitical expert,” and he’s well known in Serbian media for his staunch anti-Western, revisionist views.

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As UB’s vice-rector for international activities, Ristić has been pressured to cut ties with Russian institutions. But this hasn’t stopped him – he still attended the Kremlin-backed Nevsky Forum in June 2024.

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Ristić hasn’t hidden his close ties to Russian politicians. In Aug 2024, he visited Russia with the group “We – Power of the People” to meet State Duma members Sergey Glazyev and Sergey Baburin. Glazyev was one of the funders of the pro-Kremlin protests in Ukraine in 2014.

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For years, he has argued against sanctions on Russia, claiming Serbia should distance itself from “Western values.” He also ran on pro-Russian extremist election lists in 2023 (“Nationalist Gathering”) and 2024 (“We – Power of the People”).

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Ristić has actively participated in pro-Kremlin events. In Dec 2024, he was a main speaker at an event by “Doctors and Parents for Science and Ethics,” (man there’s a lot of irony in that name) a Serbian anti-vaxxer conspiracy group.

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Serbia is full of extremist pro-Kremlin media outlets – even paramilitary groups. Ratko loves them. He publicly supports Dejan Petar Zlatanović (owner of disinformation media channel Srbin Info) and Damnjan Knežević (leader of the hooligan group People’s Patrols).

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Ratko’s vatnik-y activism also includes spreading nonsense about NATO. His favorite false claim is that NATO “intentionally” used depleted uranium bombs in 1999 to cause “long-term negative health effects” on Serbian citizens.

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As is tradition, Ristić attacks those exposing Kremlin propaganda. He co-signed a petition against Serbian journalist/activist Dinko Gruhonjić, labeling him both “racist” and “neofascist.”

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Paradoxically, Ristić gained popularity among Serbia’s so-called “pro-Western opposition” for opposing a lithium mine project in Jadar. As director of UB’s Environmental Protection Committee, he was often quoted by Serbian media.

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The Jadar lithium deposit, discovered in 2004, could supply 90% of Europe’s lithium needs. Geopolitically, Russia and China don’t want Serbia growing closer to the West – especially since Jadar may hold Europe’s largest lithium reserves.

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This aligns with the global mineral wars – while the US eyes rare earth minerals in Greenland, Canada, and Ukraine, China is securing other sources. Since 2004, Serbia has become a hotspot in this conflict.

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Ristić has led a disinformation campaign against the Jadar project, claiming Germany wants to turn Serbia into a “mining colony” for its auto industry and that the mine would cause irreversible environmental damage.

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Along with colleagues from the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU), Ristić has spread disinformation about Jadar across Serbian media, boosting his popularity among Serbian citizens.

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Ristić and others have exploited Serbian fears about the environment while staying mostly silent on the severe environmental damage caused by Chinese and completely silent on Russian mining projects elsewhere in Serbia.

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Despite being promoted by Serbian media as an “expert opposition” to Serbia’s pro-Russia government, Ristić subtly serves Russian interests while actively fueling anti-EU sentiment.

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The 2nd edition of “Vatnik Soup — The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” is officially out!

You can order your copy here:

kleart.eu/webshop/p/vatn…
Thanks to @Mio_Kapor for helping me brew this soup.

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Jul 7
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.

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Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.

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Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.

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Read 23 tweets
Jul 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.

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Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.

The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.

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The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:

3/15

vatniksoup.com/en/soups/
Read 15 tweets
Jul 1
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.

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Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.

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Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:

3/20

Read 21 tweets
Jun 26
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.

Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.

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For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.

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In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:

3/24

Read 26 tweets
Jun 24
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.

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Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.

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While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.

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Read 22 tweets
Jun 20
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.

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Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…

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…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.

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Read 23 tweets

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