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

Aug 18
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.

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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.

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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.

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Read 25 tweets
Aug 11
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.

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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.

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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.

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Read 24 tweets
Aug 6
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.

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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.

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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.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 28
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.

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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.

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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.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
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.

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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!").

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Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

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Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.

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Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.

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Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.

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Read 23 tweets

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