Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Mar 20 18 tweets 8 min read Read on X
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an Estonian businessman turned far-right politician and conspiracy theorist, Harry Raudvere. Raudvere is best-known for his neo-Nazi and pro-Kremlin politics, for his lingerie businesses, and for spreading anti-Estonia propaganda.

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Raudvere started building a business empire in the 2000s, and a lot of his wealth comes from wind farms in Ida-Virumaa in Estonia. His family also owns a lingerie business, BonBon Lingerie. As tacky lingerie is popular in Russia, they were very active there before the war.

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Raudvere promotes ideas that strongly resemble Russian propaganda talking points, and has no problem in undermining Estonia’s support for Ukraine. But at the same time, he is strongly aligned with far-right nationalist movements.

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For example, he was one of the guests at a party organized by Finnish neo-Nazi Risto Teinonen to celebrate Hitler’s birthday. As you can see from the photo below, this was definitely a party that a certain South African oligarch would’ve enjoyed.

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At this point, his rhetoric had already shifted from standard conservatism to outright anti-Western narratives. Harry’s main target was Estonia’s foreign policy, particularly its stance toward Russia. One of his main points of criticism were towards…

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…the EU sanctions against Russia, falsely claiming they harm Estonia more than Moscow. These claims mirror Russian state-controlled media narratives, which frame the West as the aggressor while portraying Russia as a misunderstood victim.

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He founded & became a regular guest on Nõmme Raadio, a far-right platform notorious for spreading Kremlin-aligned narratives in Estonia. The station regularly pushes anti-Western conspiracy theories that align with Russian disinformation campaigns.

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Nõmme Raadio’s programs are directed by Margus Lepa, who’s best-known for translating Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf into Estonian. One version of this famous Austrian painter’s biography can also be found on the radio’s web server.

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Even though in the Russian propaganda, the biggest enemy are always the “fascists”, who are compared to Hitler’s Nazis, they don’t seem to have any problem in having actual neo-Nazis in their ranks. It almost seems like the whole system is void of any moral values.

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Aside from his own propaganda megaphone, Raudvere is also a frequent guest on Russian state-owned outlets like Sputnik. He was praised there for comparing the “suffering of Russians” to that of Jews & for warning Estonia against provoking Russia.

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Raudvere has also collaborated with other Estonian vatniks like Aivo Peterson and Oleg Ivanov. Ivanov and Harry even did a podcast with the Finnish master vatnik, Johan Bäckman. Johan recently relocated to Moscow and was given a Russian passport by Putin himself.

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Raudvere has long praised Putin as a hero, and his disinformation about Russia’s wars of conquest dates back years. In 2018, he claimed there was no invasion of Ukraine and called it a “civil war” – a classic Kremlin talking point at that time.

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In March 2022, he was expelled from the Isamaa party for spreading Kremlin propaganda. On Nõmme Raadio, he argued that NATO should not have encircled Russia and claimed that the war in Ukraine demonstrated Putin’s humanity.

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When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine (and after he was sacked from Isamaa), Raudvere founded ERE, a pro-Russian, anti-Western political party. Though still in its formative stage, its ideas – like Estonia leaving the EU – remain wildly unpopular.

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Even though ERE is a relatively small party, Raudvere is a key figure in Russia’s broader strategy to destabilize Estonia. He amplifies Kremlin narratives that undermine Estonia’s security, democracy, and public trust – all under the guise of “nationalism.”

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Back to the lingerie business – FSB collaborator and traitor Viktoria Dressen used to work on the Russian branch of Bonbon. In 2012, Viktoria was found guilty of treason for collecting and passing on information to the FSB with her husband.

Strange coincidence.

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To conclude, BonBon-Harry is a traditional Baltic vatnik – shady businesses, collaborations with alleged FSB collaborators, constant flirtation with political extremists, and active campaigning against his own country.

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Big thanks goes to @Martinlaineolen for helping me brew this soup.

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…

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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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