In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce KOOS party leader and Estonian crypto businessman Oleg Ivanov. He’s best known for running shady businesses, spreading Russian false narratives in Estonia, and participating in the pro-Kremlin political party KOOS.
1/18
As a talented youngster, Oleg learned Estonian almost flawlessly, was a promising karate athlete, and landed a job at a law firm at just 20. He caught the eye of Estonian fuel entrepreneur Endel Siff, who quickly took him under his wing.
2/18
Oleg’s father, Vladimir Ivanov, was a longtime politician from the Russian-funded United People’s Party of Estonia. His career at the town hall ended abruptly when he was caught drunk at work. After that, he went into business with his son, Oleg.
3/18
The Ivanovs owned a supermarket in Lasnamäe. Additionally, Oleg held a stake in the Russian-language newspapers Vesti and Eesti Päevaleht. Previously introduced Estonian MEP Jana Toom became the paper’s editor-in-chief in 2004.
4/18
In 2012, Ivanov bought Terminal Sapjorni, an oil terminal in St. Petersburg. The business was a failure, and like many scammers at that time, he pivoted to crypto, marketing OneCoin and DagCoin.
5/18
DagCoin gained popularity in the Middle East, but Estonia’s state security police (KAPO) flagged it as a potential vehicle for terrorist financing. In 2022, DagCoin’s owners were arrested for fraud. Ivanov, however, was only a marketer, not a manager, so he remained free.
6/18
Despite declaring bankruptcy in 2021, owing creditors €816,000, Oleg continued living a life of luxury. He resides in a beautiful home, drives a fancy car, wears expensive clothes, and recently vacationed in Monaco, France, and Tenerife.
7/18
Ivanov’s political career kicked off in 2022, barely a month after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. His video blogs amassed hundreds of thousands of views and were widely shared by Russian propaganda outlets. He actively pushed the “Bucha was a hoax” narrative.
8/18
After its creation, Oleg joined the pro-Kremlin political party KOOS. But KOOS was never a real political party: it was a front for Russian influence. With Ivanov’s help, it spread Moscow’s disinformation, portraying NATO as an “occupier” and Estonia as “anti-Russian.”
9/18
Leveraging his experience in crypto marketing, Oleg began aggressively promoting KOOS online. His approach involved flashy conferences, slick advertising, and shady financials. For Ivanov, KOOS wasn’t just politics—it was another business opportunity.
10/18
One of Ivanov’s biggest stunts was his protest against Estonia’s decision to remove Soviet-era monuments. These were symbols of occupation, but Ivanov framed their removal as an “attack on history,” deliberately stirring tensions.
11/18
He organized demonstrations, spread false claims that Estonia was “erasing history,” and pushed the Kremlin’s narrative that the Baltic states were trying to paint Russia as the villain. In reality, Estonia was simply rejecting the Soviet legacy of oppression.
12/18
His rhetoric mirrored that of other pro-Kremlin propagandists in Estonia. He claimed the country should remain “neutral” to avoid being dragged into war with Russia. He also collaborated with other Estonian vatniks, like Harry Raudvere, Aivo Peterson & Oleg Bessedin.
13/18
Ivanov was organizing funds from a Russian state foundation linked to Russian intelligence to pay for the lawyers of the co-founder of the KOOS Party, Aivo Peterson, who is facing treason charges for his ties with Russian intelligence.
14/18
He also attended an event in St. Petersburg titled “Baltic Fascism: Evidence for a Future Tribunal.” In his own speech, he called for the Kremlin to respond to Estonia’s “aggressive policies.” The event’s poster called for “liberation” of Tallinn, Vilnius and Riga.
15/18
He tried to expand KOOS into the other Baltic states and Finland but has since departed it due to “financial questions from the leadership of the party,” probably meaning that Oleg yet again tried to make some extra rubles from the party’s activities.
16/18
Like many before him, Oleg fled to Russia after there were rumors of legal consequences for his actions. According to him, Estonian security services moved against him for spreading extremist ideas and working in the interests of a foreign power.
17/18
Today, he resides in sunny Sochi, where he was quickly embraced as yet another so-called “victim of Western persecution.” Russian state media turned him into a propaganda tool, claiming Estonia had driven him out simply for his political views.
18/18
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!
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian-born former State Duma deputy, Vladimir Medinsky. He is best known as one of the ideologues of the “Russkiy Mir”, for his close ties to Vladimir Putin, and for leading the “peace talks” in Turkey in 2022 and 2025.
1/20
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Medinsky interned as a correspondent on the international desk of the TASS news agency, learning the ways of propaganda at an early age. Some time later, he earned two PhDs – one in political science and the other in history.
2/20
As is tradition in Russia, Medinsky’s academic work was largely pseudo-scientific and plagiarized. Dissernet found that 87 of 120 pages in his dissertation were copied from his supervisor’s thesis. His second dissertation was also heavily plagiarized.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American social media influencer, Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson). He’s best known for his plagiarism while working as a clickbait “journalist”, and for being paid by the Kremlin to spread anti-Ukraine and anti-Democratic narratives.
1/23
Benny graduated from the University of Iowa in 2009 with a degree in developmental psychology. His former high school buddy described him as the “smartest, most articulate kid in school,” and was disappointed to see him turn into a “cheating, low standard hack.”
2/23
After graduating, Benny dived directly into the world of outrage media. Benny’s first job was writing op-eds for far-right website Breitbart, from where he moved on to TheBlaze, a conservative media owned by Glenn Beck, and a spring board for many conservative influencers.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Cypriot politician and social media personality, Fidias Panayiotou (@Fidias0). He’s best known for his clickbait YouTube stunts and for voting against aid to Ukraine and the return of abducted Ukrainian children from Russia.
1/20
Fidias hails from Meniko, Cyprus. In 2019, he began posting videos on YouTube. After a slow start, he found his niche with clickbaity, MrBeast-style content featuring silly stunts, catchy titles and scripted dialogue. Today, Fidias has 2,7 million subscribers on YouTube.
2/20
Fidias’s channel started with trend-riding, but he found his niche in traveling without money — aka freeloading. In one video, he fare-dodged on the Bengaluru Metro. The train authority responded by saying they would file a criminal case against him.
In today’s May 9th Vatnik Soup, we discuss the ambiguous relationship of the Kremlin with Nazism and explain why so many vatniks can be outright Nazis, and promote or excuse them while at the same time being so hysterical about alleged “Nazis in Ukraine”.
1/23
Of course, Kremlin propaganda employs the Firehose of Falsehood and often lacks any consistent ideology other than spreading chaos and seeking power, so such contradictions can be commonplace. However in this case there is a certain cynical consistency there.
2/23
To understand modern Russia, we need to go back a hundred years to the beginnings of Soviet Russia/Soviet Union — a genocidal terror regime under dictators Lenin and Stalin, whose totalitarian and imperialist legacy Putin’s Russia fully embraces.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll discuss the state of X in May 2025. Since its acquisition by Elon Musk, this platform has rapidly transformed into his personal political tool and a breeding ground for hate speech and disinformation.
1/22
Not everyone is following this shitshow as closely as I am, so I thought it would be good to write a summary of all the changes that have happened on this forum and outside of it. These changes have drastically changed how the platform operates and who gets “a voice” here.
2/22
Elon’s team has been tweaking the algorithm many times after the takeover. One of these tweaks happened already around Nov 2022, when the platform heavily suppressed the visibility of pro-Ukraine accounts. This change was then noticed & reported by many pro-Ukraine accounts.
3/22
In today’s 350th Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American comedian and podcaster, Dave Smith (@ComicDaveSmith). He’s best-known for his numerous appearances on the Joe Rogan Experience and for his unhinged takes on the Russo-Ukrainian War.
1/22
Smith has a massive megaphone - he’s a good friend of Joe Rogan, and he’s appeared on Joe’s podcast a whopping 16 times. Naturally, he’s also visited Lex Fridman’s podcast and frequently appears on Fox News’ Kennedy and The Greg Gutfeld Show.
2/22
Dave is part of the Kremlintarian section of the Libertarian Party called Mises Caucus. They took control of the party in May 2022, and with the help of their new leader, Angela McArdle, turned it into an extension of the MAGA Republicans: