Thread by @grok

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.

1/24

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.

2/24

https://x.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1901967581038186716

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

https://x.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1902351629258547584

In this soup, I’ll peel off yet another layer of Kremlin’s propaganda, showing the harsh reality of the Russian “culture”, which resembles more the barbaric Mongol rule rather than the “traditional, conservative Orthodox culture” they claim to represent.

4/24

The discrepancy between the propaganda headlines spreading on social media and reality about Russia’s sexual abuses is stark. For example, Russia is one of the few countries that hasn’t criminalized the possession of child pornography or domestic violence.

5/24

In 2021, leaked videos showed systemic torture and rape in Russian jails, and Russian forces often apply the same rules in the army as in prisons. In Nov 2022, the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, may he rot in Hell, even wanted to create…

6/24

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/16380838418427166741

… a separate “cock division” consisting of low-level prisoners who were acting as sex slaves for other, higher ranking convicts in Russian prisons. For more information on Russia’s prison hierarchy, read this fantastic thread by @ChrisO_Wiki:

7/24

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1593042478235807744

Prigozhin’s PMC Wagner, a Russian state-funded, internationally recognized criminal/terrorist organization, has now rebranded as the no-less-nazi-themed “Afrika Korps”. They are infamous for their brutality and sexual violence in Syria, Africa and Ukraine.

8/24

Through Wagner, Russia has sent thousands of convicted criminals, including murderers, rapists, and even cannibals, to fight in Ukraine. These men, many with histories of extreme violence, have then committed brutal war crimes against the Ukrainian civilian population.

9/24

For Putin and Russia, hiring convicts for the meat grinder is just another way to get soldiers and lower the prison population. For the convicts, it’s a coin toss — if they survive, they can go back to “society” and try to continue life as a civilian.

10/24

After their war crimes stint, the sentenced criminals are welcomed back as heroes. Wagnerite Viktor Taydakov, for example, once jailed for raping and murdering a 22-year-old girl, now works in schools teaching young girls.

11/24

When releasing them back in Russian society, Prigozhin gently asked them “not to drink too much” and “not to rape women”. But they are of course former criminals and war criminals, now carrying additional trauma from the war, and many soon return to crime.

12/24

The so-called “Russian opposition” claims most Russians oppose Putin and support liberal democracy. Yet a recent poll ranked Putin in the top 3 greatest people of all times (with fellow genociders Lenin and Stalin), highlighting the gap between empty rhetoric and reality.

13/24

Here’s an example of “the great and profound Russian culture”: an intercepted call where a Russian wife gives her soldier husband her permission to rape Ukrainian women. The Ukrainian-Canadian documentary “Intercepted” explores these chilling conversations in depth.

14/24

Sexual violence has long been used as a tool of oppression by Russian and Soviet forces. During World War II, Soviet soldiers were notorious for mass rapes in occupied territories, both in Germany and “liberated” Central and Eastern Europe.

15/24

This tradition has been passed on, and is now actively used in Ukraine. Ukrainian children, women and men have been sexually abused by Wagner mercenaries, regular Russian army and Chechnya’s Akhmat fighters. The latter even mobilised queer men as sex slaves to the front.

16/24

Besides being sexually abused or castrated, Ukrainians POWs are tortured and starved, sometimes to death—if they were not outright executed when captured. If they survive, they still suffer from long-term damage and often die soon after their release in prisoner exchanges.

17/24

And Russians don’t make a distinction between combatants and civilians. Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna’s body was returned to Ukraine with “numerous signs of torture” and some organs missing, including the brain, eyes and larynx.

18/24

The most tragic part of this war is of course the abduction of Ukrainian children, which is also a form of genocide. The kidnapped children are lied about their origins, given new names, indoctrinated into Russian nationalism, beaten and abused.

19/24

Despite the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova and despite Zelenskyy’s insistence in negotiations, Russia has refused to return the abducted kids back to Ukraine. You can check our video on the topic below:

20/24

For the Russians on the frontlines, this is just normal behavior, part of the war machine. And Putin and his siloviki friends in the Kremlin know that there will be no consequences as long as they remain in power. The international law system is weak and rarely enforced.

21/24

The war helps Putin’s domestic popularity and helps him control the Russian population. Another reason why ending the war could be dangerous for him is the sheer number of dangerous convicts and war criminals now paid good wages: if the war ends, they come back to Russia.

22/24

They can then commit more crimes or even get involved in organized crime, a system so strong in Russia that it could eventually threaten Putin’s rule. For the Kremlin, the only way forward is to continue the war in Ukraine, and perhaps expand it to the Baltic countries.

23/24

For Ukrainians, this nightmare will only end when Ukraine is fully liberated.

Until then, even with ceasefires or “peace”, Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied territories are at high risk of being sent to filtration camps and facing torture, sexual abuse and even death.
24/24

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

You can order your copy here:
vatniksoup.com/en/books/

CORRECTION: 6/24 had a bad link, here's the correct one:

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1638083841842716674?t=KpQvu04xB5a29YJhKfGhpQ&s=19