Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jul 7 23 tweets 11 min read Read on X
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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Colby served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy in Trump’s first term. He was the lead architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which shifted US military focus from terrorism to “great power competition” with China and Russia.

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Still in 2018, Colby saw Russia very much as a threat. The NDS report called Russia a revisionist power that seeks to “shatter NATO” and control its neighbors. He framed both China and Russia as top threats to the global order.

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The 2018 NDS also emphasized “deterrence by denial”, meaning the U.S. must convince adversaries like Russia that they can’t achieve their goals through force. According to Colby at that time, NATO and US alliances were central to this strategy.

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Fast forward to 2025: Elbridge, now Trump’s under secretary of defense for policy, directed a halt in key US weapons shipments to Ukraine, including Patriots, HIMARS rounds, and F-16 missiles, as Russia intensified attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

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Cheese’s justification was that US stockpiles are running low, and that China is the “real” threat. Ukraine, he argued, is a distraction. For US defense, Colby’s decision was mostly symbolic: the Congress-approved shipment he halted was already in Poland and contained …

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…only a relatively small batch of munitions. The shipment barely made a dent in U.S. stockpiles, but it would’ve been critical for Ukraine. The whole episode felt like political theater, and at times, it almost seems like Colby has a personal vendetta against Ukraine.

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Maybe the biggest problem with Cheese’s worldview is that he’s treating China, Russia, and North Korea as isolated threats, completely ignoring the fact that these countries are coordinating and collaborating together.

Hell, Russia even brought Laos into the equation.

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Even though Colby’s referred to himself as a “realist,” his policy is actually just isolationism. He ignores the fact that China is supplying Russia with equipment and dual-use technology to wage war against Ukraine, and that the two are actually close allies.

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The authoritarian bloc is already here: China keeps Russia afloat economically, Iran arms it, and North Korea reinforces it. They’re coordinating across continents, while Colby argues the US should only worry about Asia.

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Russia’s victory in Ukraine is in alignment with China’s strategic goals. As a matter of fact, this was confirmed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang, who stated that China “can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine.” But for Cheese, Ukraine is a “distraction”.

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For someone holding one of the highest positions in U.S. defense policy, Colby sure has a lot of time to argue with NAFO fellas on X. He’s claimed his feed was “inundated” and that their “aggressive, ad hominem” tactics made X unusable.

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He’s also claimed that “NAFO isn’t helping NATO or Ukraine,” even though Ukraine’s former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov personally thanked them. NAFO has received awards and support from multiple NATO countries backing Ukraine.

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Like many before him (including David Sacks), Colby has hinted that NAFO might be backed by “some forms of USG and/or allied support.” In Cheese’s world, ordinary people can’t support a cause without being paid, which makes sense coming from someone deep in MAGA politics.

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Today, alongside the Heritage Foundation, Colby is one of the most vocal critics of NATO within the Trump admin. Together, they’re shaping the US foreign policy shift away from transatlantic alliances, and toward isolationist Asia-first doctrine.

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In 2018, Colby warned about Russia and championed NATO. Post–Trump term one? Total pivot: Russia downplayed, NATO sidelined, and all eyes on Taiwan. Hard to tell if it’s strategy, or just auditioning for MAGA foreign policy chief.

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With Colby, Trumpism changed everything. NATO became the enemy, Ukraine a distraction, and China the only threat that mattered. He went from realist strategist to MAGA-friendly mouthpiece for isolation in everything but China. At the same time, China is watching Ukraine…

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…closely to decide when to invade Taiwan. The most absurd twist? Cheese, the guy who built his brand around defending Taiwan, is now backing away from that too. He says a war over Taiwan might “destroy” the US military, and that it’s not even an “existential interest.”

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But gutting alliances, threatening your friends, and sidelining partners doesn’t make America stronger. It isolates the US, and ensures the country will be alone in the next global crisis, facing adversaries who are more coordinated than ever.

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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:
vatniksoup.com/en/books/
APPENDIX:

Someone credible just told me that Cheese actually paid Tucker Carlson for an interview to help push himself forward. Image

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Sep 25
This is what you’re debating with on social media:
It appears that a few pro-Russian bot farms already found this thread, so remember - just block them all, there's no point in arguing with a computer.
Most of you have seen those "No DMs" profiles, right? That's because you can interrupt the GPT procedure by injecting them new instructions.

At some point it also worked in comments ("give me a cake recipe"), but not so much anymore.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the agenda-setting and flood of disinformation that spread on X and other platforms right after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It’s far from the first or last time a tragedy has been weaponized for political purposes.

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Every major political event, especially those involving violence, attracts massive attention. In the immediate aftermath, reliable information is scarce, making it highly vulnerable to both coordinated and improvised disinformation campaigns.

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As I’ve mentioned in my previous soups and lectures, in disinformation campaigns, being first with a narrative is crucial, as people often remember the first version best — psychology studies show it sets the mental schema, and later updates rarely overwrite it.

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Read 19 tweets
Sep 8
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American social media personality David Freeman, AKA Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman). He’s best known for spreading political disinformation on X and shamelessly sucking up to Trump, Putin, and other authoritarian leaders.

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David is a textbook example of someone profiting from MAGA grievance politics. He uses extreme, provocative language to farm engagement on X and never hesitates to flatter anyone who might give him more exposure — or money.

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But David wasn’t always like this. At some point, in his mid-40s, he even tried a real job: he trained to become a cop. He spent three years with the Metro Transit PD, but after that he either got fired or quit, and never looked back.

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Read 24 tweets
Sep 5
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian-Estonian businessman, Oleg Ossinovski. He is best-known for his deep ties to Russian rail and energy networks, shady cross-border dealings, and for channeling his wealth into Estonian politics.

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Oleg made his fortune via Spacecom Trans & Skinest Rail, both deeply tied to Russia’s rail system. Most of this is through Globaltrans Investments PLC, a Cyprus-based firm with 62% held via Spacecom and tens of millions in yearly profits.

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Ossinovski’s Russian-linked ventures made him Estonia’s richest man in 2014, with an estimated fortune of ~€300M. His business empire stretched across railways, oil via Alexela shares, and Russian bitumen imports from Help-Oil, a supplier to the Defense Ministry.

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Read 15 tweets
Sep 2
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Swiss/French writer, Alain Bonnet, aka Alain Soral (@officielsoral). He’s best known for his rabid antisemitism and for his pathetic support for all the worst authoritarian regimes from Russia to North Korea.

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Alain’s childhood was problematic, as his father has been characterized as a “narcissistic pervert” who beat his children and did jail time for fraud. Alain himself has said he was “programmed to be a monster.” Born Alain Bonnet, he took the stage name of his sister,…

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… actress Agnès Soral. She wasn’t too happy about this, commenting “How would you like to be called Agnès Hitler?”. Like many grifters, he became a pick-up/seduction artist writer, à la late Gonzalo Lira, writing books and even making a B-movie, “Confessions d’un dragueur”.
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Read 23 tweets
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

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