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.
1/20
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.
2/20
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.
3/20
The concept of political technologist emerged in the 1990s as Russia transitioned from chaos to centralized control. Political technologists blend manipulation, media dominance, and psychological ops to engineer consent and suppress dissent.
4/20
Figures like Vladislav Surkov pioneered “post-truth” politics, where reality is fluid, narratives shift constantly, and confusion reigns. The goal of this is to exhaust the public, neutralize resistance, and make alternatives to the regime seem futile or nonexistent.
5/20
After the fall of Surkov in 2016, Kiriyenko quickly became “Putin’s right-hand man,” shaping domestic and foreign politics based on political technologist ideology. Inside Russia, his goal was to promote the false idea of “conservatism” and “traditionalism”.
6/20
After the launch of the full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022, Kiriyenko’s work was expanded to the Russian-occupied territories. Like Surkov before, his main duties were to manufacture support for the occupiers and falsely claim they’re supported by the locals.
7/20
For example, he oversaw the Kremlin’s sham referendums in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — staged votes held under military occupation, with no transparency or legitimacy. Designed to justify annexation, they earned him the nickname “Viceroy of the Donbas.”
8/20
In May and Jun of 2022, Kiriyenko made propaganda trips to occupied cities like Mariupol, where he attended the unveiling of a statue waving the Soviet flag, and Kherson, where he took part in meetings planning to formally annex the territory on Russia’s election day.
9/20
These plans were ultimately thwarted when Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson in a bold and brilliantly executed counteroffensive. Even Elon Musk couldn’t stop the operation, despite reportedly disabling Starlink access in the area to prevent a Ukrainian drone strike.
10/20
Incidentally, Elon Musk allegedly communicated directly with Kiriyenko. According to multiple sources, they discussed topics ranging from business to geopolitics. Did Kiriyenko suggest shutting down Starlink in Ukraine - or did that idea come from somewhere else?
11/20
Under Kiriyenko’s direction, the occupation administration began forcibly Russifying the seized territories, introducing Russian school curricula, distributing Russian passports, replacing mobile networks, and imposing Kremlin-controlled governance structures.
12/20
As Surkov before him, Kiriyenko is also running the Kremlin’s global troll farms. Under his direction, Russia’s influence ops have become more sophisticated, covert, and tech-driven. Under his supervision are organizations like the Social Design Agency and Structura.
13/20
Remember that anti-Zelenskyy meme that Elon shared on X and that got around 100 million views, making Russian propaganda TV very happy? That, and thousands of others, were actually manufactured by the propagandists at Social Design Agency.
14/20
Kiriyenko oversees the Presidential Directorate for Public Projects, which coordinates state-controlled narratives online. He has also been leading one of the most infamous Russian online influence operations, Doppelgänger, famous for spreading pro-Kremlin BS online.
15/20
In Ukraine, the influence operations overseen by Kiriyenko have also had huge negative impact. A 2024 report by Global Rights Compliance found systematic disinformation tied to Kiriyenko’s structures aimed at “manufacturing impunity” for Russian forces.
16/20
Kiriyenko’s tactics aren’t limited to Ukraine. In Moldova, Russian-backed media and troll farms, connected to his networks, have pushed narratives to undermine the pro-EU president Maia Sandu and pro-European forces ahead of the 2025 elections, per @IGTDS1.
17/20
In addition, Kiriyenko now chairs the supervisory board of Russia’s revived Intervision Song Contest — a Kremlin-backed alternative to Eurovision, promoting “traditional values” and resisting “woke” culture, serving as ideological soft power against the West.
18/20
As is tradition in Russia, Kiriyenko’s son, Vladimir, was appointed the CEO of VK, Russia’s flagship social network, in 2021. The Kremlin leadership likes to keep things in the family, especially when it comes to controlling key media platforms.
19/20
To conclude: What sets Kiriyenko apart is his fusion of old-school political technology & modern information warfare. He effectively blends domestic repression, foreign manipulation, and digital propaganda into a seamless strategy to protect the regime and export chaos.
20/20
The 2nd edition of “Vatnik Soup — The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” is officially out!
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.
1/18
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.
2/18
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.
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.
1/22
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.
2/22
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.
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.
1/14
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.
2/14
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.
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.
1/22
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,…
2/22
… 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”.
3/22
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.
1/24
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.
2/24
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.