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Vatnik Soup is a Twitter-based series of threads of Russian disinformation actors that are compiled by Pekka Kallioniemi, a computer lecturer from Tampere University, Finland. [1] [2] The name comes from the pejorative word for a Russian vatnik which refers to the cold-weather army clothes that Russian soldiers wear, but has since recently being used to refer to supporters or fellow travellers of Vladimir Putin or Ruscism. [3]
Since starting in 2022, Kallioniemi has compiled over 200 threads of people and organisations, mainly useful idiots who have been distributing Russian disinformation on social media, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The threads initially profiled local Finnish fellow travellers such as Johan Bäckman, [4] but has since expanded to include people such Max Blumenthal and Viktor Orbán, and more controversially, public figures seen to have soft stances towards Russia, like Pope Francis. [5] It is now seen as part of the NAFO counter-disinformation network against Russian disinformation.
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American conservative political commentator and writer who hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News from 2016 to 2023. Since his contract with Fox News was terminated, he has hosted Tucker on X. An advocate of the former U.S. president Donald Trump, Carlson has been described as "perhaps the highest-profile proponent of Trumpism", and as "the most influential voice in right-wing media, without a close second."
Matthew Colin Taibbi is an American author, journalist, and podcaster. He has reported on finance, media, politics, and sports. A former contributing editor for Rolling Stone, he is the author of several books, former co-host of the Useful Idiots podcast, and publisher of the Racket News on Substack.
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Events in 2020 pertaining to politics and government in the United States.
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Donald Trump, who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, announced his campaign for the 2024 U.S. presidential election on November 15, 2022. After he won a landslide victory in the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, Trump was generally described as being the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. He was officially nominated on July 15, 2024, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, when he also announced JD Vance, the junior U.S. Senator from Ohio, as the nominee for vice president. If elected into office, Trump would be the oldest president in American history by the end of his term, and the second to serve a non-consecutive term after Grover Cleveland.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine led to widespread international condemnation by political parties and international organisations, as well as by people and groups in the areas of entertainment, media, business, and sport, where boycotts of Russia and Belarus also took place.
The following scientific events occurred in 2023.
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