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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 that 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]
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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.
The Vatnik Soup series was published as a book in September 2024. [6] It has since been translated into Danish with a Czech edition also being released in September 2025.[ citation needed ]
