In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Russian social media personality and vatnik archetype, Mr. G (@Wagnersfamily). He’s best-known for sharing the most outrageous Kremlin lies, albeit previously being extremely anti-Putin and Kremlin, even coining the term “vatnik”.

1/19

It’s worth noting, that G is an extremely irrelevant account and person, but his almost comical descent from an anti-Putin, fully fledged Russian Liberal, to full blown vatnik, who doesn’t hesitate to lie and naturally lives outside of Russia, is worth demonstrating.

2/19

In his liberal days G was dedicated to popularizing the vatnik meme. He ran the site together with his friend, and also the @trueVATNIK Twitter account, which went inactive in 2015, but was popular in circles opposed to Putin’s imperialist ambitions.

3/19 vatnik.today

G’s online activities attracted criticism from the Russian authorities, and drew attention from a local news site in Omsk. He was described as a traitor, & in defending himself he somewhat ironically described the “Russian” mindset that he himself would later fall into.

4/19

A far cry from his current views, G once believed that Russia was an imperialist power that was illegally occupying its neighbors, & that Russia should be broken into 14 parts. These views brought him to the attention of nationalists & attracted the attention of the FSB.

5/19

After the FSB issued a notice for his arrest, he fled to Mexico, where despite claims to be in Siberia, he resides today. According to Russian news articles at the time, G supposedly adopted surname from his American wife, as opposed to his original, Russian one.

6/19

Once in Mexico, Mr. G took an illegal 3 month excursion into the US, calling the “three month adventure” an “unforgettable one”. Only he can say why he wanted to visit the capital of western Satanism and LGBT degeneracy.

7/19

Mr. G even supposedly flew from Mexico to assist Maidan, making Molotovs and bringing tires to barricades. He was at one point in his life firmly in the pro-Ukrainian camp, and saw the Russian intervention in the Donbas for what it was – thinly veiled imperialism.

8/19

Sadly, since then, he has descended into the typical vatnik behaviour he once opposed. Without any sense of self irony, he now parrots the Kremlin party line about neo-Nazis in Ukraine, while unironically having become a white supremacist who rants about Zionists.

9/19

Ironically, G’s past means that the original About page describing the character of Vatnik was likely written by G himself. So, let’s take a moment to compare what is probably G’s own description of a Vatnik with his own behavior to see how far he has fallen.

10/19

"Conservative traditionalist who loves Putin" ✅

G describes himself as a right wing conservative. He considers feminism the origin of “western degradation”, even running an anti-feminist group on VK. He proudly declares he voted for Putin, describing him as a great man.

11/19

"Wants to revive the USSR. Hates the USA, Europe and Allies." ✅

G now wishes for the return of the USSR, expressing his sadness at how impossible it seems. He considers the US and allies satanic, being willing to accept nuclear war and the end of Russia to wipe them out.

12/19

"Terrible homophobe." ✅

G expresses his terrible homophobia in his tweets, considering a single pride parade to have caused the “fall” of Serbia, and celebrating the attitudes of the Kremlin towards LGBT.

13/19

"Prone to lies and violence, but actually very cowardly" ✅

G pretends that he’s served in the Russian military, which is an outright lie. He’s been hiding out in Mexico & considers himself banned from going home. He did reach level 3 as a Local Guide on Google, though!

14/19

"Believes in a conspiracy of the whole world against Russia" ✅

G believes that the US government is controlled by “Zionists” as some kind of satanic ring. He considers that Russia is currently trying to save the world from this “satanic evil”.

15/19

"Dreams of a Leader who will rule Russia with a harsh hand" ✅

G considers Russia lucky to have a “strong leader” in Putin. He considers beating up liberals “not even assault”, because allowing them to speak “threatens Russian independence and integrity”.

16/19

"Lacks self irony. Hypocrite" ✅

G definitely lacks self irony having become the very archetype of the vatniks that he once mocked. His hypocrisy is on constant display as he rails against Russian liberals & those who’ve fled Russia, from the safety of his home in Mexico.

17/19

But I also have another theory – maybe Mr. G is afraid of his home country’s intelligence agencies and tries to make amends by doing this over-the-top anti-Western persona? Either way, G’s online antics have reached a comical level.

18/19

For this soup, I decided to do something I should do more – I asked G for a comment. Soon after I told him about the upcoming soup, there was talk on Z spaces that people are “looking for info on me”. Maybe you wanted all this liberal stuff to stay a secret, @Wagnersfamily?
19/19

This soup was brewed in collaboration with the @UnintelAgency.

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