In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Canadian social media personality and QA tester, Patrick JM (@vonClownsewitz). He’s best-known for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda & for creating a fake persona as an academic expert on international relations and strategic studies.

1/19

This investigation was put together by The Unintelligence Agency.

Patrick is a self-proclaimed expert on international relations, regularly pissing on people who comment on geopolitical issues but who have no background on the topic.

2/19

According to the man himself, he’s a “published strategic analyst” who does “defense research” and who is also “speaking at panels.” He also claims to be one of his institutions Russia experts, which is of course yet another lie.

3/19

Let’s start with the obvious: Paddy is not an expert on anything, and his credentials are completely made up. In reality, he double-majored in studio arts and on political science, probably having a Bachelor’s level degree in both.

4/19

By the way, the picture in the first tweet is his campaign poster for running to become a student representative at his university. Including the Soviet flag and the cat ears in the photo was a brave move, but unfortunately he lost the election.

At the time, he was 35.

5/19

Paddy’s name is mentioned in exactly one technical paper that’s basically a pamphlet, but not as an author but as a contributor to the technical analysis.
In reality, Paddy works as a video game tester at a local company that pays him around 2CAD/hour over the minimum wage.
6/19

The online fake persona he created has landed him some spotlights as a geopolitical analyst. He’s appeared on Sarah Bils’ Donbass Devushka podcast before Bils’ fake persona was exposed and the channel was re-branded as @DD_Geopolitics:

7/19

Donbass Devushka | Vatnik Soup

DDG also promoted Paddy’s hilariously bad analysis on Prigozhin’s mutiny in June 2023. He’s also spread false narratives on Holodomor, a Soviet policy that resulted in millions of dead Ukrainians in 1932–33 due to starvation.

8/19

He participated as an expert in @MarioNawfal’s Twitter Space about the Prigozhin mutiny. The other top analysts that were commenting on this dire situation were @KimDotcom and DDG activist @Kahlissee, who will be introduced properly on #vatniksoup at a later date.

9/19

According to @elonmusk, this particular Space was the “best coverage of the situation I’ve seen so far, ” so Paddy’s contributions in the Space must’ve been pretty good.

10/19

In July 2023, Patrick was a guest Riverwest Radio/WXRW, a community radio that provides “an outlet for marginalized and alternative voices”, in which he was described as an “IR academic” and “social media superstar”.

11/19

Paddy seems to be a big fan of communism and the USSR, often posing with the hammer and sickle flag in the background. I mean, the man even bought a brand new flag for Russia’s Victory Day in 2020.

12/19

He also has a tendency to laugh at people who have been tortured and beat up, like he did in the case @cossackgundi. Imagine being a dweeb and laughing at people who are ready to defend innocent people from genocidal maniacs and are then tortured for that.

13/19

When discussing Ukraine, Patrick’s all about them Nazis. Below you can see the man himself wearing a Marilyn Manson shirt depicting the Nazi eagle. As you can see, he’s also wearing a red fedora with some leopard stripes – pretty cool, eh?

14/19

In addition, we have the same old boring stuff: Bucha denial, promotion of Mariupol’s Potemkin village (and even comparing it to Grozny!), downplaying Ukraine’s attack in Kherson, and claims that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia wasn’t planned in 2014.

15/19

Paddy seems to dislike NAFO, probably because of its effectiveness. He often refers to them as “furries”, probably while still wearing the cat ears you can see in the first tweet. Incidentally, he likes to call NAFO activists “incels”.

Could he just be projecting?

16/19

Mr. Clown was one of the many people who sneered over Merdan E doxxing the wrong Pekka Kallioniemi, possibly putting the man in real danger. I just want to tell you Paddy, that I don’t hold any grudge over this but I also disagree with you over what’s doxxing and what’s not.
17/19

Now here’s some kitchen sink psychology: Paddy’s someone who’s attempting to connect with a particular part of his identity and family history, and doing it in the most cringe, 13-year-old edgelord way possible, despite having been in his 30s and now his 40s.

18/19

I would like to close this soup with the tweet below and beg to differ with Paddy here: I’d argue that even funnier than a racecar driver turning geopol expert is the game tester making barely minimum wage at 41, promoting himself as a geopolitical expert.

19/19