In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll talk about @DD_Geopolitics, so-called useful idiots, and theorize on how DDG’s founder Sarah Bils become one. Bils is best-known for setting up the pro-Kremlin Donbass Devushka network and later rebranding it as DD Geopolitics.

1/16

This investigation was conducted by The Unintelligence Agency (TUA).

If you missed the first soup on Donbass Devushka, I suggest reading it now to understand what’s going on in this one:



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As we’ve established before, Russian active measures often look for “useful idiots”, or people who are willing to spread the Kremlin propaganda without them fully comprehending their goals:

3/16

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1590624121813368832

These people are often motivated by money, ideology, compromising material or their ego; I’m not a psychologist, but in Bils’ case I’d bet on both money and ego. Almost immediately after she started the Donbass Devushka network, she started grifting for money by selling...

4/16

...Z-merchandise and collecting donations for made-up causes and charities. Even her former colleague, @squatsons, seemed confused about the whole charity situation, and eventually admitted that he didn’t know where the money went - probably to Bils’ own pockets.

5/16

After the WSJ published their story on Bils, she claimed that TUA ruined her life. According to her, she had lost two jobs, two businesses & time with her child. She declared that this was due to people “doxxing” her. But Sarah ruined her life long before NAFO even existed.

6/16

According to court documents, she has a “long-term problem with drugs, alcohol or other substances”. She sold her child’s toys and was so addicted to being on her phone, that she neglected her child. The house was a mess and there were times she didn’t feed them.

7/16

She has a massive drinking problem, and she skipped deployments due to this. Once her ex-husband found her passed out on the floor while she was supposed to watch over their kid. She was sent home from deployment for being drunk. She often drank in the presence of her child.
8/16

According to her ex, she wanted to waive her rights as a parent since she can’t afford child support. She was also constantly cheating on him, as testified by her kid. After he filed for divorce, she invited her brother and her mom to live with them.

9/16

And about that doxxing: Bils has no trouble spreading other people’s personal information and calling for her fans to brigade against them.

She considers TUA and WSJ exposing her lies a “doxx” and constantly lies about the extent of these revelations.

10/16

You absolutely can’t trust anything Bils says, and she’s claimed to be Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian, Italian, Slovenian and Latvian. She’s also lied about her education, academic background (there isn’t any), and about... well, everything.

She’s from New Jersey.

11/16

You may ask, “why all these gossip-y details? Why do they even matter?” Well, these are the type of people Russian intelligence targets. Problematic figures who are looking for a some kind of external factor to solve all of their problems, usually related to money.

12/16

Now, we know that Bils has around 63 000 USD in loans and she’s willing to do anything to keep up with her lifestyle - even sell her child’s toys and try to steal Vicodin. I’m sure even Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un) agrees that Bils would be a perfect asset for the Kremlin.

13/16

DDG is still actively collecting “donations”, and all money goes to Sarah’s private account. The network was started in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but has since switched their focus to the next trendy thing, the Israel-Palestine conflict.

14/16

Bils/DDG have been accepted to Russia’s “inner circles”, and they are now invited to participate in silly events like the “Crisis of Freedom of Speech”. They’ve also tweeted statements from Hezbollah and invited guests from Iranian state-controlled propaganda channels.

15/16

This will conclude our long series on Donbass Devushka/DD Geopolitics/Sarah Bils. By now, DDG has become a rather minor actor when it comes pro-Kremlin fake news & propaganda, and it’s time to focus on actors and organizations that have actual impact on the information war.
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