In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce an American conspiracy theorist, podcaster & antisemite, Candace Owens. She’s best known for spreading conspiracy theories, attacking Ukraine, promoting pro-Kremlin BS, and becoming a favorite of Russian state media.

Candace started her career as an intern at Vogue magazine but later moved into political commentary. Her early career focused on criticizing Republicans, calling their antics “bat-shit crazy.” In 2016, her blog even published an article about Trump’s penis size.

That same year, she launched a doxxing website called SocialAutopsy. In response, people began posting Owens’s personal information online. During the controversy, she gained support from figures such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Cernovich. And just like that, she had become a conservative.

By late 2017, Owens had once again rebranded herself, this time as a Trump supporter. She began criticizing her previous positions on systemic inequality and soon became affiliated with figures such as Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and “Heil Hitler” rapper Kanye West.

In 2021, Owens launched her own show on The Daily Wire. She regularly interviewed prominent MAGA figures, including UFC president Dana White & even Donald Trump himself. She left The Daily Wire in 2024, reportedly due to controversy surrounding her antisemitic statements.

During her rise to infamy, Candace promoted the Freedom Phone, a cheap Chinese smartphone reportedly worth around $120, as a $600 “freedom” device. She also promoted the “anti-woke” bank GloriFi, which soon shut down after running out of money.

She has downplayed Nazi atrocities, such as Josef Mengele’s medical experiments, as just “bizarre propaganda”. She’s also promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories, including the blood libel accusing Jews of kidnapping children for secret religious rituals.

The very real mass kidnapping of children by Russia doesn’t seem to bother her though. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Owens rarely discussed Russia or Ukraine. That changed in 2022, when she began copy-pasting many of the Kremlin’s narratives about the war.

Her unhinged claims ranged from Putin being better than Western leaders, to Western media being more propagandistic than Russian media, to Ukraine supposedly “not existing until 1989.”

Video courtesy of @TheMilkBarTV (do follow them!).

On the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion, bombing Ukrainian cities and civilians, Owens joined the “Russian Lives Matter” campaign, which was heavily amplified by Russian state media and Kremlin-linked troll and bot networks.

Throughout the war, Owens consistently argued against military aid to Ukraine and portrayed the conflict as a corrupt scheme benefiting politicians, defense companies, and unnamed global elites, the usual “they”.

Many of her claims focused on NATO expansion, which Candace framed as “the West expanding into Russian territory.” She never explained which territories she was referring to, and I would bet she has no clue either.

One of her most viral claims involved allegations that Olena Zelenska had spent enormous sums on luxury shopping during official visits abroad. As usual, the claims were quickly debunked, but that had little effect on her fan base.

Naturally, she has also attacked the Ukrainian president himself. She’s called Zelenskyy a “mobster” and the “ultimate criminal.” According to Owens, Zelenskyy is “stealing from our [US] people,” and she has even questioned his sexual orientation.

Owens also claims that Ukraine is persecuting Christians, when in fact it has only cracked down on the Moscow Patriarchate, basically just an extension of Russian intelligence agency FSB.

She neatly forgets that Russia has bombed hundreds of Ukrainian Christian churches.

Owens’s messages are heavily amplified by Russia’s media ecosystem. State media channels, officials, and Kremlin-linked bot and troll networks aggressively push her content, and since her visit to Moscow she has gained a large number of new followers.

Russian media frequently presents Owens as proof that “trad” Americans are turning against Ukraine and rejecting support for Kyiv. Her statements regularly appear across state-controlled outlets and pro-Kremlin media ecosystems.

Owens has also engaged publicly with Russian fascist Aleksandr Dugin, a leading advocate of Russian imperialism, and is now attending the same event as him. Dugin has repeatedly called for the destruction of Ukrainian statehood and for confrontation with the US and Europe.

Owens has increasingly portrayed Russia as a defender of traditional Christian values, while describing Ukraine and the broader West as morally and spiritually corrupt. Incidentally, she’s Catholic, a religion heavily persecuted by Russia, also a deeply racist society.

On 4 June 2026, Owens appeared at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (@SPIEF) as a prop. For the first 50 minutes she was barely acknowledged, and when she finally got to speak, she promoted her book and praised Russia. Her handler must have been pleased.

Candace is just yet another opportunistic grifter who picks her whole personality and politics based on the current trend or chance to make money. And Russia loves this type of immoral opportunist ready to promote its genocidal wars for clout or cash: a match made in hell.

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