Pekka Kallioniemi

Pekka Kallioniemi (born ) is a Finnish researcher and social media influencer. He is known for Vatnik Soup, a series of Twitter posts which covers Russian propaganda.

Biography Kallioniemi graduated from Kuusamo Business College. He obtained a Master's degree in interactive technology and a doctorate in 2018 from Tampere University. Later, he became a postdoctoral researcher there. Vatnik Soup Starting in 2022, Kallioniemi began a series of Twitter threads, which he called Vatnik Soup. This name references the word Vatnik, a Russian pejorative term for supporters of Vladimir Putin. The threads covered people and organizations whom Kallioniemi considered to be spreaders of Russian disinformation. Vatnik Soup was co-authored by Dutch historian Morten Hammeken.

Initially, he covered local Finnish figures such as Janus Putkonen and Johan Bäckman. His account became especially popular after he dedicated a series of posts to Patriarch Kirill, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Kallioniemi told The Baltic Sentinel, "I conduct qualitative research focusing on personas—understanding who spreads Kremlin narratives and what motivates them... I always try to refer to a source. I do add a bit of personal analysis, which would probably be excluded in actual scientific work, but I always cite sources. If I don't have a source, I don't make the claim. Truthfulness is the essence of what I do."

In September 2024, Kallioniemi published a book based on the series.

Awards Diplomatic Star of Lithuania for action against disinformation (Lithuania) Certificate of Appreciation from the Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security (Ukraine)