In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce an Italian journalist and political commentator, Marco Travaglio. He’s best known for being the most prominent pro-Russian voice in Italy and for spreading Russian disinformation almost every day on Italian TV.
Throughout his career, Travaglio has worked for numerous publications. He was one of Silvio Berlusconi’s fiercest opponents, and their televised confrontation became an iconic moment in the history of Italian television.
Travaglio has collaborated with Michele Santoro, one of Italy’s most anti-Western journalists. In 2009, he founded Il Fatto Quotidiano, one of Italy’s most anti-Western newspapers, politically aligned with the Five Star Movement, one of Italy’s most anti-Western parties. Can you see the pattern?
Travaglio’s complicated relationship with reality became a work of art on 23 February 2022, when he called the Russian invasion of Ukraine “fake news”. A few hours later, Russian tanks crossed the border. The tweet is still there.
Travaglio is infamous for appearing almost every day on Italian TV to spread Russian propaganda: according to him, the war in Ukraine is now the West’s fault, Maidan was a US-funded coup, Putin invaded because he was forced to, and so on. The usual vatnik BS.
In this video, for example, Travaglio claims that it was the US that decided Russia was our enemy, whilst Putin was cooperating with us. The fact that Russia invaded Georgia and Ukraine seems irrelevant to him. Milosevic wasn’t our enemy either. We’re all friends. Except the US.
Bucha? According to Travaglio, it was “almost certainly” the Russians, but “that’s war”, and establishing who is responsible for the massacre “doesn’t shift the judgement”. There is no need to add anything further.
Mariupol, the deliberate Russian bombing of the drama theater with children inside, murdering hundreds of civilians?
For Travaglio, the attack on the theatre resulted only in “one person seriously injured and no fatalities according to preliminary informations”: as with Bucha, this fake caution of his always points in the direction that is favorable to Russia.
And never mind the rest of Russia’s genocidal crimes there.
Travaglio’s newspaper is always very generous when it comes to giving a platform to Russian propaganda. It frequently features vatnik liar Jeffrey Sachs, either as a contributor or an interviewee. Its contributors also include: – Fabio Mini, a former NATO general who believes in chemtrails;
– Elena Basile, famous for comparing Assange to Jesus Christ and Iranian protesters to terrorists;
– Alessandro Orsini, previously souped: vatniksoup.com
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– Vauro, an old tankie who usually depicts Zelenskyy with an antisemitic-caricature nose; – Natangelo, a mediocre cartoonist who loves to attack Zelenskyy and the EU; – And many other weird characters. Travaglio is the líder máximo of this anti-Western, anti-Ukraine freak show.
Some of their most infamous headlines: – “We have lost the war. The surrender. The President: ‘Farewell to Crimea and Donbas’. But NATO and the EU insist.” – “Ursula dreams of war: ‘Weapons like vaccines’. The madness: von der Leyen wants more instruments of death against Russia.”
– “Europe declares war on peace. Yes to rearmament, no to negotiations on Ukraine.” – “The war could have ended in a month: peace sabotaged by Bojo, the US and the EU. Foreign Affairs: agreement in March 2022 on a neutral and European Kyiv.” – “The more we arm Kyiv, the more Putin advances.”
Recently, in Travaglio’s narrative, the Baltic states have come under fire, in order to justify a possible Russian invasion. Travaglio says that the Baltic states are leading Europe into a Third World War.
According to Marco, the Baltics are a threat against which Russia must defend itself “even by attacking first”. It would not therefore be Russia invading the Baltics that would trigger World War III, but the Baltics “forcing” Russia to invade them. Pure madness.
Travaglio is also famous for his endorsement of Donald Trump in the 2024 elections: in his view, with an “isolationist president” like Trump, there would have been fewer wars. “If Trump were in power, there would be no war in Ukraine; that’s a mathematical certainty.” He is the man of prophecies.
Travaglio has numerous convictions for defamation. The way he recently commented on Ursula von der Leyen makes it clear why: he claims that the decision on European rearmament was taken by von der Leyen and “those who pay her bribes”. Just like that, without any evidence.
Recently, the Italian Order of Journalists confirmed that Travaglio’s views are “openly biased”, and that his account of the events at Maidan — and in particular of Victoria Nuland’s role — is false. @marsetac.bsky.social
Perhaps this also confirms how his dear vatnik Jeffrey Sachs lied to Carlo Calenda in this other famous scene from Italian TV.
Or compare with Sachs’s previous statements on Ukraine from April 7, 2014:
If a journalist has so many convictions for defamation, if he spreads so much fake news and if he runs a newspaper full of Russian propaganda and promotes so many vatniks, perhaps he’s in the wrong job. One thing is for sure: Travaglio’s relationship with facts and reality is not his strong point.
Thanks to @anderbruckes.bsky.social for this special minestrone. Follow @vatniksoup-it.bsky.social for this soup in Italian soon. Russia spends $5 billion a year on propaganda or subversion to manufacture support for its invasions through tailored narratives spread by vatniks and useful idiots like Marco Travaglio. Fact-based research to counter them takes time and effort—please support our work: vatniksoup.com
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