Re: Вторжение РФии в Украину......
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American propagandist Alexandra Jost, aka “Sasha” (@sashameetsrus). She’s best known for being paid by the Russian state to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda — and for doing it with a big smile.
Alexandra, now 26, was born in Hong Kong. Her father is from Texas, and her mother is from Siberia. According to her, she has “dreamed of living in Russia since childhood.” Sasha's mother runs a dance studio in Moscow and her younger brother is avoiding mobilization.
Since the beginning of her creator career, Sasha has been adamant about one thing: that she’s “never had to be paid” to speak of her “love” for Russia. But, as always with Russia, this turned out to be nothing but vranyo — a Russian “tactical lie.”
According to the Russian investigative outlet iStories, Jost has been on the payroll of Russian state media TV Novosti. Her 2023 tax data showed she was paid about $2,000 per month, though there’s a good chance she also received bonuses (“nadbavki”).
Alexandra’s content has high production value, and her videos have performed relatively well across various platforms. Most of her social media output revolves around one idea: portraying Russia in a positive light for foreigners while encouraging them to emigrate there.
At first, she claimed to be “apolitical” and mostly produced romanticized videos about life in Russia and the “Russian soul” — you know, the kind that conveniently avoid showing the poverty, violence, and other grim realities deeply embedded in Russian society.
After being exposed as a paid propagandist, Jost’s social media channels disappeared from YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. As is tradition, the fan of the authoritarian dictatorship complained about “censorship,” even though these platforms clearly prohibit state propaganda.
Banned on most platforms, Sasha finally found her home on Elon Musk’s X. She quickly garnered a fervent following — and even started talking politics! Suddenly, the “apolitical” travel vlogger had plenty to say about Ukraine and Ukrainians.
Over time — perhaps following instructions from her handlers — she began addressing geopolitics and especially the Russo-Ukrainian War, mainly targeting American audiences by suggesting that their “tax money” is being wasted in Ukraine.
In that sense, Sasha is like any other online vatnik, offering an extremely biased, one-sided view of current and past events. But what’s more relevant than her commentary is the soft-power propaganda she’s been producing in recent years.
With Russia, everything is a lie — a Potemkin faсade. Her job is to sell this faсade to naive English-speaking audiences, creating the illusion of a conservative, spiritual, and traditional country that values family. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
As we saw with Tucker Carlson’s trip to Moscow, Russia maintains a few polished urban centers, often featured in propaganda shots of metro stations, churches & other fancy buildings. These are then contrasted with poorer or unrestful regions of the West — especially the US.
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Originally Posted by Сиамчик
