Fidias Panayiotou should have remained a footnote in the digital age—a social media stuntman best remembered for licking toilets and chasing online relevance. Instead, he now sits in the European Parliament, voting against Ukraine and parroting Kremlin talking points. His trajectory from YouTube mediocrity to political power is not a tale of merit, but of manipulation, propelled by russian troll farms, bot networks, TikTok campaigns and dirty russian money.