waif in his underwear

A literal translation of мальчик в трусиках, a Russian idiom meaning a helpless person. A reverse shibboleth used by one of Seymour Hersh's unnamed 'sources' to let the world know that Hersh was catfished / false-flagged by a Russian disinformation agent.
"Zelensky has no plan, except to hang on. It’s as if he’s an orphan - a poor waif in his underwear - and we have no real idea of what Zelensky and his crowd are thinking."

TASS
by Russkyi mir July 28, 2023
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poor waif in his underwear

A person who blows their cover as a Kremlin propagandist.
“Seymour Hersh was a poor waif in his underwear when quoting his source, a supposed “anonymous US official”, who used the russian idiom “waif in his underwear”, which until then was not used in English.”
by atomicapproach July 28, 2023
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a poor waif in his underwear

A pro-Russian journalist or Russian/Kremlin official who attempts to pass off fake quotes as real things said by government or military officials in Western countries but are clearly fake due to translated Russian phrases, strange wording, words being used in strange or unnatural ways, etc.

The phrase comes from an article written by Seymour Kersh, a pro-Russian journalist. In the article, he claimed an anonymous American official called President Zelenskyy of Ukraine 'a poor waif in his underwear'. However, the term 'waif' is extremely uncommon in American English, and the whole phrase was a Russian meme until the publishing of the article.
Seymour Hersh was a poor waif in his underwear when quoting his source, a supposed 'anonymous US official', who used the Russian idiom 'a poor waif in his underwear', which until then was not used in English.

Pro-Kremlin social media users were floundering like poor waifs in their underwear to dismiss the initial use of 'a poor waif in his underwear' as a mere translation issue without explaining why there would be a translation issue between a US journalist and a US official.
by True Squatch July 29, 2023
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a poor waif in his underwear

a person who has blown their cover as a Kremlin propagandist, especially when it is unclear they even knew they were one
Seymour Hersh was a poor waif in his underwear when quoting his source, a supposed “anonymous US official”, who used the russian idiom “waif in his underwear”, which until then was not used in English.
by 504jdw July 29, 2023
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a poor waif in his underwear

people who blow their cover as Kremlin propagandists
He called him"a poor waif in his underwear", so he's definitely not a native English speaker
by saint-G July 28, 2023
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