Constitution Protection Bureau (SAB) has successfully prevented prank calls from notorious Russian pranksters Vovan and Leksus intended for high-ranking Latvian officials.
SAB informs that Russia employs different manipulative methods in so-called influence operations, including using fake identities in attempts to organise phone conversations with state officials to discredit them.
In the context of the recent missile incident in Poland, there were attempts to organise a phone conversation between a fake Latvia’s President Egils Levits and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenbergs.
Pranksters also had plans to pretend to be Polish President Andrzej Duda to prank Latvia’s Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš.
SAB informed Latvian’s top ranking officials of the planned manipulations, successfully preventing them from happening.
Shortly after the missile incident in Poland, President Andrzej Duda received a prank call from someone pretending to be French President Emmanuel Macron.
A recording of their conversation was later leaked to the internet by notorious Russian pranksters Vovan and Leksus.
SAB reminds that there have been numerous similar situations involving representatives of Latvia media and state institutions in the past.
For example, last year Vovan and Leksus, real names Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, pretending to be Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s associate Leonid Volkov, offered to hold phone and video conference calls.
Although the two pranksters claim to be independent activists, SAB believes their operations are coordinated, coincide with Kremlin’s interests and are part of Russia’s operations of influence.
SAB invites Latvian state institutions, NGOs and media representatives to stay alert – carefully consider and check potential cooperation projects and dialog partners to avoid becoming victims of political manipulations.