Latvian public media portal lsm.lv reports that the Russian prankster duo known as Vovan and Leksus managed to organise a video-call with then the Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš in September.
They pretended to be a high-ranking African politician who wanted to discuss the situation with the war in Ukraine and grain supplies. Other European leaders, including Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni, previously fell for the Russian pranksters’ joke interviews.
The conversation with Kariņš was recorded in video-call format. It’s length is approximately 20 minutes. Vovan and Leksus used AI technology to pretend to be a politician from Chad Moussa Faki, who is currently the President of the Commission of the African Union.
During this conversation Kariņš tried to convince his “African colleague” that what is happening now in Ukraine is Russia war of colonialism and that Baltic States know from experience what kind of damage this Russian colonialism can cause. He invited the African politician to not believe Moscow’s promises and said that the only way to talk to Russia is from a position of power, because, according to him, the Kremlin does not understand any other language.
Diāna Eglīte, press-secretary to the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained that the prime minister’s advisor and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were present for the conversation.
Before the conversation, Latvian institutions consulted with partners in the EU
and received confirmation that other leaders had similar conversations in the past.
Last year the Constitution Protection Bureau prevented a similar attempt by the two Russian pranksters to contact Kariņš and then the President of Latvia Egils Levits. This happened shortly after the incident when a missile hit Poland’s territory. The Russian pranksters attempted to pretend to be Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Lsm.lv report that Latvian authorities promise to improve internal procedures to prevent such incidents from repeating in the future.
“In our latest exclusive prank US citizen Krišjānis Kariņš continues the holy war with Baltic neighbours for Ukrainian grains, hoping to divert them to the empty Latvian sea ports,” Vovan and Leksus describe their conversation with Kariņš.
Russian comedians Vladimir Kuznetsov (Vovan) and Aleksey Stolyarov (Leksus) are known for their many pranks played on leaders of various countries. Since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war this duo have targeted mostly politicians from countries that are critical of Russia. It is possible they two operate with ties to Russian special services and their pranks are related to Russian hybrid war operations, lsm.lv reports.
Also read: Ukrainian politician suspected of treason
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