Russian pranksters release hoax video call with UK’s David Cameron about Ukraine
- UK Foreign Office admitted Cameron had been hoaxed, says it’s a Russian information operation
Russian pranksters who often target people the Russian state is interested in released footage on Wednesday of a video call with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron after tricking him into thinking he was speaking to a former Ukrainian president.
London’s Foreign Office said earlier this month that Cameron had held a video call with someone purporting to be former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko before realising he was the victim of a hoax.
The call, which appears to have lasted around 15 minutes and in which Cameron is shown talking on his mobile phone dressed casually somewhere outside, was carried out by Russian pranksters who use the aliases “Vovan and Lexus”.
The duo is well-known inside Russia having duped a string of Western politicians over the years, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and, in 2022, Britain’s then-defence minister, Ben Wallace.
The Foreign Office said the call looked like a Russian operation designed to distract attention from Moscow’s war in Ukraine. It did not answer a question about the video’s authenticity.