Politicians, Royals: Illustrious Career Of Russian Pranksters Vovan-Lexus

"Sometimes the right decision isn't always the easy one," UK's Prince Harry said on a call with climate activist Greta Thunberg. "There's a hell of a lot of people around the world that can identify and respect us for putting our family first."

Prince Harry stayed on call for around an hour with whom he thought was Ms Thunberg, speaking about his decision to step back from royal duties while also accusing Donald Trump of having "blood on his hands". Ms Thunberg though would deny having this conversation.

Five years later, Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus found a new target in Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti, among a string of influential personalities they have targeted in a decade. posing as Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, the duo called up Mr Kurti to congratulate him on his victory in the February 9 legislative elections.

Unable to tell that on the other end of the line are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, Mr Kurti slams a "hybrid war" against his government particularly by Russia and Serbia, blames Trump's special envoy Richard Grenell "starring role in the overthrow of my government" in 2020.

Vovan and Lexus have left many renowned personalities red-faced, among them former British prime minister Boris Johnson, who said he would've led a foreign legion into Ukraine if he had the training. Posing as a French economist Jacques Attali, he said,  "The Ukrainians, they have to decide what they want, but clearly I think if it was February 2022 over again, I think (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky would accept, provided there was a NATO protection and a NATO security guarantee, I think Zelensky would accept the loss of the Donbass and the Crimea, or he would have done. Whether he can do that now, I doubt."

"And the West should allow Ukraine to hit any targets in Russia with long-range missiles, first of all, to bomb the Crimean Bridge," Mr Johnson further said. He had earlier been targeted by the pranksters in 2018, when they posed as then Armenian prime minister and got him talking about UK-Russia ties, Syria and Salisbury poisoning.

They also released footage of a video call with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron after tricking him into thinking he was speaking to former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. He is heard talking about a private dinner he had with then presidential candidate Donald Trump in April, during which he lobbied Trump to allow Republicans to vote in favour of US military aid for Ukraine.

Around the same time came the video call with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who was tricked into believing he was talking to Poroshenko.

Sikorski discussed Poland's support for Ukraine and other topics, the video of which was released when he held talks with then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an attempt to embarrass him. Sikorski is heard saying he thinks it will take a decade or more for Ukraine to join the European Union, that he thinks some Western countries want to use the prospect of Kyiv joining NATO as a possible bargaining chip with Russia, and that fighting a war with Moscow in western Europe is "an absolute red line."

Thinking she was speaking to two African politicians, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni talked of "a lot of fatigue" with the Ukraine war and that everyone would soon realise that a solution acceptable to both sides was required. Other topics mentioned included Kyiv's failure to secure much territory against Russia during the summer counteroffensive, European energy security, and illegal migration in the EU, according to Russia Today.

Pretending to be the French president Emmanuel Macron, they tricked the Polish president Andrzej Duda into giving them sensitive information after a missile exploded in eastern Poland in November 2022. Over more than seven minutes, Duda, sounding stressed, tells the caller that then US President Joe Biden does not blame Russia for the missile incident but that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists it was a Russian-launched projectile. This was the second time they got to Duda, the previous time, they posed as United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

In 2022, Vovan and Lexus released a video on RuTube, a Russian video platform, showing their conversation with Harry Potter series author JK Rowling. The prankster, claiming to be Zelensky, asked JK Rowling if it was possible to impose any sanctions on Russian actor Aleksandr Kuznetsov, who played Helmut in the Fantastic Beasts movie, at which the author replies "Fantastic Beasts has been a very interesting experience. I'll certainly talk to people and see what we can do." Later on, they explained to the author that Harry Potter's scar looks like the "Z", the symbol used by the Russian on their military vehicles, and ask her to change it to the Ukrainian trident.

The conversation continued and the prankster told JK Rowling that they were writing "Avada Kedavra" on the Ukrainian missiles. To end the prank, the fake Zelensky asked Rowling to say "hello" to his two favourite Russian writers Vovan and Lexus.

Vovan and Lexus started playing pranks on phone in the 2000s, usually targeting pop culture celebrities and then domestic politicians. They jumped up to the global scale in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, bringing them together to take on Ukrainian and Western targets. They pranked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, among other Ukrainian leaders. Their first prominent international call was to Elton John, pretending to be Russian president Vladimir Putin, in 2015. The British singer, a sharp critic of Russia's anti-LGBT+ laws had said he wanted to meet Mr Putin to speak about gay rights. They later went on to prank Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, among others.

Vovan and Lexus have time and again denied accusations that they have links to Russia's intelligence services, though they often ask their victims questions that would be of interest to the Russian state. Last year, they were given a top state award in the Kremlin.