Impersonators get a kick out of prank calls and it’s a greater boost to pose as an authority figure on a deceptive call. Russian pranksters reached out to Angela Merkel by phone, posing as Ukraine’s ex-President Petro Poroshenko, to chat about developments in Ukraine and Belarus. Merkel was skeptical about the caller on the other line as it did flare up some red flags for her.
Merkel’s office confirmed that the former German politician received a call from a person claiming to be Poroshenko. The conversation took place with a German-Ukrainian interpreter from the German Foreign Ministry’s language service.
After the suspicious call, the office did report the call to the Ministry.
The duo behind the prank call was Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov who posted quotes from the conversation on their Telegram channel. They make a hobby out of poking fun at European politicians; having shamed French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Andrzej Duda and then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Elton John and Prince Harry, with similar calls.
Merkel discussed the Minsk peace agreement that had benefited Ukraine by providing more time. Merkel and Poroshenko have worked together in the past to implement the peace agreement. Additionally, she expressed disapproval at the repression in autocratic Belarus.
The recording didn’t expose anything new since Merkel shared the same details in her previous public announcements. The consistency in her speech spared her some embarrassment in the public light.