UK ministers receive prank calls from Russia: What is the latest Russian disinformation campaign

A video showing UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace speaking to the Ukrainian prime minister has gone viral, but for all the wrong reasons as the British lawmaker was duped by an impostor into believing he was in conversation with Denys Shmyhal.

Hours before the video call surfaced on the internet on Monday, Downing Street warned to brace for more videos and said that it believed Russian state actors were behind the hoaxes.

As per a report by Sky News, Downing Street accused the Kremlin of being behind the prank calls to secure sensitive or embarrassing information.

In the short clip, Wallace replies with scepticism and apparent confusion when the caller asks him questions.

According to The Guardian, the prankster pair, Vovan and Lexus, have claimed responsibility for the video, however, they have denied any links to Russia’s security services.

Let’s take a look at the prank call fiasco and other victims of Russian prank calls:

Prank call to Ben Wallace

In the video call, published on Monday, Wallace can be seen speaking to the imposter who is disguised as Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal.

The caller appears to be asking Wallace if he will support Ukraine’s nuclear ambitions, something Russia has already claimed earlier.

According to The Guardian, which quotes a defence source, it is a doctored clip.

“...What you don’t hear is the defence secretary also saying that the UK can’t have anything to do with alleged Ukrainian nuclear ambitions, because the UK is committed to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty,” the source said.

The video was shared by Vovan and Lexus on their YouTube channel on Monday evening.

The description of the video stated that it was only the “part one” of the conversation and “Wait for the full version of the conversation in a few days on our channel”.

The episode has raised serious questions about the security as the callers got through without any security checks.

Earlier prank calls to UK ministers

After Wallace tweeted about the prank call, Home Secretary Priti Patel too claimed to have been contacted by pranksters last week.

The pranksters also made an unsuccessful attempt to dupe Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.

The prank calls to Wallace and Patel are a reminder of a 2018 hoax which saw then-foreign secretary Boris Johnson discussing British-Russian relations with callers posing as the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan.

The same duo, Lexus and Vovan, had then uploaded an audio clip in which Johnson could be heard talking about the UK’s relations with Russia.

The professional prank callers, whose real names are Alexei Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, have got through to Elton John and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

With inputs from agencies

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