Who are Vovan and Lexus, the Russian pranksters whose latest victim was Polish president Andrzej Duda?

What happened during the call with Duda?

In a new recording posted by the pranksters, Duda can be heard thanking a man who he believed to be President Macron in a call the Polish premier has received after a missile explosion that killed two. In the recording, Duda gives details of the incident, of his plans to request NATO consultations, and of being careful not to exacerbate the situation with Russia, Reuters reported.

Over a call exceeding seven minutes, Duda says that US President Joe Biden does not blame Russia for the missile incident but Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists the missile was launched by Russia.

“Do you think I want to have war with Russia? Believe me, I don’t want to have. I don’t want to have war with Russia, and believe me I am extra careful, extra careful,” he was quoted as saying by BBC.

The Polish President’s office had said in response, “During the call, President Andrzej Duda realised from the unusual way the interlocutor conducted the conversation that there might have been an attempted hoax attempt and ended the conversation.”

Vovan and Lexus’ past prank calls

During their previous conversation with Duda in 2020, where the pranksters posed as Guterres, they asked him questions about Ukraine, Russia, and his fresh re-election. Two officials from Poland’s mission to the UN were dismissed over the incident.

Vovan and Lexus are also believed to be behind a hoax call to Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey and at least four other mayors of large European cities, posing as Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, Der Spiegel reported in June this year. In a mail to the German news organisation, the duo took responsibility for the fake video conversations.

The duo took credit for a prank on Harry Potter series author JK Rowling, uploading the video on Rutube, a video-sharing platform. They posed as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and discussed Rowling’s efforts to support children in the country that has been in conflict with Russia. The callers suggested changing Harry Potter’s lightning-bolt-shaped scar on his forehead to the Ukrainian coat of arms because the current iteration looks like a “Z,” a symbol of support for the Russian invasion, Washington Post reported.

The pranksters posing as Zelenskyy also said the Ukrainian military was writing “Avada Kedavra” — the killing curse in the Harry Potter series — on its missiles. They also asked Rowling about Albus Dumbledore being gay. The call ended with three people appearing on screen wearing T-shirts saying “Only Putin”.

YouTube removed Vovan and Lexus’ channel shortly after footage of prank telephone calls with UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel were uploaded in March this year. They talked to the two UK officials posing as Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and discussed Ukraine’s status in NATO, arms supplies, and foreign interference in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

UK’s Prince Harry was also a victim of two prank calls from the Russian duo. According to the BBC, Prince Harry discussed various issues after they impersonated Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. In the phone calls, Prince Harry is said to criticise Donald Trump over climate change and describe his decision to end official royal duties as “not easy”. One of the pranksters also suggested that Greta should marry Prince George to further her climate cause, at which Harry laughs.

In May 2018, Boris Johnson, then the foreign secretary of the UK, spoke to who he thought was the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, for 18 minutes about Vladimir Putin, the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

In 2015, Russian TV aired a recording of singer Elton John speaking through an interpreter to a man he believes to be Russian president Vladimir Putin. He is heard discussing gay rights and the possibility of visiting Moscow with Putin.

Harmless pranks or Russian propoganda?

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking after the leader was allegedly pranked by Vovan and Lexus, blamed the Russian government for the prank calls. “This is standard practice for Russian information operations. Disinformation is a tactic straight from the Kremlin playbook to try to distract from their illegal activities in Ukraine and the human rights abuses being committed there,” he was quoted as saying by Forbes.

Wallace too pointed fingers at the Russian government. “Things must be going so badly for the Kremlin that they are now resorting to pranks and video fakes. Not the actions of a confident Government, but then again after the Salisbury Cathedral sightseeing story, anything is possible,” Wallace was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

The duo, however, denied the Kremlin’s involvement in their actions. They insist that they have multiple mobile phones, sim cards, and volunteers to help them with the pranks. “We work for ourselves, for nobody else. People are always offering us to get involved in their dirty games. But we only choose the subjects we are interested in ourselves,” they told The Guardian.