Warsaw, Poland – Polish President Andrzej Duda has fallen prey to a duo of Russian pranksters for the second time this week.
On November 15, the night a missile hit a Polish village near the border with Ukraine, Duda held a 7-minute call with French President Emmanuel Macron. At least that’s what he was led to believe.
The recording of the phone call, held in English, was later posted online by Russian prankster duo Vovan and Lexus, who managed to dupe Duda for the second time in recent years – after a 2020 prank-call pretending to be UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres while Duda was campaigning for reelection.
In the audio shared on the internet, Duda and fake-Macron can be heard discussing the possible origins of the deadly explosion – now ascertained to have been a stray Ukrainian missile launched to intercept a Russian attack – and the next steps to take should the missile prove to be Russian.
“Emmanuel, believe me, I am extra careful. I don’t blame Russians. This is war, and I think that both sides will accuse [each] other”, Duda can be heard saying, later cutting the conversation short when the hoax caller said he was “tired” of both Biden and Zelensky, “especially Volodymyr”.
On Tuesday, the Polish President’s office confirmed that the call, which came amid widespread fears regarding the implications of the missile blast in Poland, had in fact been a hoax.
“After the missile explosion in Przewodow, during the ongoing calls with heads of state and government, a person claiming to be French President Emmanuel Macron was connected,” his office wrote on Twitter.
“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.”
Duda’s office later told the Polish Press Agency that the president had spoken to the real Macron the following morning. Security services are now investigating the incident “to clarify how it had happened”.
Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus have in the past managed to trick the likes of Macron, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, or Elton John, among others.
Kafkadesk 
Warsaw, Poland – Polish President Andrzej Duda has fallen prey to a duo of Russian pranksters for the second time this week.
On November 15, the night a missile hit a Polish village near the border with Ukraine, Duda held a 7-minute call with French President Emmanuel Macron. At least that’s what he was led to believe.
The recording of the phone call, held in English, was later posted online by Russian prankster duo Vovan and Lexus, who managed to dupe Duda for the second time in recent years – after a 2020 prank-call pretending to be UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres while Duda was campaigning for reelection.
In the audio shared on the internet, Duda and fake-Macron can be heard discussing the possible origins of the deadly explosion – now ascertained to have been a stray Ukrainian missile launched to intercept a Russian attack – and the next steps to take should the missile prove to be Russian.
“Emmanuel, believe me, I am extra careful. I don’t blame Russians. This is war, and I think that both sides will accuse [each] other”, Duda can be heard saying, later cutting the conversation short when the hoax caller said he was “tired” of both Biden and Zelensky, “especially Volodymyr”.
On Tuesday, the Polish President’s office confirmed that the call, which came amid widespread fears regarding the implications of the missile blast in Poland, had in fact been a hoax.
“After the missile explosion in Przewodow, during the ongoing calls with heads of state and government, a person claiming to be French President Emmanuel Macron was connected,” his office wrote on Twitter.
“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.”
Duda’s office later told the Polish Press Agency that the president had spoken to the real Macron the following morning. Security services are now investigating the incident “to clarify how it had happened”.
Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus have in the past managed to trick the likes of Macron, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, or Elton John, among others.