Polish leader briefs Russian pranksters posing as French president
22 November 2022, 16:44
Andrzej Duda’s office said that appropriate services are checking how the pranksters could have reached Mr Duda – for the second time.
Russian comedians pretending to be the French president tricked the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, into giving them sensitive information after a missile exploded in eastern Poland last week.
Mr Duda’s office confirmed on Tuesday that he was put through last week to a person claiming to be France’s president Emmanuel Macron.
His office said it was one of many international calls that the president received at a tense time on November 15, just after a missile landed in eastern Poland, close to the border with Ukraine, killing two men.
Nato and Poland’s leaders have said the missile most likely came from a Ukrainian air defence system that fired in response to a barrage of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
The office said that appropriate services are checking how the pranksters could have reached Mr Duda – for the second time.
In 2020 they talked to him while posing as the UN secretary-general.
In the new recording posted on YouTube by Russian pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, known as Vovan and Lexus, Mr Duda can be heard thanking a man whom he believes to be Mr Macron for calling.
Speaking in English, Mr Duda relays details of the missile incident, of his plans to request Nato consultations, and of being very careful not to exacerbate the situation with Russia, which invaded neighbouring Ukraine on February 24.
Over more than seven minutes, Mr Duda, sounding stressed, tells the caller that US president Joe Biden does not blame Russia for the missile incident but that Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky insists it was a Russian-launched projectile.
He says he himself is being “extra careful” not to blame Russia but that Poland will seek security consultations with all of its Nato partners.
Opposition politicians accusing Mr Duda and his office of being overly lax with security.
Rozmowa prezydenta Dudy z rosyjskimi blogerami, podającymi się za Prezydenta Francji, to kompromitacja służb specjalnych i porażka instytucji, które powinny dokładnie sprawdzać, kogo dopuszczają do głowy państwa. Uderza to w nasze bezpieczeństwo i opinie w oczach sojuszników.
— Tomasz Trela (@poselTTrela) November 22, 2022
Opposition party politician Tomasz Trela said it is a “disgrace for the special services and for all those who should be checking who they allow to contact the top leader”.
“This is a blow for our security and for the opinion we have in the eyes of our allies,” Mr Trela tweeted.
In July 2020, the same Russian pranksters posted a recording of a phone conversation with Mr Duda, in which Kuznetsov posed as the United Nations secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, and rendered the president speechless with questions about Ukraine, Russia and his fresh re-election.
Mr Duda’s office also confirmed that recording was authentic. Two officials from Poland’s mission to the UN were dismissed over the incident.
The pranksters have previously embarrassed other European politicians.
