LISTEN: Boris Johnson falls victim to Russian pranksters in 18-minute phone call
4 min read
Two Russian pranksters held an 18-minute conversation with Boris Johnson while pretending to be the president of Armenia.
The duo questioned the Foreign Secretary on how best to deal with Vladimir Putin, while also seeking information about the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal.
They also managed to convince Mr Johnson that the Russian president had links to Jeremy Corbyn.
The full clip was posted on Youtube by a British pro-Kremlin journalist Graham Phillips.
It is believed that the Mr Johnson took the call after his number was passed to the duo following a seperate conservation with Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan.
The pranksters, called Alexei Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, managed to convince Mr Johnson that they were Nikol Pashinyan, the recently-appointed Armenian leader.
During the call, they sought advice from the Foreign Secretary on how to deal with Mr Putin ahead of an upcoming meeting in Sochi.
Prompting a laugh from Mr Johnson, they said: “I hope he will not poison me in Novichok."
The Foreign Secretary responded: "I think it is very important, Prime Minister, that we do not have a new Cold War. I don’t want that. Nobody in the UK wants that.
“I personally feel that Russia has made a terrible mistake with what they did in Wiltshire. What they did to try and kill Sergei and Yulia Skripal with Novichok. There behaviour is genuinely very very disruptive and it is bad for Russia. If I have a message for Putin it is ‘we don’t want a Cold War, but we do want to see an improvement in how Russia behaves."
He added later in the call: “Russian seems unable to resist malign activity of one kind or another, and we must stand firm against them.”
Pressed to confirm that Russia was behind the nerve agent attack, Mr Johnson said: "We are pretty, we are like almost 100% sure."
He also confirmed that the UK would be pressing forward with sanctions against Kremlin-linked billionaires living in the UK.
"We will continue to tighten the squeeze on some of the oligarchs who surround Putin," he said. "You throw a stone in Kensington and you'll hit an oligarch. But some of them are close to Putin and some of them aren't."
The arch-Brexiteer continued the chummy conversation by extending an invitation to the fake Armenian premier for a UK visit and said he was keen to “develop particularly our trading and investment relationships.”
The pranksters continued the wind up by saying that the Russian leader had boasted in a phone call about his ability to exert control over Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“Really? He told you that he was influencing Jeremy Corbyn,” asked the flabbergasted Foreign Secretary.
"Did he go into any detail or did he just say that Jeremy Corbyn was someone he was able to influence?”
The hoaxer then claimed that President Putin’s goddaughter and political opponent Ksenia Sobchak had visited London and handed over cash to people from the Labour party.
“This is extremely interesting Prime Minister. I am sure that our intelligence will be listening on this line and will draw the relevant conclusions,” said Mr Johnson. "Thank you very much for that interesting tit-bit of information.”
The call finally ended when the pranksters claimed that the Ukranian Prime Minister had been poisoned during a recent trip to Poland, but had been rescued by a special antidote which he keeps on his person at all time.
A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed the audio was legitimate.
“The Foreign Secretary realised it was a hoax, and ended the call. We checked it out and knew immediately it was a prank call. The use of chemical weapons in Salisbury and Syria, and recent events in Armenia are serious matters. These childish actions show the lack of seriousness of the caller and those behind him.”
One senior diplomatic source told the BBC: “this seems to be the latest desperate attempt by the Kremlin to save face after it was intentionally shamed in the wake of the Skripal attack. Boris rumbled them pretty quickly and ended the call.”
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