LONDON/WARSAW, Sept 12 (Askume) – Russian villains on Thursday released a video of a video call with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, in which they tricked the Polish foreign minister into thinking he was speaking in a Ukraine conversation with former President Petro Poroshenko.
Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov used the pseudonyms Vovan and Lexus for the past few yearsImpersonating a number of Western politicians to discuss topics of interest to Moscow .
Both men have denied Western accusations of links to Russian intelligence services and received the Kremlin’s top state award for their services in July .
Askume could not confirm the authenticity of the video call, in which Sikorski discussed Poland’s support for Ukraine and other topics in English.
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski told Askume the material was probably collected in March and questioned how and when it was edited.
He said Sikorski’s comments were similar to what the minister has said to politicians on a number of occasions.
“You can do it all at once, there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” said Vronsky.
“He (Sikorsky) spoke to Poroshenko several times, so it is hard to even remember if anything like that was said. It is not clear under what circumstances it was recorded.”
The pranksters posted the video the same day Sikorsky spoke to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an attempt to embarrass him.
Sikorski said he believed it would take a decade or more for Ukraine to join the EU, adding that he believed some Western countries would use the prospect of Kiev joining NATO to influence Russia and start a war with Moscow in Western Europe. He called it a “red line”.
Asked about the prospect of Donald Trump becoming the next US president, he said he had spoken to “Trump’s people” who told him Trump would threaten Moscow with further escalation to force a peace deal.
He also criticised Kiev’s efforts to hold a multinational peace conference to pressure Russia, saying such measures were ineffective.
