Published 20:35 IST, November 25th 2020
Russian pranksters call Justin Trudeau posing as Greta Thunberg, fire questions on NATO
Two Russian pranksters, known for targeting world leaders across the world, recently made Canadian PM Justin Trudeau their pawn by posing as Greta Thunberg.
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Two Russian pranksters, known for targeting world leaders across the world, recently made Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau their pawn by posing as the 17-year-old climate activist, Greta Thunberg. Releasing the audio of the phone call with Trudeau on November 23, Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov had pranked the leader reportedly in January. The Canadian PM is bombarded with questions by the ‘fake’ Thunberg on NATO, world peace and even US President Donald Trump.
The recording posted on YouTube begins with the Trudeau greeting the ‘fake’ Thunberg and says “Hello Greta”. The impersonator then can be heard responding “I understand that you have a lot of work and not so much time to talk to a young girl, but I'm very concerned about the growing international crisis.” Just a few days before the call had taken place in January, Ukrainian airlines were shot down ‘mistakingly’ by Iran amid growing tensions with the United States.
The Canadian PM then tells the person on the other end of the call that he has received numerous phone calls on the same subject referring to “de-escalation on all sides.” However, then the ‘fake’ teenage climate activist told Trudeau that he along with other world leaders “are adults, but you act like children” and added, “Leave NATO, drop your weapons, pick flowers, smile at nature.” Even though the strange remarks of the impersonator increased, Trudeau can be heard replying politely and thanked the person for their “perspective" and "passionate words”.
While talking about Trump, the prankster used an expletive to describe the US President but Trudeau said that his role is to “work with world leaders that other people choose”. Canadian PM also said about Trump that, “I can certainly understand that people can feel very, very strongly about him.”
‘Not the first prank call’
As per BBC report, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office said that it was “not the first prank call” for a leader. In a statement, the office also said that Trudeau had understood that it was ‘fake’ and therefore he ended it promptly. His office said, “This is not the first prank call of a world leader...The Prime Minister determined the call was fake and promptly ended it.” Kuznetsov and Stolyarov, the Russian pranksters have previously targetted Elton John, Prince Harry, Kamala Harris and Boris Johnson.
20:35 IST, November 25th 2020