Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell has become the latest victim of Russian pranksters who trick world leaders into speaking with them.
Russian state television aired video of Powell speaking by phone with Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, the pranksters. The call was first reported in U.S. media by Bloomberg News. The duo, also known as Vovan and Lexus, posed as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to get through to Powell.
“Chair Powell participated in a conversation in January with someone who misrepresented himself as the Ukrainian president,” a Fed spokesperson said in a statement. “It was a friendly conversation and took place in a context of our standing in support of the Ukrainian people in this challenging time. No sensitive or confidential information was discussed.”
The spokesperson said the video shown on Russian TV “appears to have been edited and I cannot confirm it is accurate.” The Fed referred the matter to law enforcement.
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The Russian pranksters have made similar videos of various U.S. and international figures in recent years. In 2020, they tricked Polish President Andrzej Duda by posing as the United Nations secretary general, but Duda reportedly became suspicious because the U.N. official, António Guterres, wouldn’t have pronounced the name of a Polish vodka brand as well as the callers did. Earlier hoaxes targeted French President Emmanuel Macron and then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as well as then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
Last year, they also posed as Zelensky to call Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who mused along with them about their suggestion that she change Potter’s lighting bolt scar to the Ukrainian coat of arms.
“It might be good for me to do something with that myself on social media, because I think that would get into the newspapers,” the author said.
Russian state television aired video of Powell speaking by phone with Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, the pranksters. The call was first reported in U.S. media by Bloomberg News. The duo, also known as Vovan and Lexus, posed as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to get through to Powell.
“Chair Powell participated in a conversation in January with someone who misrepresented himself as the Ukrainian president,” a Fed spokesperson said in a statement. “It was a friendly conversation and took place in a context of our standing in support of the Ukrainian people in this challenging time. No sensitive or confidential information was discussed.”
The spokesperson said the video shown on Russian TV “appears to have been edited and I cannot confirm it is accurate.” The Fed referred the matter to law enforcement.
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The Russian pranksters have made similar videos of various U.S. and international figures in recent years. In 2020, they tricked Polish President Andrzej Duda by posing as the United Nations secretary general, but Duda reportedly became suspicious because the U.N. official, António Guterres, wouldn’t have pronounced the name of a Polish vodka brand as well as the callers did. Earlier hoaxes targeted French President Emmanuel Macron and then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as well as then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
Last year, they also posed as Zelensky to call Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who mused along with them about their suggestion that she change Potter’s lighting bolt scar to the Ukrainian coat of arms.
“It might be good for me to do something with that myself on social media, because I think that would get into the newspapers,” the author said.
