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Vitali Klitschko: "This is criminal energy"
Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP
After a fake phone call between an alleged Vitali Klitschko and Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD), the state security service responsible for politically motivated crimes is investigating the criminal police.
A political motive is assumed, said a police spokesman for the German Press Agency.
The direction in which the investigations lead is therefore dependent on the findings that the investigators achieve.
The "Tagesspiegel" had previously reported on the investigation.
During a video call on Friday, Giffey had doubts as to whether she was actually connected to Kiev's mayor as planned.
The conversation then ended prematurely.
The Senate Chancellery assumes digital manipulation: "Apparently it was a deepfake," a spokeswoman told SPIEGEL.
There had been similar incidents in other European town halls.
In Madrid, for example, mayor José Luis Martinez-Almeida quickly became suspicious of the video call with the alleged mayor Klitschko and also broke off the conversation, as confirmed by mayor's office spokesman Daniel Bardavío Colebrook.
A complaint was filed against unknown persons for using a false identity and the mayor's office in Kyiv was informed.
The Mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, has also been taken in by a false Klitschko.
A spokesman for the mayor confirmed this to SPIEGEL.
In Vienna, however, the fake was not noticed during the conversation.
Ludwig himself had summarized the content of the conversation on Twitter in German and English until Saturday noon.
The tweets have since been deleted.
"There was no evidence that the conversation was not with a real person and to question it," said the City of Vienna.
The "Bild" published a video in which Klitschko also called for clarification.
“This is criminal energy.
It is urgent to find out who is behind it,” said the mayor of Kiev.
"A fake Klitschko has reported to several mayors in Europe who said absurd things."
In the course of the conversation with Giffey, for example, according to information from Berlin, it was about social benefits that the Ukrainians in Germany allegedly obtained by fraud - the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk allegedly spoke about this.
In addition, her interlocutor asked Giffey for support in bringing men back to Ukraine so that they could fight there.
Klitschko emphasized that from now on official talks can only take place via official channels in Kyiv.
He also never needs a translator for conversations in German or English, Klitschko added as a tip.
According to Giffey, the Klitschko from the video switchboard asked at the beginning of the conversation whether the conversation could take place in Russian with translation.
sak/dpa