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Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski when he thought he was talking to Vitali Klitschko
Photo: Rutube / DER SPIEGEL
The Russian satirists Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, aka “Vovan and Lexus”, are apparently behind the fraudulent video calls to the city leaders of Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid, Vienna and Budapest.
They had already admitted that on Wednesday, but provided no evidence for it.
On Thursday they published a video on Rutube, the Russian alternative to YouTube, in which at least excerpts from the call to Warsaw's Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski can be seen.
The show by the two pro-Kremlin comedians is staged as a talk show with experts who talk about refugees and Europe.
For example, they ask »Does Europe have money for refugees?« and »What dangers can lurk for Ukrainian women in the EU area?« Video excerpts from Trzaskowski are shown several times.
However, Kuznetsov and Stolyarov mention only in passing that Trzaskowski was contacted by the alleged mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko.
Berlin's governing mayor Franziska Giffey, on the other hand, does not appear in the video.
The technical side of the scam is not explained by »Vovan and Lexus« either.
You had only said in advance that it was not a deepfake, i.e. a Vitali Klitschko generated completely by software trained for it.
The Berlin Senate Chancellery initially spread this theory, but moved away from it at the beginning of the week: “We cannot say for sure whether it was really like that,” said Giffey at the state press conference on Tuesday.
However, she emphasized that the person in the video call moved their lips in accordance with what was being said.
However the fake was produced, it was only blown because the content of the conversation seemed strange to the Berliners.
Since, according to information from Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid and Vienna, there are no separate video recordings, it is not possible to examine in retrospect what technical tricks the Russian comedians used to fool their victims into thinking they were talking to Vitali Klitschko.
"Vovan and Lexus" could of course publish more videos at a later date.
According to Giffey, the possible motive behind the actions could be to shake mutual trust between Ukraine and countries like Germany and Poland or "to discredit the interlocutors, who are above all supporters and partners of Ukraine".
pbe/nes