Prankster poses as UN chief on call to Polish president

A RUSSIAN prankster posing as Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, has managed to telephone Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and renderd him speechless with questions about Ukraine, Russia and his recent re-election.

The hoaxer, Vladimir Kuznetsov, known as Vovan, posted a recording of the 11-minute call on Youtube and President Duda’s office yesterday confirmed it is authentic. At various points in the conversation, conducted in English, Duda sounds surprised at the line of questioning but still refers to the impostor as “Your Excellency”.

Mr Kusnetzov and his partner have previously embarrassed a host of world leaders and celebrities including the Duke of Sussex, Boris Johnson, Sir Elton John and President Emmanuel Macron of France.

Mr Duda tweeted yesterday that he realised “something was not right” during the chat, which took place on Monday afternoon while the president awaited the official word of his victory in last Sunday’s election.

Mr Duda said he was because Mr Guterres does not pronounce the name of Polish vodka brand Zubrowka as well as the caller did.

However, he conceded that the “voice was very similar” and the president ended his tweet with an emoticon of tears of laughter.

Polish state security is investigating how the prankster got through to the president and whether Russia’s secret services were involved.

The Internal Security Agency said in a statement that the call had been authorised by an official within Poland’s mission to the UN and that his actions are under investigation.

Poland’s relations with Russia are tense, especially over Poland’s support for Ukraine’s drive for closer links with the European Union.

The caller congratulated Mr Duda on his re-election but took the president to task for his hostile campaign comments about the LGBT community, drawing Duda’s assurance that he has “huge respect for every human being”.

Mr Duda also rejected a provocative suggestion that Poland would seek to claim back the Ukrainian city of Lviv, which was part of Poland before the Second World War.