Sometimes jokes do cross cultural boundaries. U. S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry was the butt of a practical joke this month after two Rus…
Here’s our look at the Trump administration and the rest of Washington:
Sometimes jokes do cross cultural boundaries.
U. S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry was the butt of a practical joke this month after two Russian comedians engaged him in a 22-minute phone call in which Perry was led to believe that he was speaking to Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
During the conversation, Perry discussed supplying coal to Ukraine, whose own supplies have been cut because of the conflict in its eastern regions, where Russia-backed rebels control large swaths of coal-rich territory.
The jokers also inquired about whether Ukraine could get a bargain on U. S. coal exports.
“Giving Ukraine more options with some of our technology is, I think, in everyone’s best interest, with the exception of the Russians, but that’s OK, ” he said during the call, which was posted on a Russian news site on July 25 .
Perry also said during the call that the Trump administration opposed Nord Stream 2, a Russian project to bring natural gas to Europe across the Baltic Sea.
The release of the call came on the same day that the U. S. Congress passed new sanctions against Russia.
The call with Perry isn’ t the first time the Russian pranksters, Alexei “Lexus” Stolyarov and Vladimir “Vovan” Krasnov, have caught celebrities and politicians off guard with their phony phone calls. The duo is known as Russia’s version of the “Jerky Boys” and once fooled Elton John into thinking he was speaking by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. Another prank tricked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko into believing he had his counterpart in Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Atambayev, on the other line.
Interestingly, the pranksters chose to speak to Perry in Russian and not in Ukrainian, using a translator. Ukrainian is Groysman’s primary language and the language in which all official government business is conducted in Ukraine.
