Russian fraudsters who manage to deceive politicians received the highest state award

Riverč is about Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, who use the pseudonyms “Vovan and Lexus”, and RIA published a photo of them taken at an awards ceremony in the Kremlin with glasses of champagne in hand. The ceremony was held on Wednesday.

The prize is awarded to Russian and foreign citizens. The criteria for its award are the strengthening of peace, friendship, cooperation and understanding between Russia and other nations.

In June, Kuznetsov and Stolyarov released a recording of a video call with British Foreign Minister David Cameron, who fell for their scam. They made him think that he was talking to the former Ukrainian president, and he discussed Ukraine, the USA, and NATO with them for about fifteen minutes.

The duo is well known in Russia because over the years they managed to deceive numerous politicians.

Among them are the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and in 2022 they managed to deceive the then British Minister of Defense Ben Wallace.