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Happy April Fool’s Day from the Russian Embassy

It's April Fool's Day, and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs brought its A-game.

Screenshot. Source: YouTube.

It's April Fool's Day“Day of Laughter” in the Russian-speaking world—and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has seized the opportunity to indulge in some geopolitical satire, delighting in the attention Russia has drawn for interfering in the 2016 American presidential election.

The MFA posted a video of a joke Russian Embassy voicemail recording on its Facebook page this morning with the caption, “The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has worked out a full voicemail recording for all Russian diplomatic missions abroad.”

Добрый день! Вы позвонили в посольстве России. Если Вы хотите заказать звонок российского дипломата Вашем политическим конкурентам, нажмите 1. Чтобы воспользоваться услугами русских хакеров, нажмите 2. По вопросам вмешательства в выборы, нажмите 3 и ждите начала избирательной кампании. В целях повышения качества услуг все разговоры записываются.

“Good day! You have reached the Russian Embassy. Your call is very important to us. To arrange a call from a Russian diplomat to your political opponent, press 1. To use the services of Russian hackers, press 2. To request election interference, press 3 and wait until the next election campaign. Please note that all calls are monitored for quality control and training purposes.”

Take a listen here (the English version of the voicemail begins at 0:29):

Originally published in Global Voices.

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