While not quite president of Switzerland, prankster Aleksey Stolyarov has made his political mark with little more than a phone. In a conversion with RT, he explains how he makes headlines by making fools of powerful people.

From tricking Elliott Abrams into proving the United States’ power over Juan Guaido, to getting the investigators of the Skripal case to admit they didn’t know which country produced the Novichok poison, Stolyarov is no ordinary prank caller. Yet, as he himself is quick to admit, he lacks some of the “moral ethics” a journalist ought to possess. All the same, he and his partner in crime, Vladimir Kuznetsov, have been able to get the truth out of high-ranking officials in ways normal journalists could only dream of.



The duo’s brand of “prank journalism” aims to be “useful to society,” provoking both rare moments of honesty from powerful figures as well as laughter among audiences. Watch Afshin Rattansi’s conversation with the Russian trickster about how he manages to pull off his epic pranks on people at the highest levels of international politics on RT.

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