A contraption presented by Russian state television as a high-tech robot was in fact a man in a commercially available robot costume, Russian media has reported.

The footage was shot at a high-tech show in the city of Yaroslavl that opened on Tuesday, featuring "Boris the Robot". Forum organisers used Boris to enliven the event, having him dance to a pop song — but never claimed the robot was real.

A crew for Russian state television apparently thought he was, and used footage of him dancing and speaking as an example of Russian technological prowess.

"Robot Boris has already learned to dance and he's not that bad," Russia-24 said in the broadcast.

Russian website TJournal noted the lack of sensors, human-like movements and other discrepancies, and revealed that Boris was in fact a human clad in a costume sold under the name Alyosha by the Russian company Show Robots.

A photograph published by MBKh Media appeared to show an actor wearing the suit ahead of the show.

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The costume, worth more than $5,000, creates the "near total illusion that before you stands a real robot", according to the company's website.

ABC/AP