State pranking: deceit and humor in Russia-West relations

This article explores pranking as a novel form of manipulative communication in global politics, focusing on the Russian state-aligned phone pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov (Vovan) and Alexey Stolyarov (Lexus). Since 2014, the duo has duped over 200 prominent Western critics of the Kremlin into discussing Russia-related topics. Russian media and officials frame these pranks as exposing Western elites’ duplicity and Russophobia, while Western media and politicians use them to ridicule their fooled competitors. The pranksters aim to bolster Russian domestic support for the Kremlin’s foreign endeavors and undermine the West by deepening its internal divisions. The article conceptualizes and empirically examines state-sponsored pranking within the broader context of Russia’s challenge to the liberal order, contributing to the understanding of Russian power dynamics, Russia-West relations, and global political communication.