Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, somewhat curiously, have now targeted Ukraine’s world heavyweight boxing champion, Oleksandr Usyk, for a prank, as he thought he was talking with Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki. Highlights of the conversation included his admission that he had thought about running for the presidency of Ukraine and that, while it was a difficult matter, if “God gives me a chance and sends a message,” it might happen.
Vovan and Lexus have a history of targeting individuals that the Russian state is interested in, usually to expose their hypocrisy, but not always. In this case, Oleg Tsaryov—a long-time MP in Ukraine’s Rada who, as a leader in the Donbas, led the resistance to the 2014 coup in Kiev—detects the interest of Vovan and Lexus to be tied to disrupting a London scheme to end up with Usyk as a counter to Zelensky. The scheme appears to be modeled as a Zelensky 2.0—a popular media figure with a pro-peace image to win the votes, but again controlled from London. Usyk, a sports hero, a Russian-speaker from Crimea, and an Orthodox Christian, could garner a significant showing.
