Russians Prank Maxine Waters

'Auntie Maxine'

The call starts innocently enough: Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) warmly greets the voices on the line, whom a staffer identifies as Greta Thunberg and her father, Svante, reports The Washington Post. They share a laugh about Waters’s nickname, “Auntie Maxine.” The congresswoman praises her young caller for her climate change activism.

“You have made quite a big, big, big, big thunder on this issue. I am really, really very proud of you and the work that you’re doing,” Waters is heard saying.

The congresswoman and her staff thought they had connected with Thunberg, the 17-year-old Swedish climate activist who was recently named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.” In reality, two 30-something Russians, Vladimir “Vovan” Kuznetsov and Alexei “Lexus” Stolyarov, were on the other end of the line. The duo describe themselves as comedians and pranksters, but they are widely suspected of having ties to the Russian government.



Audio from the call with Waters was posted to the pair’s YouTube page on Thursday, along with a cartoon animating the approximately 10-minute interaction as part of their comedy video series called “Stars Save the Earth.”

It’s unclear when exactly the call took place. Waters’s office did not respond to questions seeking details about how the call was arranged or whether her office has screening or security protocols for phone calls. Waters waved off the incident on Saturday, telling The Washington Post in an email statement:

“This was just another stupid prank by the same Russian operatives who have targeted many U.S. elected officials, including Rep. Adam B. Schiff, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and late-Senator John McCain, and international heads of state such as Emmanuel Macron. The end.”