Politics

Nadine Dorries was also targeted by Russian hoax callers and people can't believe it

Nadine Dorries was also targeted by Russian hoax callers and people can't believe it
Minister says Ben Wallace was ‘pretty cross’ about hoax Ukraine call
Independent

Remember when defence minister Ben Wallace was duped for around 10 minutes by a prank caller claiming to be the Ukrainian PM?

Well it turns out that the Russian state was behind those calls, according to Number 10, and culture secretary Nadine Dorries was also unsuccessfully targeted.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “The Russian state was responsible for the hoax telephone calls made to UK ministers last week.

“This is standard practice for Russian information operations and disinformation is a tactic straight from the Kremlin playbook to try to distract from their illegal activities in Ukraine and the human rights abuses being committed there.

“We are seeing a string of distraction stories and outright lies from the Kremlin, reflecting Putin’s desperation as he seeks to hide the scale of the conflict and Russia’s failings on the battlefield.”

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Wallace revealed on Thursday that he received a call in which he was "posed several misleading questions" by someone pretending to be PM Denys Shmyhal, leading him to become "suspicious" and hang up.

He said, complete with a Nadine Dorries spelling of Ukraine...: "Today an attempt was made by an imposter claiming to be Ukrainian PM to speak with me. He posed several misleading questions and after becoming suspicious I terminated the call.

"No amount of Russian disinformation, distortion and dirty tricks can distract from Russia’s human rights abuses and illegal invasion of Ukriane [sic]. A desperate attempt."

Priti Patel also revealed she received a similar call earlier in the week.

Obviously the news raises a few security issues but aside from that, people had... thoughts about Dorries being among those targeted and Russia failing to get one over her:

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Conversation (0)
x