No preparatory meeting before Taoiseach's call with Russian pranksters

Leo Varadkar was one of the world leaders to have been stung by two Russian pranksters in a fake diplomatic call with an African Union diplomat

In December, it was revealed that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was one of the world leaders to have been stung by two Russian pranksters - Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov – in a fake diplomatic call with an African Union diplomat.

The Taoiseach’s office refused to allow the Irish embassy in Ethiopia to hold a preparatory meeting with a purported African diplomat, which later turned out to be two Russian pranksters.

The information has emerged in documents released to the Irish Examiner under Freedom of Information.

In December, it was revealed that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was one of the world leaders to have been stung by two Russian pranksters - Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov – in a fake diplomatic call with an African Union diplomat.

The pranksters had pretended to be Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairperson of the Africa Union Commission and a former prime minister of Chad, during the call. At the time, a spokesperson for the Taoiseach confirmed Mr Varadkar ended the call early due to “suspicions” about its nature.

“It transpired to be a sophisticated deep-fake,” the spokesperson said, adding that footage released had been “doctored and overdubbed in heavily-accented English”.

The two Russians had initially contacted the Department of the Taoiseach on September 1 to organise a call with Mr Varadkar, using a fake African Union email address and posing as the deputy chief of staff for Mr Mahamat.

In their response, the Taoiseach’s private secretary confirmed that Mr Varadkar would be in a position to take a video call with the meeting set for October 4.

In separate emails between staff at the Department of Foreign Affairs, there are discussions on whether or not communications should go through the Irish embassy in Addis Ababa and if they should first hold a call with the office of the commissioner to “prepare the discussion”.

However, the Taoiseach’s Department says its preference is for the embassy not to be involved, instead keeping contact between the two private offices.

A spokesperson for the Taoiseach confirmed that the meeting was agreed following advice received from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“Such meetings are not normally preceded by a preparatory meeting. As Ireland’s representation to the African Union, Ireland’s embassy has regular interactions with the African Union and the office of the commissioner,” the spokesperson said.

“The meeting turned out to be a deep fake conducted with malign intent. The Taoiseach ended the call early due to suspicions about its nature and the manner in which it was conducted.”

Mr Varadkar is one of a string of world leaders to be stung by the two Russian pranksters, with Italian  prime minister Georgia Meloni, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez and former leaders Angela Merkel and Boris Johnson also falling for fake calls.

Following the incident, the Government confirmed that it changed its procedures on setting meetings with the Taoiseach.