Russia April Fools' Day Video: Foreign Ministry Pokes Fun At Election Interference And Hacking Claims

With the controversy over Moscow's alleged interference in the U.S. presidential elections showing no signs of fading any time soon, the Russian Foreign Ministry decided to poke some fun at the matter. The ministry posted a video on its Facebook page that had an audio recording of a message that callers would receive if they called its embassy.

The message on the Facebook video said: “To arrange a call from a Russian diplomat to your political opponent, press one." It went on, “To use the services of Russian hackers, press two” and “To request election interference, press three.”

Read: Did Trump's Prominent Aid, Roger Stone, Ask Russian Agent To Interfere In Election?

A ministry duty officer, who did not give his name in line with official practice, confirmed to the Associated Press that the post was an official joke.

The April Fools' Day prank came as Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly denied Thursday interference in the U.S. election amid renewed allegations of Russian involvement in the 2016 poll. “Watch my lips – No,” Putin said, when asked about allegations that the Kremlin ran an influence campaign to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.

Also, a day before the prank video was posted, a U.S. senator claimed that Russia hired 1,000 trolls to deliberately create fake news about Clinton in the run-up to the election. Sen. Mark Warner, the Democrat ranking member, said: “We know about the hacking, and selective leaks, but what really concerns me as a former tech guy is at least some reports – and we’ve got to get to the bottom of this – that there were upwards of a thousand internet trolls working out of a facility in Russia, in effect taking over a series of computers which are then called botnets, that can then generate news down to specific areas," according to reports.

On social media, many reacted to the Russian Foreign Ministry's April Fool's Day video with witty remarks. Some questioned whether the media, which is always labeled by Trump as "fake news," would be hoodwinked into covering this prank as an evidence of collusion and Moscow's interference in the elections.