Comedians cheated politicians. The Danes thought they were talking to politicians from the Belarusian opposition.

MOSCOW (Aftenposten): – The situation is food for thought, says the leader of the Danish Foreign Affairs Committee, Martin Lidegaard.

It was a scene in which many can recognize themselves during the corona pandemic: a digital encounter in which one of the participants does not operate the camera.

In this way, it was possible for two Russian comedians to deceive foreign Danish politicians. Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov are a well-known radar couple on the Russian comedy scene. They are known to play with most things.

Last week, the trip had reached the Danish Foreign Affairs Committee. The comedians pretended that the camera was not working. Then they pretended to be Frank Vetsjorka and Svetlana Tikhanovskaja.

The latter is the leader of the opposition in Belarus. It is a country that has rebelled against its president for the last 26 years, Alexander Lukashenko.

Tikhanovskaya himself is being exiled in Lithuania. In recent weeks, he has spoken with various European leaders to gain support for the opposition in his home country. Among other things, he met Erna Solberg.

I hope it was a joke

Danish politicians thought they spoke to Tikhanovskaya for 40 minutes. Then they realized something was wrong and hung up.

Perhaps they became suspicious when the interlocutor started talking about turtle brothels.

At first, the politicians did not know who they had spoken to.

– I hope this is a rude joke, but of course I am concerned that participation in the meeting has been abused. In any case, it is food for thought, said the head of the foreign affairs commission, Martin Lidegaard, according to NTB.

This weekend it became clear that it was the two Russian comedians who were behind. They have also previously harassed the European Parliament. At the time, they also pretended to be Tikhanovskaya, according to Russian media.

Tikhanovskaya employees confirm that they had not spoken to Danish politicians. By the way, they take the incident in a good mood. The episode gives people a reason to smile, they say.

Massive violence

Not only have there been reasons to smile for Tikhanovskaya lately. It is true that she received a phone call with her imprisoned husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky. This is the first time they have spoken to each other in several months. President Lukashenko has also visited jailed opposition politicians. Many interpreted it as a sign of willingness to negotiate.

But soon after, the Belarusian president massively cracked down on the demonstrations once again. Violence, water cannons and stun grenades were used. Hundreds have been arrested again.

And it could get worse: Belarusian police may use deadly weapons against protesters, the country’s Interior Ministry threatened on Monday.

Belarusians have been protesting every weekend since the presidential elections on August 9.

The opposition believes that President Lukashenko is not the rightful winner of the elections.

Mr. Lukashenko has recently received a lot of support from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last week, Tikhanovskaya was personally wanted in Russia. It is not yet clear why. His name is now in a database of wanted persons registered in Russia.

Helene Skjeggestad is a correspondent for Aftenposten in Russia.

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