Infamous Russian Pranksters Vovan and Lexus Receive State Awards at Kremlin

Russian pranksters Vovan (Vladimir Kuznetsov) and Lexus (Alexey Stolyarov) received state awards at the Kremlin. This was reported by Russian media on Thursday, July 4.

"The Order of Friendship was awarded to the pranksters for their special merits in strengthening peace, friendship, cooperation, and mutual understanding between peoples. This is a cumulative award based on their overall activities, not for a specific project. Essentially, it legitimizes prank journalism at the highest level," the statement said.

The specific officials who presented the orders and medals are not disclosed.

In addition to the pranksters, the award was also given to the writer-propagandist Zakhar Prilepin, who survived an assassination attempt. He was awarded the Order of Courage and a departmental medal from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for strengthening combat camaraderie.

Vovan and Lexus are known for their scandalous pranks on leaders of various world states. They pranked French President Emmanuel Macron, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, former US President George W. Bush Jr., and other politicians over the phone. They also called well-known writers, journalists, and musicians who were disloyal to Putin. One of their recent pranks was a phone call to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, where the prankster pretended to be the head of the African Union commission.