Prince Harry allegedly said President Donald Trump has “blood on his hands” over his efforts to support increased production and use of coal in a hoax call with Russian pranksters claiming to be Greta Thunberg.
Harry was reportedly duped by YouTubers Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov—also known as Vovan and Lexus—on two occasions, once on New Year’s Eve and again in late January, claims U.K. tabloid newspaper The Sun.
Kuznetsov and Stolyarov, who have previously hoaxed the likes of Elton John, French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, pretended to be climate activist Greta Thunberg, 17, and her father Svante during the lengthy call. They spoke to the Duke of Sussex at length about issues ranging from climate change to Harry and Meghan Markle’s departure from the royal family.
At one point in one of the calls, Harry is alleged to have told the Thunbergs: “The mere fact that Donald Trump is the pushing the coal industry so big in America, he has blood on his hands, because the effect that has on the climate and the island nations far, far away … again, out of sight, out of mind.”
“We’ve visited those places and I’m sure you have as well. People’s lives have been completely destroyed. People are dying every single month by some form of natural disaster that has been created by this huge change to in our climate,” Harry is claimed to have said.
A video of one of the calls was shared on YouTube and Facebook, claims The Sun, but it does not appear to be online at the time of publication. A short clip is still available on YouTube.
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Newsweek has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the calls or videos. A spokesperson for Prince Harry could not immediately be reached for comment.
It’s claimed that Harry also spoke to the Russian pranksters about his and Meghan’s exit as senior working members of the royal family. The couple took part in their final scheduled engagement in their royal roles on Monday and will officially step down as senior royals on March 31.
“I can assure you, marrying a prince or princess is not all it’s made out to be,” Harry is reported to have said. “But sometimes the right decision isn’t always the easy one. And this decision certainly wasn’t the easy one but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son.”
Kuznetsov and Stolyarov have notoriously tricked world leaders, celebrities and politicians in the past in hoax phone calls subsequently shared on their YouTube channel.
Last year, the pranksters placed a call to French President Emmanuel Macron pretending to be Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy just after Zelenskiy won the vote to become Ukraine’s next leader, Reuters reported at the time.
In 2015, Kuznetsov and Stolarov made global headlines when they pretended to be Russian President Vladimir Putin in a call to singer Elton John to discuss LGBT+ rights in Russia.
The pair have previously denied they are working for the Kremlin. In 2016, Stolyarov told The Guardian newspaper: “We work for ourselves, for nobody else. People are always offering us to get involved in their dirty games. I was offered $100,000 to secretly prank an MP. But we refuse.”
PETER NICHOLLS/POOL/AFP/Getty
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