Lavrov's April Fool's joke

Lavrov Wins April Fools' Day With Amazing Russian Foreign Ministry Prank

Russia Insider,

31 March, 201

We admit that our own prank wasn't very inspired, but thankfully the Russian Foreign Ministry never disappoints. 

How could it? Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is well-versed in the teachings of YOLO. 

The Ministry announced on its official Facebook page this morning:

The Ministry of foreign affairs of Russia, has developed a pilot for a taped answering machine for Russian diplomatic missions abroad.

Sounds harmless enough. Until you remember what day it is.

This "answering machine" is pure, Siberian gold (skip to 0:30 for English):

"You have reached the Russian Embassy. Your call is very important to us. To arrange a call from a Russian diplomat to your political opponents, press 1. To use the services of Russian hackers, press 2. To request election interference, press 3 and wait until the next election campaign. Please note that all calls are recorded for quality improvement and training purposes."

UPDATE: Thanks to the fine work of one of our amazing commenters, we now learn that the party-poopers at CNN are not amused by this harmless prank (rushed translation from Russian):

CNN Correspondent  Matthew Chance took too seriously the humorous "answering machine" recording posted on the official Facebook page of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which offers "hacker services". He told about it on the air of the channel.

"This is an attempt to ridicule the very serious accusations that Russia has had to deal with in the last few months. They concern her alleged interference in the American political process and the alleged attempts to influence the results of the presidential election. Of course, they categorically deny these accusations, "Chance told CNN.

He noted that Russia "is trying to evade this problem with the help of humor."

"Of course, today is April 1 - Fool's Day - and it is obvious that this is an attempt to contribute to it. People in the United States, of course, will not laugh.

There is a serious investigation in the House of Representatives and the Senate, which are considering possible interactions between US officials and Russians on the eve of the presidential election, "Chance added.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry posted on its official Facebook page a comic "answering machine for Russian diplomatic missions abroad." In the recording, the "answering machine" offers "to place a call to a Russian diplomat", "to use the services of Russian hackers" or to address an official "on questions of interference in elections".