A few days ago, the news of the deepfake of the Russian opponent Leonid Volkov traveled the world. Parliamentarians from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the United Kingdom held a meeting for Zoom with a person who claimed to be Volkov. However, it was an impostor . The most worrying point in the story was that the deceived claimed that the staging was achieved with the use of artificial intelligence and the “evolution of deepfake technologies.” Nothing is further from reality.
Now it emerged that they resorted to a trick as rudimentary as it was effective. The fake Volkov was not a deepfake, but a similar-looking person . Nor was there any kind of AI involved in the process. A bit of makeup, a poorly lit scene, and a lot of confusion were part of this incredible combo.
However, the height of the situation was that the real Volkov viralized a true image of him accusing it of being a deepfake . Clearly, this time reality was not surpassed by fiction, but by reality itself.
Russian opponent Leonid Volkov and the deepfake that was not
Alexei Stolyarov, the fake Leonid Volkov | Credit: The Verge The Verge published a report in which it revealed that the fake Leonid Volkov was actually a prankster named Alexei Stolyarov . Together with the Russian Vladimir Kuznetsov they mounted the farce, with the sole purpose of making fun of their victims.
The duo are well known in their country for having perpetrated various pranks against prominent figures in Western politics and celebrities. Stolyarov and Kuznetsov have a YouTube channel with more than 110 thousand subscribers, in which they post the hoaxes. What they usually do is communicate by phone with the people they have signed up and divert the conversation until they obtain statements that allow them to mock them .
Figures like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his British counterpart Boris Johnson, and Elton John suffered firsthand from Stolyarov and Kuznetsov. The question that arises now is: why did you decide to impersonate Leonid Volkov?
“The couple say they chose to impersonate Volkov for various reasons. First, because of the newsworthiness of (Alexei) Navalny,” The Verge published, highlighting Volkov as an ally of the Russian opponent, who is currently in prison. “Secondly, because of Stolyarov's resemblance . And thirdly, because the real Volkov did not hold many meetings with Western politicians, which means that few are familiar with his physical appearance and his voice, “added the report.
Stolyarov's facial features (beard and hair, specifically) made it easy to impersonate the Russian activist. “I didn't have to prepare much to look like the real Volkov,” he acknowledged.
How do you turn a simple imitation into a digital sham?
The prankster duo didn't just portray Volkov in the famous fake deepfake reunion. In the last hours they shared on YouTube a conversation by Zoom with Ukrainian politicians, where they carried out the same deception . The clip shows that the poor lighting in the room and the angle chosen for the camera are vital to falling into the sham.
The story of Leonid Volkov's deepfake was created by the victims of the prank themselves. The Latvian politician, Rihards Kols, was one of those who fell into the trap of Stolyarov and Kuznetsov, and denounced him through a Facebook post on April 22. However, he accompanied the statement with an image that supposedly “exposed” the deepfake, when in fact it was not. The comparison made by Kols was with two true images of Volkov .
On the left the real Leonid Volkov, and on the right … also The craziest thing about this story was that Volkov spread the image, and did not realize that it was really him in both photographs . The deepfake never existed. In fact, the supposedly doctored snapshot corresponds to a real video of an interview conducted in 2018 and available on YouTube.
“It looks like my real face, but how did they manage to put it on a Zoom call? Welcome to the deepfake era “, insisted the opponent.
The following day, the representatives of the Baltic countries who met with the fake Volkov published a statement on Twitter condemning the “disinformation operations” with the use of material “generated and manipulated with Artificial Intelligence” . In the letter they also pointed out against the evolution of “deepfake technologies” and the use of machine learning by “criminal cyberactors”.
Beyond the drama, then, the deepfake never existed. There was a deception, fueled by a clear lack of information . The internet took care of the rest.
