WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- In a phone call last week with what he thought was the Ukrainian prime minister, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry discussed wide-ranging topics including cyberhacking. Yet, it turned out the official himself was the very target of hacking.
According to a Wednesday story by Bloomberg, the phone call, which lasted for 22 minutes, was actually a prank orchestrated by Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, two Russians who described themselves as "Jerky Boys from Russia."
The U.S. Department of Energy has confirmed the incident through its spokesperson.
Having met a Ukrainian delegation led by President Petro Poroshenko just a few weeks ago, Perry, totally defenseless, thought he was speaking to the country's prime minister, Volodymyr Hroisman.
In the phone conversation, Perry explained U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord while expressing Washington's willingness to export gas to Kiev, which is still reeling from a violent separatist movement four years on.
"We look forward to bringing some oil and gas opportunities to Ukraine," the secretary was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, adding that the Trump administration opposed the potential Nordstream 2 pipeline transporting Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Asked if Ukraine could get U.S. coal exports at a discount, Perry reportedly said maybe. "Negotiation is always possible," he said.
The pranksters also informed Perry of Ukraine's ongoing efforts to develop a new biofuel, one made from home-brewed alcohol and pig manure. The Washington Post considered this part of the conversation "the only giveaway" of the hoax.
The Post reported that Perry said he would like to get more information about the "scientific development," citing the entire script of the conversation posted in the format of a video with Russian subtitles on Russian news site Vesti.
Calls between cabinet secretaries and foreign officials are typically closely vetted, Bloomberg said. What led to Perry being fooled, though, might be that such calls are often conducted through an interpreter if the persons on each side don't speak the same language.
The pranksters also boasted having tricked other high-profile figures, including Senator John McCain of Arizona. A fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, McCain visited Kiev in late 2013 -- some of the most tumultuous days in the initial phase of the Ukraine crisis -- to show support for those who ultimately toppled then Russian-friendly President Victor Yanukovich.
But Perry's case might be more detrimental in the sense that he holds a post which "is in charge of the government agency that maintains the nation's stockpile of nuclear warheads and cleans up nuclear waste," the Post said.
The latest prank also came at a time when the U.S. Congress reached bipartisan consensus on further tightening sanctions against Russia over what Washington believed to be Moscow's instigation of the insurgency in eastern Ukraine as well as meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
The White House said Trump hadn't decided whether to approve or, by using his executive power, veto the new sanction bill.
Experts, however, said the bill is putting the president in a dilemma where if he lets it go, it will potentially risk harming ties with Europe, which suffers more from the backlash of Russian sanctions. But if he disapproves it, speculation about his collusion with Russia will gain ground.
