Sputnik • Wed, 06 Mar 2019
© Associated Press/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Elliott Abrams talks to reporters after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named the hawkish former Republican official to handle U.S. policy toward Venezuela during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019
Vovan and Lexus, Russian telephone pranksters known for their trolling of politicians from around the world, have struck again, targeting US special representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams to find out more about the US-backed effort to unseat that country's legitimate government. Sputnik got ahold of the full audio from the talks.
Comment: Oh boy, another impressive scalp from those two!
Posing as Swiss President Ueli Maurer, who also serves as the country's finance minister, the pranksters contacted Abrams on two occasions - in mid-February and early March, speaking to him for over 23 minutes about Swiss policy on the ongoing effort to freeze the Venezuelan government's assets as part of broader plans to replace President Nicolas Maduro with US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Comment: TROLL-LOL-LOL!!!
The highlight of the pair of conversations was when 'Maurer' asked Abrams about the chances of Washington following through with its threat to use military force to topple Maduro. Here is what he revealed:
"You know, we are not going to do that. Unless the regime does something completely crazy like attacking the US embassy. But our information suggests that people in the regime and in the military are actually nervous about a US invasion. And we think it is useful to keep them nervous, which is one reason why we will not say publicly 'no, no, no, this will never happen.'"Comment: Wow, they didn't just troll Abrams; they got him to divulge Washington's hand: no military intervention. Which means, given his domestic popularity, international alliances and military support, Maduro's not going anywhere.
"In private briefings to members of Congress, this is exactly what I say to them, [that] 'we are not trying to make you in Congress nervous. We are trying to make the Venezuelan military nervous. And we think that it is a mistake tactically to give them endless reassurances that there will never be American military action.' But I can tell you this is not what we're doing. What we're doing is what you see - financial pressure, economic pressure, diplomatic pressure, political pressure."
- Elliott Abrams
Close Interest in Personal Accounts
Assuring Bern that the US asset freezes against Venezuelan government-related entities and individuals were aimed at "just trying to preserve assets," Abrams seemed particularly interested in Swiss efforts to block individual accounts, disclose their contents, and transfer them to Guaido's allies.
"Tell me if you would about the confidentiality questions here. For example, if you meet next week with representatives of Guaido in the national assembly and you say to them 'we have blocked this account or that account', are they then free to not only access the account, but are they free to announce things?" Abrams asked.
When the pranksters assured him that the answer was 'yes', the representative said he "didn't realise that," adding that "that's obviously great, frankly it's a great help to Guiado."
Limpopo Bank
When asked by Abrams about the status of accounts belonging to Venezuela's PDVSA state oil giant and other government accounts, the pranksters joked, posing as Maurer, that Swiss authorities knew about a number of Venezuelan accounts in Swiss banks, including one with a Russian connection known as "Limpopo Bank."
The US envoy didn't pick up on it, but 'Limpopo' was a reference to Vovan and Lexus's earlier trolling of US Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who was pranked into accusing Russia of meddling in the elections of the fictional African country of 'Limpopo.'
Comment: STOP! You're killing us!!!
Please go to SOTT to read and listen to this unbelievably funny exchange.
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