A native of Krasnodar was born on November 11, 1986. His occupation is called telephone hooliganism. However, the Russian pranker Vladimir Kuznetsov (Vovan) was recognized as the best in his business for three years until 2014. And in 2015, his name was on the list of promising Russians up to 33 years old.
In school years, the young man was not particularly interested in anything. But at some point, the boy found a predisposition to copy and imitate voices. After graduating from high school, Vladimir Kuznetsov enters the university at the Faculty of Law. Having received a diploma, he writes articles about famous people for Moscow newspapers.
The beginning of the way
Vladimir performed the first telephone pranks in 2007. Then he was just starting to approach the big stars, in his phone book there were such names as Ksenia Sobchak, Elena Hanga, Boris Moiseev and others. Those rallies did not carry a topical humor and pungency. It was rather for your own fun, you can say, a test of the pen. Soon, he himself was bored with these small pranks, he wanted something more.
Big draws
His full-fledged activity begins in 2011, when he moves to Moscow. For his draws, the pranker Vovan used the information that he received while compiling the articles.
Vladimir laid out all his conversations on YouTube. The first telephone prank that was popularly evaluated was the call to Vitaly Mutko after losing the Russian team at the European Championship. Pranker Vovan called him on behalf of the captain of the national team, who was terribly upset by the defeat. The Minister of Sports did not have a single drop of doubt, and from the first seconds he was trying to cheer the footballer. According to Vladimir, the video scored more than half a million views, and they were talking about it in all the media. After a series of political conversations, Vladimir received praise from his former victim Ksenia Sobchak, she said that the direction was chosen the right way.
When in 2014, Vladimir Kuznetsov got to Lukashenko, the parodist's popularity indicators instantly skyrocketed. The number of the President of the Republic of Belarus pranker Vovan dialed on behalf of the son of Yanukovych. The dialogue took place over 20 minutes, in which the son of Yanukovych asked for a visit and promised to present to the president a loaf made of gold. Lukashenko did not understand that he was played, and he was expecting guests.
This was followed by a call from Anastasia Volochkova on behalf of a representative of the mayor of the city somewhere in the Far East with an offer to visit their land with tours. Pranker Vovan drew attention to the ballerina’s love for the Russian bath and suggested that after the tour she would retire with the mayor in the sauna, to which Anastasia easily agrees and asks for a few more mayors, apparently to go on a tour right away.
Since 2015, Sir Elton John’s draw has been added to the biography of pranker Vovan. Having learned from the media that Elton wants to talk with the President of the Russian Federation about the problems of sex minorities in Russia, Vladimir and his assistant immediately called the recording studio with which Elton worked. From there, they found out the number of the main assistant to the singer, and then contacted him personally. In awe of such a sweet conversation, the artist informed her fans about him on his Instagram account.
Soon, information spread across all foreign media. However, the Kremlin did not give confirmation. Thanks to the activities of the prankers, Elton's dream came true. Upon learning of such a precedent, Putin personally apologized to Elton for a joke and promised to meet with him. True, this took a lot of time, because the cautious representatives of the musician for a long time did not believe that real representatives of the Russian government were trying to contact them.
Accusations
Most of Vovan’s prankster victims relate to being played calmly. However, there were people for whom this was an unbearable blow to reputation. So, for example, Volochkova threatened a guy that would turn off his phone, but the matter didn’t move beyond messages. Most often, people concerned about the rally claimed that they would go to court.
Also, accusations of cooperation with the FSB come to his side. However, the pranker Vova categorically denies this and claims that he chooses all the interlocutors himself.
