Russian Teachers Pranked Into Wearing Tinfoil Hats To Fight "Evil NATO" Plot

Vladislav Bokhan, an exiled Belarusian blogger and prankster, staunchly against the Kremlin, recently fooled Russian teachers by getting them to wear tinfoil hats and posing for photographs, according to a report in The Times. Bokhan wrote letters to teachers in the Voronezh region, pretending to be from President Vladimir Putin's party and urged the teachers to make "Helmets of the Fatherland", claiming they would protect them from a malicious NATO plot. Bokhan said the prank was aimed at showing the absurdity of Putin's claim of liberating Ukraine from Nazis.

The letter declared that the tinfoil hats would provide protection against NATO satellites attempting to "irradiate the Russian people". To make the prank more convincing, Bokhan even referred to "United Russia" in the letter.

"Evil NATO members are planning to irradiate the Russian people physically and biologically. Therefore, our teachers will have to learn to resist this with the help of primitive means of protection, like a tinfoil hat," Bokhan revealed what he wrote in the letter on his YouTube channel.

"The goal of the master class is to strengthen patriotism, increase awareness and skills of teachers in the field of practical classes in civil defence, the ability to work with improvised materials to make primitive means of protection against the threat of the use of satellite and electronic equipment by NATO, and to develop skills in working with foil," the letter added.

The prankster claims that as many as seven schools fell prey to his prank and made the hats. One of the teachers also made a video, documenting the activity and explained why it was important.

"Making tinfoil hats is not only an interesting and creative activity but also an important patriotic act, symbolising a readiness to defend one's homeland from foreign threats," said the teacher.

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Internet reacts

While some social media users commended the prank for its flawless execution, others sympathised with the teachers and said they were unnecessarily dragged into the issue.

"This is the most epic troll I've ever been lucky enough to see. I'm still wiping tears from my eyes," said one netizen, while another added: "Neat prank and the picture are worthy of being great memes."

A third commented: "Kinda sad tbh, a profession such as being a teacher falling for this just make my heart hurt a little, a lot of teachers from every country deserve better."