Prankster fools Russian teachers into wearing tinfoil hats

Nov 12, 2024

Teachers in Russia have been mocked after being fooled into posing for photos in tinfoil hats by a prankster who claimed they would protect them from a “malicious” Nato plot.

The teachers in the Voronezh region all received messages purporting to be from President Putin’s ruling party urging them to make “Helmets of the Fatherland”.

The letters were actually sent by Vladislav Bokhan, an exiled Belarusian blogger who opposes the Kremlin. He told the teachers that the tinfoil hats would provide protection against Nato satellites that were trying to “irradiate the Russian people physically and biologically”.

Bokhan included detailed instructions on how to make the hats and decorate them with the Russian flag.

Bokhan said that the willingness of a number of schools in the region to comply with the absurd orders was an indication of the strength of Kremlin propaganda and “another sign of fascism”. Tinfoil hats are typically associated with conspiracy theories and paranoia.

The teachers were also told to provide photos and videos to prove that they had followed the instructions.

Some of the teachers posed for photos in the hats next to a portrait of Putin. “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,” one teacher said.

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Another posted a video of a child with a hat, saying: “I present to your attention a tinfoil hat, which is a makeshift means of protection against radio-electronic and satellite threats.”

She also said that hats could prevent foreign intelligence services from reading people’s thoughts. This “information” was not included in Bokhan’s hoax letters.

“How do you imagine a person who believes in enemy radiation via satellites [or 5G towers] and wears a tinfoil hat? Surely you imagine some urban madman in rags with a crazy look, who would make you cross the road, if you met him on the street,” wrote ByLol, a Belarusian YouTube channel that specialises in satirical videos.

“But in Russia, even teachers are capable of believing in this — seemingly educated and wise people.”

One of the teachers who fell for the hoax asked for a certificate to prove that she had taken part in the project, Bokhan said.

Regional education officials praised what they said was the teachers’ “patriotic” spirit. However, they said it was “disappointing that they could not distinguish a genuine party initiative from an inappropriate joke”.

The Kremlin has ramped up propaganda at schools since the start of its all-out invasion of in Ukraine in 2022.

Voronezh is about 155 miles from the Ukrainian border and has often come under attack by drones launched by Kyiv’s forces.

Bokhan, who lives in Poland, has previously fooled Russian teachers into holding up signs reading “One people, one nation, one leader”, a phrase that was used by Nazi Germany to refer to Adolf Hitler.

He said the hoax was aimed at demonstrating the absurdity of Putin’s claim to be liberating Ukraine from Nazis.