Not content with annexing Crimea after the fall of Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian officials are mulling annexing other territories around Europe and the world, at least in jest – that is, if a leaked recording of a purported conversation between two Russian ambassadors is genuine.
In a five-minute recording uploaded to YouTube, the contents of which were translated by The Guardian Saturday, two men – said to be Russian Eritrea ambassador Igor Chubarov and Zimbabwe and Malawi ambassador Sergei Bakharev – can be heard speaking jokingly in Russian about the parts of the world that they would like to annex after Crimea.
In language laden with expletives, the two can be heard laughingly discussing future takeovers of territories as far apart as Catalonia, Venice, Scotland, and Alaska.
According to The Guardian, one of the speakers, labelled as Chubarov, even punned the word for Scotland in Russian so it sounded like “Cattleland.”
Chubarov then said Russia would move to annex “all those fucking border countries” – countries surrounding Russia and parts of the former Soviet Union, such as Estonia, Romania, and Bulgaria.
He reportedly quoted the head of the European Union mission to Eritrea as joking that he wished Russia would “take back” Romania and Bulgaria, both of which joined the EU in 2007.
However, Chubarov and Bakharev eventually agreed to leave Bulgaria, Romania and the “Baltic shit” to the EU, setting their sights instead on California and Miami.
“Miamiland is fucking 95% Russian citizens. We have a full right to hold a referendum,” Chubarov reportedly said. Bukharev suggested holding a similar referendum in “Londonland,” and the two laughed.
Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied that the speakers were the two ambassadors, suggesting the recording was a clumsy American fabrication.