The Defence Secretary has warned that the footage has been mostly “spliced” together and last night dismissed it as “total clipped garbage”. It came after another clip emerged of him on Monday purporting to discuss Ukraine’s nuclear ambitions.
Mr Wallace reiterated to the Telegraph that the footage had been “doctored” and insisted the UK’s NLAWs were not running out. “We have enough for our needs,” he said.
The Ministry of Defence also condemned the “Russian propaganda”. “This video, like most Russian propaganda, is fed out to obscure and manipulate the truth,” it said.
“People should be very sceptical about reporting on, and accepting as real, any part of these Russian state doctored clips.”
The call was conducted by two Russian pranksters based in Moscow who have made careers of faking phone-calls to politicians and celebrities.
More videos could be released
No 10 suggested the Government would not be surprised if a hoax call to Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, was also published.
“Certainly, what we saw yesterday was what was expected,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Tuesday.
“I don’t know definitively whether the other ones will be put up but, again, as much as possible, I would encourage everyone not to play into Putin’s playbook by giving these sort of things oxygen.”
