It’s the sign of a real friendship when two countries can laugh about the little things together, trivial stuff like the ongoing allegations that one of them tampered extensively in the electoral processes of the other. So it’s presumably with a well-meaning chortle that the official Facebook page for the Russian Foreign Ministry posted an April Fools’ joke today, offering free election interference as part of its normal operating duties. “To arrange a call from a Russian diplomat to your political opponent, press 1,” the video says, first in Russian, and then in English. Press 2 “to use the services of Russian hackers,” and 3 “to request election interference.”
The Associated Press has confirmed that the joke is an official goof from the Russian governmental organization, which also recently spent some time poking fun at Sarah Jessica Parker. The old adage says that comedy equals tragedy plus time, so it’s going to be interesting to see how long it takes for international diplomatic goofs about the potential compromising of the U.S.’s political sovereignty to start to feel as hilarious as someone clearly intended this to be.