The words ‘Russian,’ ‘hacker’ and ‘US president’ are usually saved for stories on alleged election interference, but fraudsters have targeted UFC star Alexander Volkov’s Twitter, bizarrely turning it into a shrine to Barack Obama.
Moscow-based heavyweight Volkov most recently starred on the fight card of compatriot Khabib Nurmagomedov’s UFC lightweight title defense against Conor McGregor in October, losing in a stunning KO to Derrick ‘The Black Beast’ Lewis.
READ MORE: Derrick Lewis stuns Alexander Volkov with late KO
Tweeting in anticipation of that bout, Volkov, who boasts an MMA record of 30 wins and seven losses, posted a mock-up fight poster of himself wearing the traditional Russian ‘ushanka’ hat alongside Lewis in similar-style headgear.
That humorous tweet seems to be the last before a violation of Volkov’s verified account, when online tricksters gained access and retweeted posts from the personal account of the 44th president of the United States.
Since then, Volkov’s feed has been jam-packed with retweets from Obama on everything from his wife and former first lady Michelle, healthcare in the United States, and tributes to Martin Luther King Jr.
The hackers even replaced the link to Volkov's website to that of obama.org, the website of the Obama Foundation, which the 57-year-old established in 2014.
If the goal of the hackers was to create parody, the example could not be more perfect, as the blue-eyed, blonde-haired 6ft 7in colossus Volkov’s fight moniker is ‘Drago,’ a reference to the Cold War embodiment of Russia power Ivan Drago, a character from the fourth film in the famous Rocky franchise.
One more tiny coincidence relating to US-Russia ties is that one of the posts retweeted by the hackers includes a retro picture of a young Obama with his future wife Michelle, clenching a newspaper with a headline featuring the name of former Soviet politician Mikhail Gorbachev.
What a strange world we live in!