19/12/2025 President
The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Theodoros Rousopoulos, made the following statement today:
“In recent days, following a recommendation by a high-ranking member of a political group within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I agreed to communicate with a person who claimed to be a senior official in the administration of the President of Ukraine.
The communication took place via Zoom and concerned the establishment of the PACE Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces - as decided by the Assembly’s Resolution 2621(2025).
I was subsequently informed by the same member of the political group within our Assembly that, to his surprise, the person appearing in the call had, in fact, impersonated the Ukrainian official in a fraudulent way using artificial intelligence (including deep fake and identity-manipulation technologies).
No sensitive information was shared, nor were any positions expressed that are inconsistent with the Assembly’s established and public positions. Nevertheless, there is a risk that the content of this communication could be altered or misrepresented as part of a possible smear campaign against the Parliamentary Assembly or its President.
This incident highlights how artificial intelligence and advanced technological tools can be exploited by hostile actors to undermine democracy and the functioning of European institutions. It also underlines the importance of the Parliamentary Assembly’s ongoing work on the impact of AI on democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
Members of the Assembly and our partners are therefore urged to exercise heightened vigilance in communications with individuals they do not personally know and to inform the Assembly’s Secretariat and relevant national authorities in cases of reasonable suspicion of fraud.”