Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's Twitter-savvy prime minister, is trending on the microblogging site after hackers broke into his account and announced his resignation.
The flurry of spoof posts, which began early on August 14, lasted for about 40 minutes before being taken down.
One of the tweets saw Medvedev resign because he was "ashamed of the government's actions."
The hacked account also poked fun at Medvedev's photography hobby by informing the public that he had chosen to pursue a career as a "freelance photographer."
It then had the prime minister renounce Moscow's claim to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia earlier this year, with this spinoff from the popular hashtag "KrymNash" ("Crimea is ours").
The hackers did not miss the opportunity to take a jab at President Vladimir Putin, saying his August 14 speech in Crimea would not yield "anything important" and using Putin's diminutive nickname to pan his policies.
"I've been wanting to say this for a long time," the post said. "Vova! You are wrong!"
The Russian government quickly issued a statement confirming Medvedev's account had been hacked and rejecting the latest posts as fake.
The incident nonetheless unleashed a barrage of gleeful comments on Twitter.
Shaltai Boltai, a shadowy anti-Kremlin group known for posting embarrassing leaks from Russian officials' computers and mobile phones, has since claimed responsibility for the hacking.
It also posted a snapshot of a cabinet meeting that it said was taken by Medvedev's hacked iPhone, and promised to release more data obtained from the premier's e-mail accounts and other mobile phones.
Medvedev's Russian-language Twitter feed has more than 2.5 million followers.
