A video of Israel’s prime minister confusing Boris Johnson with former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has surfaced from a cabinet meeting held at the weekend.

The original video – captured by a journalist working at Israeli publication Hareetz – shows Benjamin Netanyahu confidently telling the room he had met with Yelstin before being laughed at and loudly corrected by his fellow politicians. 

Yeltsin, who died in 2007, served as the first President of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999.  

Netanyahu starts by saying: “I’ve returned from a very pleasant visit in London, where I’ve met with Prime Minister Boris Yeltsin and the US defence secretary,” report Hareetz. 

After being corrected, Netanyahu – with a wry smile – jokes that he had made the mistake deliberately to check those in the meeting were paying attention. 

In the age of simple video editing tools however no misstep is unfixable, and a  tweet from yesterday’s meeting, released by Netanyahu’s office, features an awkwardly cut video replacing the moment with the correct Boris’ surname – with just a smattering of the original laughter audible. 

The gaffe comes as Netanyahu fights for his survival ahead of next week’s election, with his campaign branding him as a veteran statesman with close relations to other world leaders. 

As ever, Twitter was quick to respond – with one user superimposing Yeltsin’s face onto a campaign poster originally featuring US President Donald Trump: