In one of the most outlandish stories you’re likely to read in the news today, a Russian man claims that he’s actually a former Martian who flew here on a spaceship and is here to unlock the secrets of the universe locked in the Great Sphinx in Egypt. Boriska Kipriyanovich, 20, has been the darling of the tabloids today, earning headlines around the globe although it’s not clear exactly what he’s done recently to earn the attention.

He appeared in a documentary in 2008 when he was a child, with all sorts of people making extraordinary claims about him. He himself claims that he traveled to Earth to be “reborn” back in 1996, and that when he was a Martian he was seven feet tall and was able to breathe carbon dioxide. His alien civilization was ravaged by war and nuclear disaster. Somehow, scientists have not seen any sign of civilization on Mars, let along a dystopian hellscape as posited by Kipriyanovich.

Nevertheless, this “genius” was supposedly able to read and write at just 18 months of age, and has been “confounding” scientists with his knowledge of space, if you believe the tabloids.

“The human life will change when the Sphinx is opened, it has an opening mechanism somewhere behind the ear; I do not remember exactly,” claims Boriska according to reports.

Conspiracy theory and New Age websites have latched on to him, and he’s been weaving these tall tales since he was just seven years old. His Martian colleagues have long had a connection with the ancient Egyptians, he claims. For some reason, he’s decided on a modest life in the Russian town of Volgograd.