Elton John had earlier expressed his desire to meet Vladimir Putin to discuss LGBT rights, so you can imagine the singer's elation upon receiving a call from the Russian president. However, it was all a prank, orchestrated by pranksters Vladimir Krasnov and Alexei Stolyarov.
Krasnov, who is also known as Vovan, said that they didn't think it would be that easy to prank John. They wouldn't have admitted to the prank but when John posted an Instagram thank-you for Putin and the Kremlin denied that such a conversation had occurred, the jig was up and it was time to own up to the act.
"Alexei has excellent English so he played Dmitry Peskov [Putin's press secretary] and translated our conversation. And I was Vladimir Putin," said Krasnov.
John had been in London at the time of the call, recording in the studio, and turned out to be really expecting the call that's why he was quick to believe Krasnov and Stolyarov's farce. After the 11-minute conversation (recorded and uploaded to YouTube), the singer said "Thank you, you have made my day. This day and this conversation were the most wonderful of my life."
Krasnov and Stolyarov have also targeted Russian celebrities before with their pranks, as well as former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Talking to BBC, John had earlier said that he was fine with Putin laughing behind his back as he shuts the door or even if the Russian president should call him an idiot so long as the singer's conscience is clear having tried to talk to Putin about LGBT rights.
Before the prank, the singer was in Ukraine to urge the country to cease repressing its LGBT community. A gay pride march was held in Kiev but the event lasted no more than 10 minutes before the police stepped in and stopped it. Ten people were injured during the resulting scuffle which lasted for more than an hour.
Earlier in the year, John also called for a boycott of Dolce and Gabbana after the designers said that children conceived via IVF are "synthetic." The singer is married to David Furnish and they have two sons, Elijah and Zachary.
Listen to the prank call below:
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