How Elton John never talked to Vladimir Putin

A short recap of this week's telephonic, madcap misadventure

Earlier this week, the whole world woke up and learned that Russian President Vladimir Putin picked up a telephone and called British musician Elton John to discuss the state of gay rights in Russia. The source for this news was Elton John himself, who wrote about the phone call on Instagram, and nobody bothered to verify the information any further. It turns out that Putin never called Elton John, however, and the call actually came from two pranksters who fooled the musician into believing he was talking to the leader of the Russian Federation. Meduza recaps this truly bizarre story.

On Tuesday, September 15, Elton John unexpectedly posted on Instagram, where he typically shares photos of himself with other celebrities, a portrait of Vladimir Putin. In the caption, John announced that he'd just spoken to Putin on the phone. Without saying specifically what they discussed, John thanked Putin for the call and said he looked forward to meeting the President in Moscow to discuss LGBT equality. Not long before this Instagram post, John had traveled to Kiev, where he met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and signaled his interest in meeting with Putin, as well. Elton John has been an outspoken critic of Russia's legislation against so-called "gay propaganda," and has spoken out against the law during live concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Later in the day on September 15, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied that a phone call between the President and Elton John ever took place. "I can declare to you that [Putin] never talked to Sir Elton John on the telephone," Peskov told reporters, adding that Putin would, however, be willing to do so, to explain the Kremlin's position on LGBT issues in Russia.

On September 16, two pranksters revealed that they were behind the phone call. Vladimir Kuznetsov (known online as "Vovan" and once a frequent guest on the pro-Kremlin news outlet LifeNews for his prank calls to politicians in Ukraine) and Alexey Stolyarov admitted that they were the ones who called John, saying they asked him about his meeting with Poroshenko. The pranksters didn't reveal any further details about the call, and neither did they say how they got Elton John's phone number.

On the evening of September 16, Kuznetsov and Stolyarov appeared on the late night talk show "Evening Urgant," which airs on the national TV network Channel One, where they shared audio clips from the phone call. Kuznetsov was the one who pretended to be Putin. Speaking Russian, Stolyarov translated in broken English, pretending to be Putin's press secretary and interpreter. Based on the audio fragments, Elton John appears to have told "Putin" that he intends to continue fighting for LGBT rights, saying that this is precisely what he told Poroshenko, when they met in Kiev.

After it was revealed that John had been pranked, he wrote on Instagram again, this time posting an image of two young men, one of whom has a bloody nose. (The photo was taken by AFP's Olga Maltseva of a gay rights activist in Russia assaulted during a protest against the ban on "gay propaganda.") In his Instagram caption, John conveyed that he appreciates the prank, but hopes the public doesn't forget that "homophobia, however, is never funny."