Elton John’s recent phone conversation with Vladimir Putin about gay rights ended up being an elaborate prank by a pair of Russian comedians.
Here’s an odd story for you. A few days ago, veteran entertainer Elton John posted a message to his Instagram account thanking Russian president Vladimir Putin for reaching out to him and setting up a face-to-face meeting so the two could discuss Russia’s troubled history of gay rights violations. Earlier this month, John met with Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, to discuss that country’s issues with gay rights, so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that Putin’s office might reach out to John, an internationally known gay icon and outspoken advocate for LGBT rights, to bring the conversation to Russia.
It was still a bit too good to be true, though. It ends up that the person John talked to on the phone was not actually Vladimir Putin, but rather Russian comedian Vladimir Krasnov, who pretended to be Putin as part of an elaborate prank. Here’s a recording of their phone call. That’s Krasnov’s comedy partner Alexey Stolyarov posing as Putin’s press secretary Dmitri S. Peskov.
Krasnov and Stolyarov took credit for the prank in the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, and then played parts of the conversation on various comedy and variety shows, although it doesn’t seem terribly funny to me. Maybe Krasnov and Stolyarov are making dirty jokes in Russian. Actually, the whole thing seems like it’s in poor taste given how earnest and excited John seems about the chance to address LGBT issues in Russia. “I love Russia,” he said. “It’s been part of my life since 1979, and I just want to make the situation better if I can.” Way to crush his dreams, guys.
John took it in stride, though. After it became clear that the call had been fake, the singer followed up with another Instagram post making his feelings clear.
Incidentally, since this all went down, Dmitri S. Peskov—the real Dmitri S. Peskov—said that Putin would meet with John if asked, so maybe Krasnov and Stolyarov will actually end up bringing about the thing they were trying to fake.
H/T The New York Times, Stereogum
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