It seems Elton John has been at the centre of an elaborate prank that led him to think he was talking on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Elton wanted to speak with Putin about gay rights in Russia and the news of increasing homophobic attacks in the city, telling the BBC: “I’d love to meet him, I’d love to sit down and talk to him.
“It’s probably pie in the sky but unless you try, unless you put your foot in the water, your toe in the water…At least I can have a conscience and say I’d tried.”
And yesterday, Elton was elated when he revealed that he had received a call from someone he believed was Putin. Posting a picture to his Instagram profile he wrote: “Thank-you to President Vladimir Putin for reaching out and speaking via telephone with me today. I look to forward to meeting with you face-to-face to discuss LGBT equality in Russia.”
But tonight it’s been revealed that this call was actually an elaborate hoax, with two Russian pranksters telling Komsomolskaya Pravda they were behind it.
Alexei 'Lexus' Stolyarov and Vladimir 'Vovan' Krasnov have a reputation for pranks in the country and were reportedly planning to play the recording on a comedian’s talk show.
“Yes it was us,” Vladimir said. “Alexei speaks excellent English so he pretended to be Dmitry Peskov [Vladimir Putin’s Press Secretary]… And I was Vladimir Putin. We didn’t call him at night - it was 5.30pm Moscow time. At that time he was already back in London at his recording studio.
He continued: “We thought it wasn’t likely that Putin would want to meet with him and call, at least not so quickly. But it turned out that Elton John was really waiting for this call, and so he immediately believed it really was a conversation with the people who we said we were.
“He said: ‘Thank you, you’ve made my day. This day and this conversation has been the most wonderful and lovely in my life.’”
Elton has yet to comment on the pair’s claims but we hope it’s not true. It’s not a funny prank. Maybe it got lost in translation.