Pop star Sir Elton John happily took to Instagram to announce that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss LGBT rights in Russia, as previously reported by HNGN, but Russian officials denied that the phone call ever took place and now pranksters have come forward to claim they were behind the hoax.
"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," John wrote on Instagram after what he believed was a phone conversation with Putin.
But Putin's office released a statement and denied that the singer and gay rights activist had spoken with the president at all.
"That is not true. There was no conversation," Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman said, as reported by CNN.
Now two Russian pranksters, Vladimir "Vovan" Krasnov and Alexei "Lexus" Stolyarov, are taking credit for the prank. They told local Russian daily tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda that they pretended to be Putin and Peskov, the Associated Press reported. They said the phone call would air during a prime-time Russian TV show on Wednesday, as the two are known for prank-calling celebrities.
Peskov responded to Krasnov and Stolyarov's claims, according to the AP. He said that John is "a much respected and loved performer over here" and that the two pranksters should apologize because their hoax "was not nice."
