Sir Elton John responded nobly when he found out that pranksters pretended to be Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone call discussion about LGBT rights in Russia, CNN reported. The singer and activist released a statement via Instagram and said that his offer still stands to discuss his cause with Putin.
John posted a photo of two men, one of them with blood running down his face from his nose to shed light on violence that the LGBT community faces in countries across the globe, including Russia.
"Pranks are funny," John wrote in the caption. "Homophobia, however is never funny. I love Russia and my offer to talk to President Putin about LGBT rights still stands. I will always stand up for those that are being degraded and discriminated against. If this unfortunate incident has helped push this vital issue back into the spotlight, then I am happy to be pranked on this occasion."
The musical legend posted a photo of Putin on his Instagram earlier this week and happily announced that Putin has reached out to him to discuss ways they could improve LGBT rights in Russia, as previously reported by HNGN. He had hoped to work with the leader to discuss equality for the LGBT community.
But Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Putin, said that the phone call never took place, as previously reported by HNGN. Vladimir "Vovan" Krasnov and Alexei "Lexus" Stolyarov, two Russian comedians known for pranking celebrities with telephone calls, came forward and claimed they were behind the hoax.
See John's response in his Instagram post below.
A photo posted by Elton John (@eltonjohn) on Sep 17, 2015 at 3:10am PDT
