After falling victim to Russian pranksters pretending to be Vladimir Putin, Sir Elton John has received a phone call from the real Russian president. According to the Kremlin, Putin phoned the pop star Wednesday and asked him not to be offended by the prank. Putin also proposed a meeting and said John was welcome to discuss “any issue of interest.”
Earlier this month John, accompanied by his husband David Furnish, met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev to lobby him on LGBT rights. While there he told the BBC he would like to meet Putin and confront him about his country's anti-LGBT record.
“I'd love to meet him [Putin], 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 if I meet him and say, ‘Listen, come on, let's have a cup of tea, let's talk about this', he might laugh behind my back and then he shuts the door and call me an absolute idiot but at least I can have a conscience and say I'd tried.”
