Putin has called Elton John after prank, Kremlin says

This time, Elton John appears to have had an actual phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin called the British musician Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian state-run Sputnik news agency, days after news emerged that a prankster claiming to be the Russian leader had phoned him to talk about gay rights.

In the real Putin-John call, the Russian President agreed to meet the singer if their schedules coincided, Peskov said.

"Putin called and said, 'I know you were called by pranksters; don't get offended by those guys, they are harmless, though this certainly does not justify their actions,' " Peskov said, according to Sputnik.

The prank

Thursday's conversation is the latest chapter in a series of events that began when John, two weekends ago, told the BBC that he wished to meet with Putin to talk about the treatment of gay people in Russia.

John's phone then rang, and the musician believed the man on the other line was Putin.

John posted on Instagram on September 14 that Putin had reached out to him and that he looked forward to meeting the Russian leader "to discuss LGBT equality in Russia."

Sourced from http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/24/europe/russia-putin-elton-john/index.html