Elton John Claims He Talked To Putin About Gay Rights, Kremlin Denies Phone Call

Elton John may or may not have spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about LGBT rights in Russia.

Did Elton John Talk To Putin?

On Monday, John took to Instagram to thank Putin for reaching out to him via telephone to talk about LGBT equality and about a possible future meeting between the two.

“Thank you to President Vladimir Putin for reaching out and speaking via telephone with me today,” John captioned a picture of the Russian politician. “I look to forward to meeting with you face-to-face to discuss LGBT equality in Russia.”

The Kremlin spokesman and press secretary Dmitry Peskov has denied that any such conversation between the singer and president ever took place.

“This does not correspond to reality,” Peskov told reporters. “There was no conversation.”

John’s publicist has maintained that the LGBT activist did speak with Putin and that he did not fall victim to a prank caller.

During a BBC interview that was published over the weekend, John had expressed his hope that he would one day be able to sit face-to-face with Putin, who endorsed Russia’s gay propaganda law in 2013

“I’d love to meet him,” John said of Putin in the BBC interview. “I’d love to sit down and talk to him. 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 calls me an absolute idiot, but at least I can have a conscience and say I’d tried.”