Update: Russian celebrity prankster Vladimir Krasnov claimed credit for the call Elton John said he received, telling the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that the pop star “immediately believed” he was speaking to Vladimir Putin.
Elton John says Russian President Vladimir Putin called him after the singer asked for a meeting to talk about gay rights.
Last week, the singer criticized an anti-gay Russian law and a suggestion by Putin last year that gay people prey on children. John told the BBC that he wanted a meeting to discuss Putin’s “ridiculous” gay rights record.
On Tuesday, John posted on Instagram that he got a call. There was no word on whether the Kremlin had agreed to the meeting.
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John played in the Soviet Union in 1979 and regularly plays in Russia. He was in Ukraine last week and called for that country to improve its gay rights record, too.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.
Erin McClam