It looks like Russia have their own versions of Darren ‘Whackhead’ Simpson, two Russian comedians duping Sir Elton John into believing he had spoken with president Vladimir Putin.

Now we should first get everyone up to speed here with why Elton and Putin would be talking in the first place, this below from Huffington Post:

In [an interview last week] , [Elton] criticised Putin for advocating “isolating and prejudiced” policies against gay people, and said he’d like to speak with the Russian president, though dismissed the likelihood of such a conversation happening as “pie in the sky.”

So having dismissed the idea of them conversing as ‘pie in the sky’ you might think Elton would be suspicious when ‘ol Vladimir said he was on the other line. Not if you ask  Vladimir “Vovan” Krasnov and Alexei “Lexus” Stolyarov, the men behind the prank:

“Strange as it might seem, he didn’t seem at all surprised. There was no surprise at all. He was just very excited,” Krasnov [said]. “He said how wonderful it was that I had called.”

Krasnov said John didn’t broach the subject of gay rights in the call, but did bring up the situation in Ukraine and push for a meeting in person.

“Alexei has excellent English so he played [presidential press secretary] Dmitry Peskov and translated our conversation. And I was Vladimir Putin,” Vovan[said].

Here’s proof that Elton fell for the prank, this from his official Instagram account:

Well that’s a bit awkward then isn’t it? It would be fantastic if Putin did give him a call, Russia’s archaic and inhumane stance on gay rights another stain on the country’s name, but I wouldn’t count on that happening any time soon.

[source:huffingtonpost]