Vladimir Putin Agrees to Elton John Meeting to Discuss LGBT Rights
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly called singer Sir Elton John and agreed to meet with him in the future, only days after an apparent prankster had impersonated Putin in a phone call to John. The British musician has been urging Putin to meet with him to discuss gay rights in Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed with the Russian state-run Sputnik news agency that a real conversation between Putin and John had this time taken place, and the Russian president has agreed to hold a meeting if their schedules coincide at a later date.
"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," Putin reportedly told John.
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CNN noted that Russian celebrity prankster Vladimir Krasnov had initially called John to promise him a meeting on LGBT rights in Russia, which John initially thought was real.
The singer even thanked Putin on his Instagram account for "reaching out" in the faux phone conversation, something which Peskov denied on Russian TV.
BBC News added that Putin has now promised to meet John for real and discuss "any issues of interest" to the musician.
Russia has been criticized by human rights groups, including by John, for enacting a controversial law in 2013 that seeks to protect children from gay "propaganda," which has made it illegal for anyone to spread information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to minors.
John has argued that the law promotes hostility and violence against LGBT people across Russia.
"Whatever the intention of Russia's homosexuality and pedophilia propaganda laws, I am absolutely clear from my own personal experience that it is proving deeply dangerous to the LGBT community and deeply divisive to Russian society," John said in January 2014.
Human Rights Watch also warned in a report last year that LGBT violence in Russia is rising.
"Violence experienced by LGBT people in Russia is unmistakably motivated by homophobia, but the authorities deliberately ignore that these are hate crimes and fail to protect victims," said Tanya Cooper, Russia researcher at HRW.
"Russian authorities should effectively prosecute homophobic violence, and the authorities should stop engaging in and tolerating anti-LGBT discrimination."
The propaganda law also drew global controversy in the wake of the February 2014 Winter Olympic Games, which were held in the Russian city of Sochi.
