Sir Elton John was on the receiving end of a prank this week after expressing a desire last Sunday to lobby Russia’s President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s antipathy to advancing the cause of sodomy.
The singer had already been promoting gay rights in Ukraine, where he was on tour.
Two days later, Sir Elton had switched from saying the president’s stance was ‘ridiculous’, ‘isolating and prejudiced’ to praising him for ‘reaching out’ by apparently phoning the ageing pop star out of the blue.
The only problem was, the president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters that reports of a conversation were “not true”.
“I don’t know who spoke to Elton John but President Putin did not speak to him,” he said. “… most importantly we didn’t receive any proposals to meet.”
He added: “If the president does get such a signal from Elton John, the president has always been open to discuss any… human rights problems, any issues. He is always ready to clarify the real situation.”
The ‘real situation’ is that Russia has passed a law outlawing homosexual propaganda to protect its young people.
‘Wonderful moment’ in Elton’s life
The next day, one Vladimir Krasnov, known as “Vovan”, admitted that he made the call with his sidekick Alexei Stolyarov, known as “Lexus”.
Vovan told the BBC and Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, “Alexei has excellent English so he played Dmitry Peskov and translated our conversation. And I was Vladimir Putin.”
“It turned out that Elton John was really expecting that call, so he really believed he was talking to the people we said we were,” he said, adding that the singer had been in a London recording studio at the time of the call.
The recording and a transcript were gleefully added to the Russia Today website.
Sir Elton told the pranksters that he was ‘extremely honored’ to be called. ‘It is a great privilege to be able to speak to one of the most influential people in the world. It’s amazing,’ he continued.
The singer concluded the call by saying to Lexus, “Please thank him for his time and tell him he’s made my day. It’s a very wonderful moment in my life.”
“He really believed he was talking to the people we said we were,” said Vladimir Krasnov, known as “Vovan”.
Propaganda point
By Thursday, the musician was putting a brave face on his discomfort, saying he still wanted to speak to President Putin and then deciding to make a propaganda point out of it.
On his Instagram account, John posted a picture of a man with a bloodied face, whom we were to assume had acquired the injury from someone opposed to sodomy. John said: “Pranks are funny. Homophobia, however, is never funny.”
What is even less funny is authority figures like teachers telling children there is nothing wrong with being homosexual and encouraging them to turn a transient phase which they would otherwise grow out of into an ‘orientation’ which they will never shake off.
It also isn’t funny when entertainers use their considerable following to promote a pro-sodomy agenda.
We can but pray that Vladimir Putin will continue to keep Russian young people safe from the machinations of campaigning homosexuals like Elton John.
You can fool SOME of the people ALL the time.
Another thoughtful and well-written article. Don’t you think, though, that the ageing Elton John’s “considerable following” is already very much in favour of a “pro-sodomy agenda”, and that nobody else takes him very seriously?
So the whole episode is funny, and a fine example of how “personalities” of limited appeal get puffed up with their own importance.