It seemed like a diplomatic breakthrough of global significance – the pop superstar turned equality campaigner Sir Elton John had managed to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to talk to him about gay rights.
But it appears the singer-songwriter was simply a victim of two Russian pranksters.
Vladimir Krasnov and Alexei Stolyarov, known as Vova and Lexus, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that it had been easy to get through to the 68-year-old Sir Elton.
They said he “immediately believed in the reality” of the conversation. They claimed that he had told the fake Putin: “This day, and the conversation was the most wonderful and beautiful in my life.”
The call lasted 11 minutes and was released on the pair's popular YouTube channel, where it is quickly amassing views.
Rather than making a complete fool of the singer, the prank call is fairly tame - the pair speak earnestly about gay rights, and the wish of both parties to have a face-to-face meeting about the issue. The call ends with the promise of a meeting in Moscow in mid-November, and Sir Elton signs off by saying the call was a "very wonderful moment in my life."
The idea that the Russian president would speak to Sir Elton is not totally far-fetched. Last weekend, the singer met Petro Poroshenko, the president of neighbouring Ukraine, to talk about “the importance of legislative changes to support LGBT rights”.
Writing on Instagram, Sir Elton said: “Specifically, I asked [Mr Poroshenko] to: 1. Ban discrimination in the workplace based on sexuality and gender identity. 2. Provide criminal penalties for hate crimes. I want to thank him and the First Lady for welcoming me and David [Furnish, his husband] so warmly.”
This meeting with Poroshenko was addressed in the prank call - the Putin impersonator expresses concern that the meeting had a political aim, but Sir Elton denies this, saying: "I didn't mean it as a political speech, I meant it as a humanitarian speech."
He added: "You can tell the president that I have loved Russia since 1979 when I first came there, I love Russian people very dearly and I love the country."
"I do not want to get mixed up in the political dialogue - I am not a politician, and I want to talk on a humanitarian basis to the president, face-to-face."
On Monday, Sir Elton wrote about the phone call on Instagram and thanked President Putin for agreeing to meet him - apparently convinced that the call was genuine.
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“Thank you to President Vladimir Putin for reaching out and speaking via telephone with me today. I look to forward to meeting with you face-to-face” he said.
A spokesman for Mr Putin later denied the conversation had taken place.
Sir Elton has previously criticised the Russian president’s “ridiculous” stance on gay rights and accused Mr Putin of saying “stupid things” in reference to his warning to gay people travelling to the Winter Olympics to “leave the children in peace”.
Russia passed a law banning homosexual “propaganda” among children in June 2013, sparking an international outcry.
