MOSCOW — This time, the Russians said, it really happened.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia telephoned the singer-songwriter Elton John, who had asked for a meeting with him to discuss the status of gay rights in Russia.
Mr. John announced in an Instagram post last week that Mr. Putin had called him. But the story that circulated on social media turned out to be a hoax: Mr. John had been the victim of a prank call by two satirists, Vladimir Krasnov and Alexey Stolyarov, who posed as Mr. Putin and an interpreter.
Evidently, the Kremlin decided it was a good idea after all.
“Putin spoke with Elton John,” the president’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters on Thursday after Mr. Putin held a meeting at Russia’s agro-industrial complex in Semikarakorsk. “Putin called and said: ‘I know that you were pranked by the telephone guys. Don’t be upset with them. They’re harmless, although that, without doubt, does not justify them.’ ”
Mr. Peskov added: “Putin said that he knows what a popular performer Elton John is, and in the future, if their schedules coincide, he will be ready to meet with him and discuss any questions that are of interest.”
The pranksters took a little bit of credit for themselves. “We are very proud that we hastened the meeting between the president and Elton John, for which Elton John was ready, but everything was resolved much faster,” Mr. Krasnov told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Gary Farrow, a spokesman for Mr. John, declined to comment on Thursday.
In an interview during a visit to Ukraine earlier this month, Mr. John told the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent that he wanted to meet Mr. Putin in person, calling the Russian president’s approach toward gay people “isolating and prejudiced.”
Russia has, among other actions, moved to classify gay “propaganda” as pornography and barred same-sex couples from adopting Russian children.