Russian president Vladimir Putin has called Sir Elton John and agreed to meet him, after pranksters recently called the musician pretending to be Mr Putin and his spokesman.
Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies on Thursday that Mr Putin called Sir Elton earlier in the day and "asked him not to feel offended" by the prank.
Mr Putin promised to meet the singer as long as the schedule permits and discuss "any issues that he is concerned about".
Earlier this month, the musician criticised Russia's law against gay "propaganda" and comments by Mr Putin suggesting that gay people prey on children.
Two Russian pranksters last week said they fooled Sir Elton into believing that the Russian president had given him a call, with the star posting a message on his Instagram thanking Mr Putin for calling him.
Mr Peskov quoted Mr Putin as saying: "I know that those phone pranksters fooled you. Please don't be angry with them."
"(Mr) Putin also said that he understands how popular Elton John is, so if their schedules permit, he will be willing to meet him in the future and discuss any issues that he is concerned about," Mr Peskov said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here