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.’ ”