ABSTRACT
On 24 September 2015, the Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned the British singer-songwriter and gay activist Sir Elton John (Reginald Dwight) to meet him. The call occurred as Putin had decided to respond to the singer’s concerns about the ‘ridiculous’ nature of the homophobic attitudes which existed in Russia. Most especially, John was concerned that the Russian lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) community had been brutalised through a combination of homophobic legislation, state victimisation and political violence. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall, John criticised the passage of a Russian law in 2013 designed to prosecute those private citizens who were deemed to have promoted ‘gay propaganda’ to children.
