The Wall Street Journal reports that Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and a key figure in US space efforts, has been maintaining regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022.
According to several current and former US, European, and Russian officials cited by WSJ, these discussions cover personal topics, business matters, and geopolitical tensions. Two people briefed on the matter told WSJ that Putin requested Musk to avoid activating Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The contacts raise potential national-security concerns among some in the current administration, WSJ reports, given Putin’s role as one of America’s chief adversaries and Musk’s deep business ties with US military and intelligence agencies through SpaceX, the American spacecraft manufacturer, launch service provider, and satellite communications company.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told WSJ that the only communication between Putin and Musk was one telephone call discussing “space as well as current and future technologies.”
Per WSJ, knowledge of these contacts appears to be closely held within the government, with several White House officials saying they weren’t aware of them. The matter is particularly sensitive given Musk’s increasing involvement in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
A person familiar with the interactions told WSJ that in 2022, Musk was having regular conversations with “high-level Russians,” with pressure from the Kremlin on Musk’s businesses and “implicit threats against him.”
“They don’t love it,” one person aware of the conversations told WSJ regarding the government’s stance on the Musk-Putin contacts, though noting no alerts have been raised over possible security breaches.
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