Musk and Putin in ‘regular contact’ for two years? New report reveals – Times of India

Elon Musk (Left) and Vladimir Putin (Right)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been in regular contact since 2022, the Wall Street Journal claimed citing several current and former US, European and Russian officials.
In the report, the newspaper claimed that the Russian President has asked Musk to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. However, it is unclear whether Musk agreed to this request.
“While the US and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk’s dialogue could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader, and reinforce Trump’s expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine,” The Wall Street Journal wrote.
It is a coincidence that the report came at the time with Musk’s announcement of resuming his America PAC town halls, where he previously distributed awards for his controversial $1 million sweepstakes giveaway for registered voters who sign his political action committee’s petition pledging to uphold free speech and the right to bear arms in swing states. The timing of the pause in these appearances has been linked to a warning letter sent to the PAC by the Justice Department earlier this week.
Through SpaceX, Musk has obtained a national security clearance that grants him access to certain classified information. The Journal cites a person reportedly aware of the conversations between Musk and Putin, stating that no alerts have been raised by the administration about any possible security breaches by Musk.
At a recent campaign appearance, Musk commented, “I do have a top-secret clearance, but, I’d have to say, like most of the stuff that I’m aware of…the reason they keep it top secret is because it’s so boring.”
Earlier this month, Trump stated that he would appoint Musk to lead a government efficiency commission if elected.
Trump’s team has previously denied that the former president continued speaking with Putin after leaving office, refuting an account in journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, “War,” which claimed that Trump had sent Russia’s president a COVID-19 testing kit during the height of the pandemic. In an interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Chicago Economic Club, Trump said that if he had talked to Putin, it would have been a “smart thing.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated in the report that the only communication the Kremlin has had with Musk was a single telephone call in which he and Putin discussed “space as well as current and future technologies.”
Peskov denied the claims that Musk and Putin were in regular contact, saying after the report was published, “This is absolutely false information published in The Wall Street Journal newspaper.”
Musk himself stated in a post on X in 2022 that he had spoken to Putin only once, claiming that the conversation took place in 2021 and was about “space.” However, he did give Putin airtime through his social media platform, X, which aired the Russian president’s interview with Tucker Carlson in February 2024. In the interview, Putin called Musk a “smart person” and said, “There’s no stopping Elon Musk. He’s going to do what he thinks he needs to do.”
According to The Wall Street Journal report, a person familiar with the interactions told the paper that Musk was having regular conversations with “high-level Russians” by late 2022. The source also mentioned that there was pressure from the Kremlin on Musk’s businesses and “implicit threats against [Musk].” The Journal suggests that these alleged threats were in response to Musk’s public support for Ukraine and granting Ukrainians access to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet.
In October 2022, Ian Bremmer, the founder of political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group, wrote in a newsletter to subscribers that he spoke to Musk two weeks prior about his conversation with Putin. According to Bremmer’s Oct. 10 newsletter, Musk told him that Putin had outlined the minimum requirements to end the war, which included Crimea remaining Russian, Ukraine accepting a formal status of neutrality, and recognition of Russia’s annexations of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. Putin also allegedly told Musk that if Zelenskyy invaded Crimea, Russia would retaliate with a nuclear strike on Ukraine.
Musk told Bremmer that the Ukrainians asked him to activate Starlink in Crimea, but he refused due to the potential for escalation. Bremmer wrote, “Musk also appeared concerned about more direct threats from Putin. While he didn’t surface anything explicit with me, he did talk about Russian cyber capabilities and Russia’s potential to disrupt his satellites.” Shortly after Musk’s conversation with both Putin and Bremmer, he posted on X, essentially outlining the same points that Putin had allegedly discussed with him, labeling them as “Ukraine-Russia Peace.” At the time, Musk publicly denied in a tweet that he said any of this to Bremmer.
The Wall Street Journal reports, “One current and one former intelligence source said that Musk and Putin have continued to have contact since then, and into this year, as Musk began stepping up his criticism of the U.S. military aid to Ukraine and became involved in Trump’s election campaign.”
In a statement to ABC News on Friday, U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson Sue Gough said, “We have seen the reporting from Wall Street Journal but cannot corroborate the veracity of those reports and would refer you to Mr. Musk to speak to his private communications.” Gough added, “We expect everyone who has been granted a security clearance, including contractors, to follow the prescribed procedures for reporting foreign contacts.”