Friday, 22 November 2024
Friday, 22 November 2024
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of major government contractor SpaceX and key ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the last two years, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A person familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, confirmed to The Associated Press that Musk and Putin have had contact through calls. The person didn't provide additional details about the frequency of the calls, when they occurred or their content.
Musk, the world's richest man who also owns Tesla and the social platform X, has emerged as a leading voice on the American right. He's poured millions of dollars into Trump's presidential bid and turned the platform once known as Twitter into a site popular with Trump supporters, as well as conspiracy theorists, extremists and Russian propagandists.
Musk's contacts with Putin raise national security questions, given his companies' work for the government, and highlight concerns about Russian influence in American politics.
Here's what to know:
What they talked about
Musk and Putin have spoken repeatedly about personal matters as well as business and geopolitics, The Journal reported on Thursday, citing multiple current and former officials in the US, Europe and Russia.
During one talk, Putin asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite system over Taiwan as a favour for Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose ties to Putin have grown closer, the Journal reported. Putin and Xi have met more than 40 times since 2013.
Russia has denied the conversations took place. Two years ago, Musk said he'd only spoken to Putin once, in a call 18 months earlier focused on space.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said on Friday that it was “not aware of the specifics” of any requests made by Putin on China's behalf.
There was no immediate response to messages left with X and Tesla.
What the talks mean for national security
Musk's relationship with Putin raises national security questions given the billions of dollars in government contracts awarded to SpaceX, a critical partner to NASA and government satellite programs.
Trump also has vowed to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.
The head of any large defense contractor would face similar questions if they held private talks with Putin, said Ben Friedman, policy director at Defence Priorities, a group that calls for restrained foreign policy.
“Aside from the national security implications, it seems quite indiscrete and dangerous" to Musk's business interests, Friedman said.
“If it was an approved phone call set up with the knowledge of the board of directors with lawyers present, that would be one thing. But when it's off-the-cuff conversations with Vladimir Putin, who is obviously at odds with the US government, that is going to cause a lot of concern.”
The request from Putin on Starlink as a favour to China is also likely to get attention, given US support for Taiwan and concerns about the growing partnership between the Kremlin and Beijing.
Musk, whose Tesla operates Gigafactory Shanghai, has over the years developed a close relationship with China's top leadership. Musk's remarks about China have been friendly and he's largely toed Beijing's political lines. He has suggested Taiwan cede some control to Beijing by becoming a special administrative region.
Moscow also has growing ties to American adversaries, with the US accusing it of sending ballistic missiles to Iran and North Korea sending troops to Russia, possibly for combat in Ukraine.
On Ukraine, Musk's views have shifted since he initially supported Kyiv following Russia's invasion in 2022 and provided it with his Starlink system for communications.
In 2023, Musk then refused to allow Ukraine to use Starlink for a surprise attack on Russian soldiers in Crimea.
He floated a proposal in 2022 to end the war that would have required Ukraine to drop its plans for NATO membership and given Russia permanent control of Crimea, which it seized in 2014. The plan infuriated Ukrainian leaders.
One person familiar with the talks between Musk and Putin told The Journal that there is no evidence the contacts between Musk and Putin represent a security problem for the US.
The CIA, Pentagon and National Security Council had no comment. The National Security Agency and State Department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Musk's close ties to Trump
Musk recently appeared at a Trump rally, sporting a Make America Great Again hat and delivered a ominous warning that if Trump lost the race “this will be the last election”.
Last year, Musk mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request for aid for his country with a meme and said in February that the US should cut its assistance because Ukraine couldn't win.
Trump, who has praised Putin's leadership and criticized the NATO alliance and US aid for Ukraine, has raised questions about what he would be willing to concede if he's elected in a negotiation over Ukraine's future
US intelligence officials and private tech analysts have concluded that Russia is working to covertly support Trump with disinformation and propaganda targeting his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Since he took over X, it has become a leading online source of Russian propaganda and disinformation aimed at Americans.
Trump has faced scrutiny over his own recent contacts with Putin, outlined in a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.
Woodward quoted an unnamed Trump aide who said the former president and Putin may have had as many as seven conversations since Trump lost reelection in 2020. Before one of the calls, the aide said they were asked to leave Trump's office to give the two privacy.
The Trump campaign and the Kremlin have denied those calls occurred.
In response to questions about Musk and Putin, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the billionaire “a once-in-a-generation industry leader” whose ideas could benefit “our broken federal bureaucracy”.
“As for Putin, there's only one candidate in the race that he did not invade another country under, and it's President Trump,” Leavitt said in a statement.
“President Trump has long said that he will re-establish his peace through strength foreign policy to deter Russia's aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”
Russia confirms one conversation
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday rejected The Journal's report as “untrue” and “absolutely false information”.
Musk said in 2022 that he had spoken to Putin only once previously, a conversation about space that occurred about 18 months earlier.
Peskov said Putin and Musk once held a “medium-length phone conversation” prior to 2022 that was “as more of an introductory nature” and that the two talked about “visionary technologies, technological solutions for the future”.
“After that, Musk had no contacts with Putin,” Peskov said, dismissing The Journal's article as political.
“The election has entered its home stretch, and of course the opponents stop at nothing,” Peskov said. “Remember that a week ago they were saying that Putin allegedly talks to Trump all day long. Now he allegedly talks to Musk all the time. It's all untrue.”
Ukraine's military intelligence told The Associated Press on Friday that they would “refrain from commenting” about communication between Putin and Musk.
With inputs from AP
