Here’s a look at Musk’s contact with Putin and why it matters

WASHINGTON – Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of major government contractor SpaceX and a key ally of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the past 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 did not provide additional details about the frequency of the calls, when they occurred or their content.

Musk, the richest man in the world who also owns Tesla and the social platform emerged as a leading voice in the american right. He has poured millions of dollars into Trump’s presidential bid and turned the platform once known as Twitter into a popular site among Trump supporters as well as conspiracy theorists, extremists and russian propagandists.

Musk’s contacts with Putin raise national security issues, given his companies’ work for the government, and highlight concerns about Russian influence in American politics.

Here’s what you should know:

What did they talk about?

Musk and Putin have repeatedly spoken about personal matters, as well as business and geopolitics, The Journal reported Thursday, citing multiple current and former officials in the United States, Europe and Russia.

During a conversation, Putin asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite system over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose Ties with Putin have grown closer.the Journal reported. Putin and Xi have met more than 40 times since 2013.

Russia has denied that the talks took place. Two years ago, Musk said he had 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 details” of any request made by Putin on behalf of China.

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 issues given the billions of dollars in government contracts awarded to SpaceX, a critical partner for NASA and government satellite programs.

Trump has also promised to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.

The head of any major defense contractor would face similar questions if he held private conversations with Putin, said Ben Friedman, policy director at Defense Priorities, a group that calls for a moderate foreign policy.

“Aside from the national security implications, it seems pretty intrusive and dangerous” to Musk’s business interests, Friedman said. “If this were an approved phone call, established with the knowledge of the board of directors and with attorneys present, that would be one thing.” But when it comes to impromptu talks with Vladimir Putin, who is obviously at odds with the US government, that will cause a lot of concern.”

Putin’s request for Starlink as a favor to China is also likely to receive attention, given US support for Taiwan and concerns about growing association between the Kremlin and Beijing.

Musk, whose Tesla operates the Shanghai Gigafactory, has developed a close relationship with China’s top leaders over the years. Musk’s comments on China have been friendly and he has largely followed Beijing’s political lines. He has suggested that Taiwan cede some control to Beijing by becoming a special administrative region.

Moscow also has growing ties to American adversaries, and the United States accuses it of send ballistic missiles to Iran and North Korea sends troops to Russiapossibly to fight in Ukraine.

On Ukraine, Musk’s views have changed since initially supported kyiv after the Russian invasion in 2022 and provided it with its Starlink system for communications.

In 2023, Musk will then refused to allow Ukraine use Starlink for a surprise attack against Russian soldiers in Crimea.

In 2022 he put forward a proposal to end the war that would have required Ukraine to abandon its plans for NATO membership and given Russia permanent control of Crimea, which it seized in 2014. The plan enraged ukrainian leaders.

A person familiar with conversations between Musk and Putin told The Journal that there is no evidence that contacts between Musk and Putin represent a security problem for the United States.

The CIA, the Pentagon and the National Security Council had no comment. The National Security Agency and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Musk’s close ties to Trump

Musk recently appeared at a Trump rallywearing a Make America Great Again hat and delivered an 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 United States should cut its aid because Ukraine couldn’t win.

Trump, who has praised Putin’s leadership and criticized the NATO alliance and American aid to Ukraine, has raised doubts about what he would be willing to grant if elected in a negotiation over the future of Ukraine

U.S. intelligence officials and private technology analysts have concluded that Russia is working to covertly support Trump with disinformation and propaganda aimed at his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Since he took over X, he has become a leading online source of Russian propaganda and disinformation directed at Americans.

Trump has faced scrutiny of his own recent contacts with Putindescribed in a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.

Woodward cited 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 them both privacy.

The Trump campaign and the Kremlin have denied that any such calls occurred.

Responding to questions about Musk and Putin, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the billionaire “a once-in-a-generation industrial leader” whose ideas could benefit “our broken federal bureaucracy.”

“As for Putin, there is only one candidate in the race under whom he did not invade another country, and that is President Trump,” Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump has long said he will restore peace by strengthening his foreign policy to deter Russian aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”

Russia confirms a conversation

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday rejected the Journal report as “false information” and “absolutely false.”

Musk said in 2022 that he had spoken with Putin only once before, a conversation about space that took place about 18 months earlier.

Peskov said Putin and Musk had a “medium-length telephone conversation” ahead of 2022 that was “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 article as political.

“The elections have reached their final stretch and, of course, the opponents will stop at nothing,” Peskov said. “Remember that a week ago they said that Putin supposedly talks to Trump all day long. Now he supposedly talks to Musk all the time. “Everything is false.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence told The Associated Press on Friday that they would “refrain from commenting” on the communication between Putin and Musk.

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Associated Press writers Didi Tang, Daria Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Illia Novikov in kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.