World
Kremlin denies report Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin have been in regular contact for last two years
The Kremlin has denied a Wall Street Journal report that Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin have been in regular contact over the last two years.
The world’s richest man has repeatedly been in touch with the Russian president, according to the US outlet, citing several current and former US, European and Russian officials.
They added that the discussions touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions.
It comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues and the US election approaches next month.
However, the Kremlin and Mr Musk both denied the report.
On Friday, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “No, this is not true.”
He said that the pair had had one contact and that was before 2022.
Mr Musk himself previously said on his own social media site that they had spoken around April 2021.
However, the new report says that more conversations followed this.
Mr Musk denied the report in a tweet, claiming The Wall Story Journal was biased.
The WSJ report claimed that, amid the conversations, Mr Putin asked Mr Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favour to Chinese leader Xi Jinping – citing two people briefed on the request.
It added that knowledge of Mr Musk’s alleged connections with Mr Putin was a guarded secret with several officials in the White House reportedly not aware of it.
The report also claimed that Mr Musk spoke to high-ranking Russian officials too. It named one as Sergei Kiriyenko, Mr Putin’s first deputy chief of staff – citing two officials.
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‘Hold strong Ukraine’
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Mr Musk came out in support of Kyiv – tweeting “hold strong Ukraine”.
He also donated Starlink terminals providing free internet access to much of the country under attack from Russia.
But last year, Mr Musk said he refused a Ukrainian request to activate his satellite network during an attempted attack on Russian ships.
Russia’s now-former space chief Dmitry Rogozin has threatened Mr Musk over his support for Ukraine and has repeatedly shared messages about him, and Starlink, on his Telegram channel.
Mr Musk operates SpaceX, which runs the Starlink service, and is the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA.
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He has campaigned for Donald Trump, and given sizeable donations to his election efforts.
Sky’s US partner network NBC News has approached Mr Musk for comment.