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A new report reveals that Elon Musk regularly met for two years with Vladimir Putin, and has faced pressure from him in recent months.
Elon Musk, one of Trump’s biggest donors who has been campaigning for Trump, has been having secret conversations with Vladimir Putin since 2022.
According to WSJ, Putin asked Musk not to activate Starlink over Taiwan. pic.twitter.com/4zOLSfXraQ
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A new report claims that tech billionaire Elon Musk has talked frequently with Russian President Vladimir Putin for at least two years. Various sources including former and current U.S., Russian, and European officials stated that conversations between the two ranged from personal to political. The report also said that some officials in the Biden administration were unaware of the extent of their communication.
Details given in the report include “implicit threats” from Russia towards Musk. “In May 2022, Russia’s space chief said in a post on Telegram that Musk would ‘answer like an adult’ for supplying Starlink to Ukraine’s Azov battalion, which the Kremlin had singled out for the ultraright ideology espoused by some members,” said the Wall Street Journal. Soon after on X, formerly Twitter, Musk (who owns the platform) would publicly post that SpaceX was losing money funding those terminals and has been extremely vocal in opposing more American aid to Ukraine.
The article details that Musk also frequently spoke with Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s first deputy chief of staff. Kiriyenko has been accused of sowing disinformation online by creating internet domains on social media including X to influence the upcoming presidential election. In addition, the Tesla founder allegedly did not activate Starlink satellites serving the nation of Taiwan as requested by Putin as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The news comes as Musk has thrown his full support behind former President Donald Trump’s election campaign, even potentially violating the law by promising $1 million a day to voters in Pennsylvania and other swing states. “If people like Musk get Trump reelected, they’ll expect all kinds of regulatory gifts in their favor,” said Fiona Hill, the former senior director of European affairs to the White House. She remarked that the relationship is not unlike how Russia has cultivated oligarchs and warned of the danger: “He is in a position to command government contracts, potentially with a government position, and there are loads of militaries around the world dependent on his systems, not least Ukraine.”