U.S.
billionaire Elon Musk held secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout the war in Ukraine as his preliminary support for Kyiv appeared to move in Moscows favor, the Wall Street Journalreported Thursday, pointing out several confidential existing and ex-U.S., European and Russian officials.The personal discussions reportedly dealt with personal subjects, business and geopolitical stress, and occurred in between October 2022 when heproposed a questionable peace offer and into this year.One present and one former intelligence source were cited as stating the contacts with Putin continued as Musk began increasingly criticizing U.S.
military help to Ukraine and backed previous President Donald Trumps newest quote for office.
WSJ kept in mind that Musks declared engagement with Putin comes amid Trumps proposition to cut an offer over the war in Ukraine.The paper likewise reported that the billionaire was having regular discussions with top-level Russians, consisting of Putins first deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko, amid pressure from the Kremlin on Musks companies and implicit threats against him.They [the U.S.
federal government] dont love it, one source was quoted as stating, referring to the reported Musk-Putin contacts, but including that the Biden administration has actually not yet raised alerts over possible security breaches.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told WSJ that Musk and Putin had just one phone call, in which they talked about area along with current and future technologies.
The billionaire, who did not respond to the newspapers ask for comment, said in October 2022 that he had actually talked about space with Putin in April 2021.
WSJ reported that Putin asked Musk to not trigger his Starlink satellite web service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Starlink does not presently provide service to the island nation.The Kremlin later Friday rejected the accusations in WSJs report, stating Its all untrue.Putinhadonly one conversationwithMusk.
It was reported, and it happened before2022, Peskov told journalists at a daily briefing.They talkedaboutvisionarytechnologies, technologicalsolutionsfor the future.