WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of major government contractor SpaceX and key ally of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin over 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 been in contact via phone calls. The person did not provide additional details about the frequency of the calls, when they occurred or their content.
Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of Tesla and social platform X, has emerged as a leading voice on the American right. He has 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 questions about national security, given his companies’ work for the government, and highlight concerns about Russian influence in American politics.
Here’s what you need to know:
What they talked about
Musk and Putin have spoken repeatedly about personal matters, as well as business and geopolitics, The Journal reported Thursday, citing multiple current and former officials in the U.S., Europe and Russia.
During a call, 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 forty times since 2013.
Russia has denied that the talks took place. Two years ago, Musk said he had spoken to Putin only once, during a phone conversation 18 months earlier about space travel.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said on Friday it was “not aware of the details” of any requests Putin had made 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 questions about national security given the billions of dollars in government contracts awarded to SpaceX, a crucial partner of NASA and government satellite programs.
Trump has also vowed 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 were to hold private conversations with Putin, said Ben Friedman, policy director at Defense Priorities, a group that calls for a cautious foreign policy.
“Beyond the national security implications, it seems quite indiscreet and dangerous” for Musk’s business interests, Friedman said. “If it was an approved phone call, set up with the knowledge of the board of directors and with attorneys present, that would be one thing. But if they are off-the-cuff talks with Vladimir Putin, who is clearly 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 gain attention, given U.S. support for Taiwan and concerns about the growing partnership between the Kremlin and Beijing.
Musk, whose Tesla Gigafactory operates Shanghai, has developed a close relationship with China’s top leaders over the years. Musk’s comments on China were friendly and he largely followed Beijing’s political lines. He has proposed that Taiwan cede some control to Beijing by becoming a special administrative region.
Moscow also has increasing ties with US adversaries, with the US accusing it of sending ballistic missiles to Iran and North Korea sending troops to Russia, possibly for fighting in Ukraine.
On Ukraine, Musk’s views have changed since he initially supported Kiev after Russia’s invasion in 2022 and provided the country with its Starlink communications system.
In 2023, Musk subsequently refused to allow Ukraine to use Starlink for a surprise attack on Russian soldiers in Crimea.
He put forward a proposal in 2022 to end the war that would have forced Ukraine to drop its plans for NATO membership and give Russia permanent control over Crimea, which the country seized in 2014 took. The plan angered Ukrainian leaders.
One person familiar with the conversations between Musk and Putin told the Journal that there is no evidence that Musk and Putin’s contacts pose a security problem for the US.
The CIA, Pentagon and 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 rally, wearing a Make America Great Again hat, and issued an ominous warning that if Trump were to lose 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 off aid because Ukraine could not win.
Trump, who has praised Putin’s leadership and criticized the NATO alliance and U.S. aid to Ukraine, has raised questions about what he would be willing to concede if elected in a negotiation over Ukraine’s future.
U.S. intelligence officials and private technology analysts have concluded that Russia is working to covertly support Trump with disinformation and propaganda targeting his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Since taking over X, it has become a leading online source of Russian propaganda and disinformation aimed at Americans.
Trump has faced criticism over his own recent dealings with Putin, as detailed in a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.
Woodward quoted an unnamed Trump aide as saying the former president and Putin may have had as many as seven conversations since Trump lost his 2020 re-election bid. 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 that these calls took place.
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 is only one candidate in the race that he has not invaded another country with, and that is President Trump,” Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump has long said he will restore peace through a strong foreign policy to deter Russian aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”
Russia confirms one conversation
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday dismissed The Journal’s report as “untrue” and “absolutely false information.”
Musk said in 2022 that he had spoken to Putin only once before, a conversation about space that took place about eighteen months earlier.
Peskov said that before 2022, Putin and Musk once had a “medium phone conversation” that was “more of an introductory character” and that the two talked about “visionary technologies, technological solutions for the future.”
“After that, Musk had no more contact with Putin,” said Peskov, who dismissed the Journal article as political.
“The elections have entered their final phase, and of course the opponents will stop at nothing,” Peskov said. “Remember, a week ago they said Putin would talk to Trump all day. Now he reportedly talks to Musk all the time. It’s all not true.”
Ukraine’s military intelligence told The Associated Press on Friday that it would “refrain from commenting” on communications between Putin and Musk.
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Associated Press writers Didi Tang, Daria Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Illia Novikov in Kiev, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
