Elon Musk's secret talks with Putin ramped up throughout his Twitter takeover: WSJ report

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has engaged in secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022, in accordance with reporting printed Thursday by The Wall Road Journal.

Citing “a number of present and former U.S., European and Russian officers,” the Journal reported that conversations between Putin and Musk, a Republican megadonor and Pentagon contractor, passed off whereas Russia was waging a brutal warfare on Ukraine, a prime U.S. ally. Matters ranged from enterprise to non-public and geopolitical points.

In a single occasion, Putin pressured Musk to direct SpaceX to withold Starlink, its highly effective satellite tv for pc web communications service, from Taiwan as a favor to Chinese language President Xi Jinping, the Journal reported, citing two folks briefed on the request. Beijing is an important ally to the Kremlin. A model of Starlink that’s out there for navy use known as StarShield.

Talking at a Semafor convention in Washington D.C. on Friday, NASA administrator Invoice Nelson mentioned, “If the story is true that there have been a number of conversations between Elon Musk and the president of Russia then I believe that will be regarding, notably for NASA, for the Division of Protection, for a number of the intelligence companies.” He additionally mentioned the matter “must be investigated.”

CNBC has not independently verified the conversations, which the Journal described as a “carefully held secret” even inside the U.S. authorities.

However the report raises new questions on how Musk makes selections at his corporations that affect geopolitics and nationwide safety, reminiscent of the place and when to allow Starlink’s satellite tv for pc communications expertise. These questions lengthen to the way in which Musk operates the social community X, which he owns and leads as CTO.

Musk has develop into a serious Republican donor this election cycle, and is among the many most influential supporters of former President Donald Trump’s marketing campaign.

In September, the chair of a Home committee on China, Rep. Mike Gallagher returned from a Taiwan go to with a congressional delegation, the place they realized that StarShield was not operational for American troops in and across the area. They despatched a letter to SpaceX demanding that the corporate swap it on.

As NBC Information beforehand reported, Musk and SpaceX mentioned they have been in full compliance with their Pentagon contract, and denied the Home’s declare. SpaceX later sought majority possession of a Starlink-based enterprise requested by Taiwan, a proposal the island nation rejected, calling it incompatible with its legal guidelines.

At the moment, the SpaceX web site says {that a} “service date is unknown at the moment,” for Starlink in Taiwan for common prospects.

Musk and representatives for X, SpaceX and Tesla didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Russia’s KGB, and its successor company the FSB have, for many years, been focused on controlling media narratives and reaching as many individuals as doable with anti-Western or pro-Kremlin messages. The conversations between Musk and Putin, who as soon as ran the KGB, reportedly occurred as Musk was within the midst of a leveraged buyout and takeover of Twitter.

It was beforehand recognized that Musk had engaged in at the least one dialogue with Putin straight.

In 2022, Eurasia Group founder and political analyst Ian Bremmer wrote that Musk had spoken to Putin earlier than the X proprietor posted social media messages in early October about Russia’s warfare on Ukraine.

Musk had proposed that Ukraine ought to hand over Crimea to Russia and that Kyiv ought to stay “impartial” fairly than making an attempt to affix NATO. He continued to advertise the concept, by way of X (previously Twitter) that some Ukraine residents would favor to affix Russia.

Kremlin officers praised Musk for his opinion then, whereas Musk drew sharp criticism from many others, together with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., and Russia-born human rights activist and former chess champion Garry Kasparov.

Musk closed his acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion on Oct. 27.

“I’ve spoken to Putin solely as soon as and that was about 18 months in the past,” Musk mentioned at the moment. “The subject material was area.”

A few yr later, in September 2023, Putin publicly praised Musk, calling him a “proficient businessman.” Putin’s reward got here after Musk mentioned he had refused an emergency request by the Ukrainian authorities to increase protection of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to Sevastopol in Crimea. Putin made the feedback on the Jap Financial Discussion board in Vladivostok, Russia, the place he spoke about Russia’s area program after a failed moon touchdown.

Earlier than that, Musk actively sought to do enterprise with Russia at his corporations SpaceX and Tesla over time.

“I went to Russia thrice to attempt to purchase a few their greatest [intercontinental ballistic missiles],” Musk advised an viewers on the SXSW interactive convention in 2013, the place he recounted the challenges of beginning up his re-usable rocket enterprise.

Whereas the missile deal by no means manifested, SpaceX was funded partly by Russian tech magnate Yuri Milner, who has deep ties to Silicon Valley corporations. And SpaceX now repeatedly conducts missions with NASA astronauts and cosmonauts from Roscosmos, the Russian House company, although diplomatic collaboration of this type is typical within the aerospace trade.

Musk and SpaceX are credited with inspiring the creation of the Industrial House Act by Republican then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, which handed in 2004, enabling personal sector corporations to offer launch providers to federal companies.

Rohrabacher represented Orange County, California, within the Home for 30 years, however misplaced his reelection bid in 2018. That loss was partly due to Rohrabacher’s publicly acknowledged communication with the Kremlin, which included a gathering in Moscow in 2016 that troubled U.S. intelligence officers.

Musk’s Tesla has solid provide chain ties to Russia extra just lately, buying tens of millions of euros price of aluminum from Rusal since late 2020, as CNBC first reported. Rusal was based by sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and was as soon as sanctioned by the US Treasury, which cited Russia’s “malign actions” on the time. These sanctions have been lifted below Trump in 2019.

Ought to Trump win, he has promised Musk a job in a “authorities effectivity” fee, which he mentioned he would create on the tech magnate’s suggestion. Such a job would give Musk sway over federal companies together with these tasked with making certain that he and his corporations adjust to federal legal guidelines.

Talking on the New York Financial Membership in September, Trump mentioned the fee as he envisions it could be “tasked with conducting a whole monetary and efficiency audit of the whole federal authorities.” Trump has repeatedly mentioned Musk would lead the fee however wouldn’t have to go away his corporations to take action.