The Kremlin has denied a Wall Avenue Journal report that Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin have been in common contact over the past two years.
The world’s richest man has repeatedly been in contact with the Russian president, in keeping with the US outlet, citing a number of present and former US, European and Russian officers.
They added that the discussions contact on private matters, enterprise and geopolitical tensions.
It comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues and the US election approaches subsequent month.
Nonetheless, the Kremlin and Mr Musk each denied the report.
On Friday, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov advised reporters: “No, this is not true.”
He mentioned that the pair had had one contact and that was earlier than 2022.
Mr Musk himself beforehand mentioned on his personal social media website that they’d spoken round April 2021.
Nonetheless, the brand new report says that extra conversations adopted 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 requested Mr Musk to not activate his Starlink satellite tv for pc web service over Taiwan as a favour to Chinese language chief Xi Jinping – citing two individuals briefed on the request.
It added that data of Mr Musk’s alleged connections with Mr Putin was a guarded secret with a number of officers within the White Home reportedly not conscious of it.
The report additionally claimed that Mr Musk spoke to high-ranking Russian officers too. It named one as Sergei Kiriyenko, Mr Putin’s first deputy chief of workers – citing two officers.
‘Maintain robust Ukraine’
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Mr Musk got here out in help of Kyiv – tweeting “hold strong Ukraine”.
He additionally donated Starlink terminals offering free web entry to a lot of the nation underneath assault from Russia.
However final yr, Mr Musk mentioned he refused a Ukrainian request to activate his satellite tv for pc community throughout an tried assault on Russian ships.
Russia’s now-former house chief Dmitry Rogozin has threatened Mr Musk over his help 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 first rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA.
He has campaigned for Donald Trump, and given sizeable donations to his election efforts.
