AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk has been in “regular contact” with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday night.
The paper said Musk was in regular contact with President Vladimir Putin, who asked him not to use Starlink in Taiwan as a “favor” for Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Journal reported:
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a key figure in the US space program, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022. The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, also touch on personal topics. Business and geopolitical tensions.
At one point, Putin asked the billionaire not to launch the Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to two people briefed on the request. . Starlink has never received permission to provide internet service in Taiwan because of the Taiwanese government’s restrictions on satellite carriers outside of Taiwan. Taiwan is currently listed as “coming soon” on Starlink’s map, which provides the service.
The exact nature of Musk’s relationship with Putin remains unclear. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has spent years securing contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, and his companies receive hefty subsidies.
Musk has spent much of the past year supporting former President Donald Trump’s bid for the White House for a third time. During his campaign, he has maintained that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins, the 2024 election will be his last in the Oval Office.
News of Musk’s communication line with President Putin comes two weeks after Bob Woodward claimed that Trump has been in contact with the Russian leader since leaving office in 2021. It came out later.
The Trump campaign denied the claims made in Woodward’s new book, “War.”
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