The Wall Street Journal's accusation: 'Musk has regular talks with Putin'

Elon Musk has been in 'regular contact' with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials since late 2022. This was revealed by the Wall Street Journal, citing official sources.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss, owner of the social media platform X, had come out in favour of Ukraine at the beginning of the invasion initiated by Moscow in February two years ago, donating Starlink communication terminals that greatly helped Kiev's defence. But Musk's position, the American newspaper points out, has since gradually shifted along pro-Russian lines in the course of the war. In fact, the richest man in the world, who became a key player and main backer of conservative Donald Trump's election campaign for the White House, subsequently prevented Ukraine from using Starlink terminals to strike the Russian fleet, complaining that he was 'losing money' by providing that service. Musk has always denied sympathising with Moscow and claimed to have spoken with Putin only once, in April 2021, on space-related topics.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk had 'also this year' contact with Putin and also spoke regularly with 'high-level Russians' including the Kremlin's first chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko. And in the conversations, topics of geopolitics, business and personal issues would be discussed. On one occasion, the Russian leader allegedly asked the Tesla owner not to activate his Starlink satellites over Taiwan as a favour to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The relationship between Musk and Putin - the WSJ points out - could pose a serious threat to US national security. Musk has deep business ties with the US military and other agencies, which gives him security clearance over classified information and programmes in Washington.

"The administration does not appreciate" these contacts, explained a US source close to President Joe Biden, pointing out, however, that no reports of possible security breaches had been received.