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Personal issues, business and geopolitics / What Musk and Putin communicated about

2024-10-26 19:30:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Personal issues, business and geopolitics / What Musk and Putin communicated

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX, which has won government contracts and a key ally of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the past two years.

A person with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the Associated Press news agency that Musk and Putin have had contact via phone calls. The source did not provide additional details about the frequency of the calls, when they were made or their content.

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world who owns the company Tesla and the social media platform X, has become a strong voice of the American right. He has given millions of dollars to the Trump campaign and turned the platform once known as Twitter into a network that has many Trump supporters, but also conspiracy theorists, extremists and Russian propagandists.

Personal issues, business and geopolitics / What Musk and Putin communicated

Musk's contacts with Putin raise national security questions, given that his companies work for the government, and also underscore concerns about Russian influence in American politics.

Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin have spoken repeatedly about personal matters, business-related matters and geopolitics, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing multiple officials and former officials in the United States, Europe and Russia.

Russia has denied holding such talks. In 2022, Mr. Musk said he had only spoken to Putin once, through a phone conversation 18 months earlier on the topic of space. China's embassy in Washington said Friday it was "not aware of the details" of any requests made by Putin in China's interest. Company X and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

Personal issues, business and geopolitics / What Musk and Putin communicated

Musk's relationship with Russian President Putin raises national security questions, given the billions of dollars awarded in government contracts to SpaceX, a critical partner of NASA and government satellite projects.

Trump has also pledged to give Musk a role in the administration if he wins next month's election. Musk has developed close relationships with top Chinese leaders.

He has made friendly statements about China and suggested that Taiwan give some sort of control to Beijing by becoming a separate administrative region.

Moscow is increasing ties with other adversaries of America. The United States has accused Russia of sending ballistic missiles to Iran and said North Korea sent troops to Russia, possibly to fight in Ukraine./ CNA