Here’s a look at Musk’s contact with Putin and why it matters / AP News

By DAVID KLEPPER and LISA MASCARO Updated 5:35 PM EDT, October 25, 2024

  • Musk-Putin Contacts: Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the past two years, discussing personal matters, business, and geopolitics.
  • National Security Concerns: Musk’s interactions with Putin raise national security questions due to his companies’ government contracts and the potential influence on American politics.
  • Starlink Request: Putin reportedly asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite system over Taiwan as a favor for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
  • Political Implications: Musk’s relationship with Putin and his support for Donald Trump highlight concerns about Russian influence and the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

Musk owns the following:

  • SpaceX. National security risk as a major government contractor supplying NASA with launch services and crew flights to the International Space Station - NASA.
  • Starlink. Satellite constellation proving communication and internet services.
  • X/Twitter. A social media network that has become:
    • Propaganda machine for Trump;
    • Russian outlet for election misinformation, myths to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election;
    • Conspiracy nutjobs such as @MTG, conspiracy theories;
    • cesspool of bigotry and hate speech.

Musk’s Foreign Influencers:

  • Presents a national security risk, given his companies’ work for the government
  • X/Twitter:
    • has provided Russian a method to interfere with American politics,m
    • conspiracy theories
    • source for the far right
  • dumped millions of dollars into Trump’s campaign
  • During one call, Putin asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite system over Taiwan as a favor for Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose ties to Putin have grown closer. The request from Putin on Starlink as a favor to China is likely to get attention, given U.S. support for Taiwan and concerns about the growing partnership between the Kremlin and Beijing.
  • On Ukraine:
    • Musk’s views have shifted since he initially supported Kyiv following Russia’s 2022 invasion
    • provided it with his Starlink system for communications.
    • Musk then refused to allow Ukraine in 2023 to use Starlink for a surprise attack on Russian soldiers in Crimea.
    • also floated a peace proposal that would have required Ukraine to drop plans for NATO membership
    • given Russia permanent control of Crimea, which it seized in 2014. The plan infuriated Ukrainian leaders.
    • Last year, Musk mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for aid
    • said in February that Ukraine couldn’t win the war.
  • China:
    • Tesla operates Gigafactory Shanghai, has developed a close relationship with China’s leaders. His remarks about China have been friendly.
    • He has suggested Taiwan cede some control to Beijing by becoming a special administrative region.

Trump:

  • Has praised Putin’s leadership and criticized the NATO alliance and U.S. aid for Ukraine, has raised questions about what he would be willing to concede if he’s elected in a negotiation over Ukraine’s future
  • Musk recently appeared at a Trump rally, sporting a Make America Great Again hat and delivered a ominous warning that if Trump lost the race “this will be the last election.”

U.S. intelligence officials and private sector analysts have concluded that Russia is working to covertly support Trump with disinformation and propaganda targeting his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Since Musk took over X, it has become a leading online source of Russian propaganda and disinformation aimed at Americans.

Trump has faced scrutiny over his own recent contacts with Putin, outlined in a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.

Woodward quoted an unnamed Trump aide who said the former president and Putin may have had as many as seven conversations since Trump lost reelection in 2020. Before one of the calls, the aide said they were asked to leave Trump’s office to give the two privacy.

@RalphHightower: Elon Musk has transformed X/Twitter platform as a free speech forum to a Trump Propaganda Machine and a source of Russia’s campaign

Both Trump and Musk have had personal telephone conversations with Putin.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said it’s unusual for business leaders to be in contact with Putin without informing U.S. authorities. While CEOs may often interact with foreign leaders, Putin stands apart, given his invasion of Ukraine, McFaul said.

“He’s a war criminal who is slaughtering civilians. That makes this wrong in my view. You have to decide what team you are on. Are you on the American team, or are you on the Russian team?” McFaul said of Musk’s talks with Putin.

Moscow has growing ties to other American adversaries. The U.S. has accused Russia of sending ballistic missiles to Iran and said North Korea sent troops to Russia, possibly for combat in Ukraine.

“The policy of the U.S. government is to try to isolate Vladimir Putin, and Elon Musk is directly undercutting that. What is Putin doing with Musk? Putin is trying to reduce his international isolation and impact American foreign policy.” Bowman said.

Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Musk “a once-in-a-generation industry leader” whose ideas could benefit “our broken federal bureaucracy1. As for Putin, there’s only one candidate in the race that he did not invade another country under, and it’s President Trump President Trump has long said that he will re-establish his peace through strength foreign policy to deter Russia’s aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”

Peskov said Putin and Musk once held a “medium-length phone conversation” prior to 2022 that was “more of an introductory nature” and focused on “visionary technologies.” “The election has entered its home stretch, and of course the opponents stop at nothing,” Peskov said. “Remember that a week ago they were saying that Putin allegedly talks to Trump all day long. Now he allegedly talks to Musk all the time. It’s all untrue.”

  1. Elon Musk, as self-declared “nona-manager”, has no inside experience with government. ↩