Negotiations between Elon Musk and Putin were heated during the Twitter takeover: WSJ

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk entered into secret negotiations with the Russian President Vladimir Putin from the end of 2022, according to report was published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.

Citing “several current and former American, European and Russian officials,” the Journal reported that conversations between Putin and Musk, a major Republican donor and Pentagon contractor The angle, took place while Russia was waging a brutal war with Ukraine, a top US ally. Topics range from business to personal issues and geopolitics.

In one case, Putin pressured Musk to direct SpaceX to reject Starlink, its powerful satellite internet communications service, from Taiwan as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Magazine reported. The press reported, citing two people briefed on the request. Beijing is an important ally of the Kremlin. A military version of Starlink is called StarShield.

Speaking at a Semafor Conference in Washington DC on Friday, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said: “If the story is true that there have been multiple conversations between Elon Musk and the Russian president then I think that would be worrying, especially for to NASA, to the Department of Defense, to a number of intelligence agencies.” He also said the matter “needs to be investigated.”

CNBC has not independently verified the conversations, which the Journal described as “closely kept secrets” even within the US government.

But the report raises new questions about how Musk makes decisions that impact geopolitics and national security at his companies, such as where and when to activate communications technology Starlink satellites. Those questions extend to how Musk operates social network X, which he owns and leads as CTO.

Musk has become a major donor to the Republican Party this election cycle and is one of the most influential supporters of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

In September, House China committee chairman Rep. Mike Gallagher returned from a visit to Taiwan with a congressional delegation, where they learned that StarShield does not operate for U.S. troops in and around conflict. around the area. They sent a letter to SpaceX asking the company to turn it on.

EQUAL NBC News reported earlierMusk and SpaceX said they were in full compliance with their contract with the Pentagon and rejected the House request. SpaceX later sought majority ownership of a Starlink-based joint venture Taiwan requested a proposal that the island nation rejected, saying it was inconsistent with its laws.

Currently, SpaceX’s website says “service dates are currently unknown” for Starlink in Taiwan for general customers.

Musk and representatives for X, SpaceX and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Russia’s KGB and its successor agency the FSB have for decades been interested control the media narrative and reach as many people as possible with anti-Western or pro-Kremlin message. The conversation between Musk and Putin, who once ran the KGB, is said to have occurred when Musk was in the middle of a crisis. leveraged acquisitions and takeovers of Twitter.

It was previously known that Musk had directly participated in at least one discussion with Putin.

In 2022, Eurasia Group founder and political analyst Ian Bremmer wrote that Musk spoke to Putin before the X owner posted. social media messages in early October about Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Musk has proposed that Ukraine should give Crimea to Russia and that Kiev should remain “neutral” instead of trying to join NATO. He continues to promote the idea, via X (formerly Twitter) that some Ukrainian citizens want to join Russia.

Kremlin officials praise Musk for his views at the time, while Musk was harshly criticized by many others, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Senator John C. Lindsay GrahamRS.C., and Russian-born human rights activist and former chess champion Garry Kasparov.

Musk closed Acquired Twitter for $44 billion on October 27.

“I’ve only talked to Putin once and that was about 18 months ago,” Musk said at the time. “The theme is space.”

About a year later, in September 2023, Putin publicly praised Musk, calling him a “talented businessman.” Putin’s praise came after Musk said he had turned down an urgent request from the Ukrainian government to extend the coverage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to Sevastopol in Crimea. Putin commented at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, where he spoke about Russia’s space program after the failed moon landing.

Previously, Musk had actively sought to do business with Russia at his companies SpaceX and Tesla for many years.

“I went to Russia three times to try to buy some of their biggest cars. [intercontinental ballistic missiles]”, Musk told the audience at the 2013 SXSW interactive conference, where he recounted the challenges of starting his reusable rocket business.

Although the rocket deal never materialized, SpaceX was partially funded by Russian tech tycoon Yury Milnerwho has deep ties to Silicon Valley companies. And SpaceX now regularly flies missions with NASA astronauts and cosmonauts from Roscosmos, the Russian Space agency, although diplomatic cooperation of this kind is typical in the aerospace industry .

Musk and SpaceX are credited with inspiring the creation of the Commercial Space Act by then-Republican Congressman. Dana Rohrabacher, passed in 2004, allows private sector companies to provide launch services to federal agencies.

Rohrabacher represented Orange County, California in the House of Representatives for 30 years, but lost his re-election bid in 2018. That partial loss is due to Rohrabacher publicly admitting to contact with the Kremlin, including a meeting in Moscow in 2016 that troubled US intelligence officials.

by Musk Tesla recently established a supply chain relationship with Russia, purchasing millions of euros worth of aluminum from Rusal since late 2020, as first reported by CNBC. Rusal was founded by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and was was sanctioned by the US Treasury, which cited Russia’s “malign activities” at the time. Those sanctions were was lifted under Trump in 2019.

If Trump wins, he has promised Musk a role on the “government effectiveness” commission, which he said he would create at the tech mogul’s suggestion. Such a role would give Musk power over federal agencies, including those tasked with ensuring that he and his companies comply with federal laws.

Speaking at the Economic Club of New York in September, Trump said the commission as he envisions it would be “charged with conducting a complete financial and operational audit of the entire federal government.” Trump has repeatedly said that Musk would lead the commission but would not have to leave his company to do so.