Elon Musk is in regular contact with Putin, WSJ says

What happened

Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a top U.S. defense contractor with a security clearance, "has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022," The Wall Street Journal said Thursday, citing "several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials." The conversations coincided with Musk "stepping up his criticism" of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, allowing "Russia's use of X for disinformation," and increasing his involvement in Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the Journal said.

Who said what

U.S. officials have not raised any concerns about security breaches by Musk, one person aware of the Musk-Moscow conversations told the Journal, but "they don't love" his contacts with Putin, given the government's reliance on Musk's SpaceX rockets and satellites. The discussions "touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions," the Journal said, and at one point, Putin asked Musk to "avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping."

Musk did not respond to the Journal's request for comment, but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied that Putin was in regular contact with Musk. Earlier this year, Putin told Tucker Carlson in an interview broadcast on Musk's X platform that Musk was "going to do what he thinks he needs to do," and "you need to find some common ground with him, you need to search for some ways to persuade him."

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Musk could "find a role in a Trump administration should he win," and his talks with Putin "could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader," in line with "Trump’s expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines," the Journal said. But Putin is currently "one of America's chief adversaries." Underscoring that point, the Journal reported separately Thursday that Russia had "provided targeting data for Yemen's Houthi rebels as they attacked Western ships in the Red Sea with missiles and drones," causing "major disruptions to global trade" and helping "stoke instability from the Middle East to Asia to create problems for the U.S."

What next?

Musk's "Starlink could be poised to gain billions of dollars more in federal contracts and subsidies under a Donald Trump presidency," The Washington Post said, "potentially by a far larger amount" than the more than $118 million (and counting) that Musk has already "splashed out to support Trump's campaign."