Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since the end of 2022: how the NSDC reacted

Since the end of 2022, American billionaire and inventor Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Their conversations cover personal topics, business, and geopolitical tensions.

The Wall Street Journal writes about this, citing "several current and former" officials from the United States, Europe, and Russia. According to the article, Musk, "the world's richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts," has been in regular communication with the Kremlin leader for about two years.

At one point, Putin asked him not to activate his Starlink satellite Internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping, two people informed of the request told the newspaper.

In addition, according to the newspaper, in 2024, Musk proved to be the most important supporter of Donald Trump's election campaign and may find a role in the Republican administration if he wins.

"Although the United States and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk's dialogue could signal renewed engagement with the Russian leader and bolster Trump's expressed desire to strike a deal on major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine," The WSJ writes.

National security issues

At the same time, these contacts also raise potential national security concerns among some members of the current US presidential administration, given Putin's role as one of America's main adversaries.

Musk has established deep business ties with the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, giving him a unique opportunity to familiarize himself with some of the most sensitive U.S. space programs.

SpaceX, which operates the Starlink service, won a classified $1.8 billion contract in 2021 and is a major rocket developer for the Pentagon and NASA.

Musk has a security clearance that allows him to access certain classified data.

The information about Musk's Kremlin contacts appears to be a closely guarded secret within the government, according to The WSJ article.

Several White House officials said they were not aware of them. The topic is extremely sensitive, given Musk's growing involvement in the Trump campaign and the upcoming US presidential election in less than two weeks, the article says.

Musk did not respond to requests for comment. The billionaire has called criticism from some quarters that he has become an apologist for Putin "absurd" and said his companies have "done more to undermine Russia than anything else."

During Trump's campaign tour of Pennsylvania last week, Musk spoke about the importance of government transparency and noted his own access to state secrets.

"I have a top secret security clearance, but I have to say, like most things, I know about... the reason they keep it secret is that it's very boring," the billionaire said.

A Pentagon spokesman said: "We do not comment on the security clearance, review, or status of any individual or personnel security policy issues in the context of reports on the actions of any individual."

One of the newspaper's sources informed of the conversations said that the government faces a dilemma because it is heavily dependent on Musk's technology.

For example, SpaceX launches vital national security satellites into orbit and is the company NASA relies on to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

"They don't like it," this person said, referring to the contacts between Musk and Putin. However, the same person said that the administration has not raised any alarms about possible security breaches by Musk.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin's only communication with Musk was during a phone call during which he and Putin discussed "space, as well as current and future technologies."

In addition, he said that neither Putin nor Kremlin officials allegedly had regular conversations with Musk.

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign called Musk "a once-in-a-generation industry leader" and said that "our broken federal bureaucracy could certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency."

"As far as Putin is concerned, there is only one candidate in the race under whom he has not invaded another country, and that is President Trump. President Trump has long said he will restore peace through a strong foreign policy to deter Russian aggression and end the war in Ukraine," she said.

Fascination with Russia

According to the article, Musk has long admired Russia and its space and missile programs.

In a biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson, the businessman traveled to Moscow in 2002 to negotiate the purchase of rockets for its fledgling space program but collapsed during a lunch with too much vodka.

In the end, the deal didn't go through, although the Russians did present Musk with a bottle of vodka with his portrait superimposed on a drawing of Mars.

The billionaire's conversations with Putin and Kremlin officials underscore his growing inclination to move beyond business and into geopolitics.

Musk has met and held business talks several times with Argentine President Javier Milei, as well as with former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whom he defended in a fierce online debate, the article says.

But Putin is something else, the newspaper writes. The Russian dictator has created an authoritarian system that oversees fraudulent elections and the assassination of political opponents, for which President Joe Biden has called him "the butcher."

With the keys to one of the world's most powerful nuclear arsenals and growing territorial ambitions in Europe, Putin has become the United States' main adversary, The Wall Street Journal writes.

Kremlin pressure

In October 2022, Musk publicly stated that he had spoken with Putin only once. He wrote on the social network X that the conversation was about space and that it happened around April 2021.

However, more conversations followed, including dialogues with other high-ranking Russian officials after 2022 and in 2024.

One of those officials was Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin's first deputy chief of staff, the two sources said. It is unclear what they discussed.

However, according to the newspaper, it is known that last month the US Department of Justice said in a sworn statement that Kiriyenko created about 30 Internet domains to spread Russian disinformation, including on the social network X Mask, where it was intended to undermine support for Ukraine and manipulate American voters before the election.

In May 2022, the then-head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said on Telegram that Musk would "answer like an adult" for supplying Starlink to the Ukrainian Azov battalion.

Later in 2022, Musk regularly communicated with "high-ranking Russians," according to a person familiar with these interactions. At that time, the Kremlin put pressure on Musk's business and made "implicit threats against him," the person said.

Since the end of 2022, according to the article, Elon Musk has voiced several Kremlin narratives, including the idea of achieving peace through territorial concessions to Moscow.

One current and one former intelligence source said that Musk and Putin continued to keep in touch from then until 2024 when Musk began to increase his criticism of US military aid to Ukraine and joined Trump's election campaign.

The National Security and Defense Council responded

The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has responded to the information about Elon Musk's communication with the Russians.

The head of the National Security and Defense Council's Center for Countering Disinformation, Andrii Kovalenko, pointed out that Sergei Kiriyenko, with whom Musk had contacted, is responsible for all propaganda against Ukraine, including in the West, in the Putin administration.

"It's bad that Musk communicated with Putin and turned a blind eye to Russia's use of smuggled Starliners. But it's also very bad that he communicated with Kiriyenko, who is responsible for all propaganda against Ukraine, including in the West, in the Putin administration. And X, apart from television, is the main tool of Russian propaganda in the West and the Middle East," explained the head of the Center for Public Policy.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, Musk's SpaceX company received a contract for more than $733 million from the US Space Force headquartered in the Pentagon. The document is part of the National Security Space Systems Launch program, which is designed for several years and aims to improve access to low-orbit launches.

In August, a federal court in California ordered the disclosure of the list of owners of social networking site X. Elon Musk, who had previously refused to do so, was forced to provide the court with the list. Among the shareholders were sanctioned Russian oligarchs and their children.

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