The WSJ reported on “regular contacts” between Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk

Among other things, the Russian president asked the billionaire in late 2023 not to activate his Starlink satellite Internet in Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the sources said. Starlink does not yet provide communications services in this region and the company’s website says the service will begin “soon.”

As the WSJ notes, information about the billionaire’s contacts with Putin appears to be a “carefully guarded secret,” as not everyone in the US government knows about them.

Musk has established ties with US military and intelligence agencies and has access to some secret space programs, so his contacts with Putin worry the authorities, the newspaper writes. Washington “does not like” the communication between Musk and Putin, but the administration of US President Joe Biden “did not raise the alarm” about possible violations of national security by the billionaire, one of the WSJ interlocutors clarified.

According to the newspaper, since 2022, Musk has also regularly communicated with senior Russian officials, including the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko. It is unknown what exactly they talked about.

Musk did not respond to the WSJ’s request. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told the newspaper that Putin and the businessman had a conversation only once, when they talked about “space and technology” on the phone. Peskov also denied Musk’s regular conversations with Kremlin officials.