“Elon Musk is an intelligent person. Nothing stops him, he will do what he thinks he should do. You must find common ground with him, you must look for ways to persuade him”.
Reading this statement from Vladimir Putin during a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, we understand that the Russian leader has a strong opinion on the American entrepreneur. It also turns out that the two men know each other rather well if we are to believe the information from the Wall Street Journal.
According to our colleagues, who spoke with various American, Russian and European sources, they have in fact been in regular telephone contact since the end of 2022. These revelations are likely to shake up the American presidential campaign a few days before the November 5 election. , especially since the Kremlin has been under sanction from Uncle Sam for several years and Elon Musk is a fervent support of Donald Trump, repeatedly accused of collusion with Russia.
Embarrassing revelations
According to the American media, Elon Musk has long been fascinated by Russia and its various space programs. He also went to Moscow in 2002 to negotiate the purchase of rockets for SpaceX, which he had just founded. The sale will fail, and the businessman will even end up passing out from a meal washed down with too much vodka.
Much later, in October 2022, the billionaire publicly acknowledged having spoken to Vladmir Putin as part of a discussion on the conquest of space in April 2021. Except that other discussions kept secret followed, specifies the Wall Street Journal.
The title even evokes exchanges with high-ranking figures in the Russian regime, including Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy chief of staff. Exactly, “The US Department of Justice said in an affidavit that Kiriyenko created around 30 internet domains to spread Russian disinformation, including on the social networkled by Elon Musk.
Ukraine at the heart of the issues
In February 2022, the boss of SpaceX first expressed his support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion. He walked his talk by providing 15,000 Starkink terminals to Ukrainians to provide free Internet access in areas of the country destroyed by the attacks.
Little by little, however, the entrepreneur changed his mind. SpaceX began preventing the Ukrainians from using its technology during offensive operations. Elon Musk admitted by explaining that he thought an attack on Crimea risked triggering a nuclear conflict.
The Wall Street Journal claims that his public positions coincide with private pressure from the Russian government. A source thus indicates to the American media: “Later in 2022, Musk had regular conversations with high-level Russians. At the time, the Kremlin was putting pressure on Musk’s companies and “implicit threats against him”.
Subsequently, Elon Musk instead supported a peace plan favorable to Russia which would amount to the loss of numerous territories on the part of Ukraine.
Reactions following these revelations
Heavily implicated in this investigation, Elon Musk did not wish to comment. In the past, he has qualified “absurd” criticism from people who call him an apologist for Vladimir Putin and pointed out that his businesses “did more to undermine Russia than anyone else”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov acknowledges an initial telephone exchange, but he asserts that there were no regular conversations between these two men. As for Donald Trump’s campaign, it is rather evasive and specifies that Elon Musk is a “unique industrial leader of its kind” and that “our failing federal bureaucracy could certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency”.
