Putin has reportedly asked Elon Musk not to activate Starlink over Taiwan

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has reportedly been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

The article, published Thursday evening, said Putin and Musk discussed topics ranging from personal issues to geopolitical tensions. In one such conversation, two people familiar with the matter told the magazine that Putin had asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellites over Taiwan as a “favor” to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The report comes as Musk is embroiled in the US presidential election. The billionaire who loudly Forbes is the richest person in the world with a net worth of $26.4 billion, has supported former President Donald Trump, who reportedly remained in touch with Putin even after he left the White House. Trump has denied such reports.

Musk faced allegations this year that he sold terminals for Starlink, the world's largest satellite internet access network, to Russia amid the war between Moscow and Ukraine. Musk called the reports “categorically false.”

If the reports are true and Musk has been in contact with Putin, this could pose a major threat to national security. The billionaire has close business ties to the US military and other agencies that give him security clearance for classified information and programs in Washington. Accordingly The New York Times, Musk was promised $3 billion last year in 100 different contracts with over a dozen federal agencies.

Trump has said he would create a new position for Musk in his administration focused on government efficiency if he wins a second term. Critics have also raised concerns that the relationship between Trump and Musk could affect the federal government's future contracts with companies like Tesla and SpaceX.

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary, said Newsweek In an email Thursday, he said that Musk “is a generational industry leader and 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,” Leavitt added. “President Trump has long said he will restore peace through a strong foreign policy to deter Russian aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”

A person briefed on Musk's communications with Putin said magazine that federal officials “dislike” the communication between the two but had not expressed concerns about a possible security breach related to the talks between Musk and Putin.

Musk said in an October 2022 post on The topic is space.” The comment came after American political scientist Ian Bremmer claimed that Musk had told him about a conversation he had with Putin in the fall of 2022 about the war in Ukraine.

Newsweek SpaceX asked for comment via email on Thursday Magazines Report.

Update 10/24/24, 11:59 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comments from Trump's campaign.