- By Aditya Jha
- Fri, 25 Oct 2024 02:39 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Days ahead of the US Presidential Election on November 5, a shocking development regarding world's richest man, Elon Musk, who is outrightly supporting Donald Trump, has come to the fore. According to a report by Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk has been accused of being in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022. The report, published on Friday, claimed that Musk has been in regular contact with Putin and several other top officials of Russia.
The report claims that several current and former US, European, and Russian officials have confirmed that Musk held conversations with Putin and other top officials, including Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin's first deputy chief of staff, who is believed to be the top figure of Russian propaganda.
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Musk initially was very vocal in supporting Ukraine in the Russian war and even provided Starlink communication terminals to Kyiv that greatly provided assistance to its defense. However, his views changed later in favour of Russia, as he asserted that there was no way that Moscow could lose the war. He even pointed out that he was "losing money" by providing Starlink service to Ukraine.
The WSJ report further claimed that Putin also asked Musk not to activate Starlink over Taiwan to provide assistance to China, which claims that Taiwan is its sovereign territory. While Musk has not responded to the reports yet, the Kremlin has denied communicating with Musk, and the White House said that they were not aware of any such contacts.
The contact details are kept secret in the US government due to Musk's access to sensitive information as a major security and technology contractor, WSJ reported. Earlier, SpaceX was awarded a classified $1.8 billion contract in 2021, reportedly to build a network of spy satellites for US intelligence.
Earlier, Musk was accused of selling Starlink terminals to Russia amid the ongoing war. However, Musk rejected those reports, labeling them "categorically false." Previously, Musk denied having a conversation with Putin in October 2022 by claiming that he had spoken to Putin only once and the conversation was about space.