Elon Musk’s politicization may be more than support for Trump. International sources claim that the billionaire has been in contact with Putin since 2022, when he changed his position on the war in Ukraine.
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Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin have discussed business, politics and even personal topics in “regular” conversations over the past two years, European, North American and even Russian sources told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The dialogues coincide with the American businessman’s approach to politics, from which he sought to stay away.
Musk’s SpaceX’s Starlink satellite helps chart the timeline of this relationship. The billionaire donated 15,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine in June 2022, facilitating Internet access in a country already facing almost four months of the Russian offensive. But Musk’s support for kyiv was short-lived, as in September of the same year, Ukrainian forces reported that they could not use the terminals for guided drone strikes in Crimea. Musk responded that Starlink is exclusively for civilian use and that is why the signal had been blocked.
The richest man in the world’s support for Ukraine was met with threats in Moscowwhich led Musk to begin the first talks with “high-level Russians,” including one of Putin’s chiefs of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, a source familiar with these conversations told the WSJ. By late 2022, Musk’s position on the war in Ukraine had changed and he became public about Ukraine’s newly renamed surrender. Kiriyenko was charged this year by the US Department of Justice with spreading Russian disinformation and propaganda on US online domains. Where? in x.
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Two secret service sources add that Contacts were maintained until this year.when his stance became even more critical of US support for Ukraine. Elon Musk’s politicization process coincides with the year of the North American elections and his public declaration of support for the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, who continues to affirm that he would be able to end the war “in 24 hours.”
[Já saiu o quarto episódio de “A Grande Provocadora”, o novo podcast Plus do Observador que conta a história de Vera Lagoa, a mulher que afrontou Salazar, desafiou os militares de Abril e ridicularizou os que se achavam donos do país. Pode ouvir aqui, no Observador, e também na Apple Podcasts, no Spotify e no Youtube. E pode ouvir aqui o primeiro episódio, aqui o segundo e aqui o terceiro.]
On another occasion, Vladimir Putin asked Musk to activate the Starlink in Taiwan, as a favor to the Chinese presidenttwo other people reported. However, the sources did not provide further details about the nature of the conversations Musk and Putin have had over the past two years.
Before I wanted to distance myself from politics, now I don’t talk about anything else. Musk’s contradictions and battles in X
The two parties confirm only one conversation.. The Kremlin spokesperson denied the WSJ news, stating that the only contact occurred before 2022 and that the call had “a medium duration” in which “they talked about visionary technologies, technological solutions for the future.” “After that, Musk had no contact with Putin, and all statements regarding this are false”concluded Dmitry Peskov, quoted by the TASS news agency.
This description is in line with what Musk wrote in X in October 2022, in which he reported a single conversation with the Russian leader, to talk “about space”, in April 2021. By United States, the news of the alleged contacts was received with surprise and apprehension. “If the story is true, this would be worrying, especially for NASA and the Department of Defense,” the administrator of the North American space agency said at a press conference, referring to NASA’s dependence on SpaceX.
Source: Observadora
