Elon Musk’s Secret Alliance With Putin—What Is the Billionaire Hiding?

Billionaire Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has even done him favors and supported Russian interests, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal.

Musk, currently the world’s richest man, began communication regularly with Putin in 2022, according to some U.S. officials who spoke to the Journal. Putin and Musk’s relationship grew at the point that the Russian President could ask the billionaire for some favors.

“At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping,” the Journal reported.

Musk has said his companies “have done more to undermine Russia than anything,” but there have been reports that the Russian army has utilized his Starlink service to provide internet to its soldiers.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Musk publicly supported Ukraine and even provided free internet access to the country. However his views of the conflict changed at the end of the same year, where Musk restricted Starlink services to Ukrainian troops planning to attack a Russian peninsula in Crimea. This change of mind occurs at the same time Musk acknowledged he had a conversation with Putin.

In October 2022, Musk publicly said he had spoken with Putin about space around April 2021. At the same time, the Journal reported that he also had conversations with “high-level Russians,” and that there was pressure from the Kremlin on Musk’s businesses and “implicit threats against him.”

Reportedly, Musk also posted on his social media platform X a question asking millions on a pathway to peace “that mirrored some aspects of the Kremlin’s offer to Ukraine at the time.” In addition, he also opposed an Ukrainian invasion of Crimea, as Russia said it would retaliate with a nuclear strike.

In addition, he reportedly held conversations with Russian officials who operated internet domains across the internet but also on Musk’s X to spread Russian disinformation and manipulate American voters, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Musk even offered X to boost Tucker Carlson’s two hour interview with Putin. In the interview Putin said Musk “was a smart person.”

“There’s no stopping Elon Musk, he’s going to do what he thinks he needs to do,” Putin said. “You need to find some common ground with him, you need to search for some ways to persuade him.”

Musk has become increasingly active in geopolitics and in the U.S. presidential elections. He publicly endorsed Donald Trump, appearing in his rallies and has offered $1 million to register voters who have signed an online petition favoring the Republican candidate, in a movement that has been touted as illegal.