Putin asked Musk to block Starlink on Taiwan as a favor to Xi: report

• Vladimir Putin asked Elon Musk to turn down Taiwan's Starlink as a favor to China, according to a new report.
• This request was made at a time when Moscow was heavily dependent on trade with Beijing.
• The report cites unnamed officials, who say Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since 2022.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin once asked Elon Musk to deny access to Starlink from Taiwan as a favor to China's Xi Jinping, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The point of sale cited several unnamed current and former government officials in the United States, Europe and Russia, who said Musk had remained in regular contact with Putin since late 2022.

According to The Journal, the billionaire and world leader would speak on personal, business and geopolitical issues.

These allegations present delicate implications for the United States, since Musk's SpaceX holds defense and space contracts with the Pentagon and NASA. An analysis published Monday by The New York Times reported that the company had $3.6 billion in contracts with the Department of Defense, primarily for putting U.S. satellites into orbit, and $11.8 billion with NASA.

The Journal reported that in late 2023, Musk received his first request from the Kremlin to refrain from activating Starlink over Taiwan. The outlet cited a former Russian intelligence officer, whom it did not name.

The report also said the request was made in Beijing's interests, as Moscow increasingly relies on trade from China.

Based on the Journal's findings, it's unclear how many times Putin or his administration asked Musk for this favor.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington told the Journal that it was not aware of the details of the arrangement and did not respond to a separate request for comment sent outside of normal business hours by Business Insider.

Taiwan has no official access to Starlink because its laws require satellite services to be provided through a joint venture with a local operator that retains a majority stake. The New York Times reported that SpaceX was not willing to accept such an arrangement and so the self-governing island is creating its own network of satellites in low Earth orbit.

Musk's reported conversations with Putin coincide with his apparent shift in rhetoric toward Ukraine in late 2022. Until then, the billionaire had energetically supported kyiv, providing it with 15,000 Starlink terminals.

In October of that year, he began seeking funds from the Pentagon to keep the services free, tweet that they suffered financial consequences.

Musk too tweeted a poll this month on a peace plan reflecting some of Russia's war demands at the time, including Russia's formal obtaining of Crimea and a guarantee of Ukraine's neutrality.

The billionaire's message sparked fury from pro-Ukrainian accounts, but he added that he only suggested the measures to avoid further deaths in Ukraine and the risk of nuclear war.

“We are obviously pro-Ukraine” he tweeted, saying SpaceX spent around $80 million on free Starlink for Ukraine.

Two weeks later, Ian Bremmer, founding political scientist of the Eurasia Group, wrote in an email to his subscribers that Musk had spoken with Putin before tweeting the controversial peace plan.

According to Bremmer, Putin told Musk that if he failed to achieve his goals in Ukraine, he would turn to “major escalation.”

Musk and the Kremlin said Bremmer's report was false. “I've only spoken to Putin once, and that was about 18 months ago,” Musk tweeted. “The subject was space.”

According to Musk, this conversation with Putin took place in April 2021, before the Russian invasion began.

In a statement to the Journal, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, referred to the call as the only time Putin's office has been in contact with Musk.

Putin and Musk discussed “space as well as current and future technologies,” Peskov said.

The Kremlin office did not respond to a separate request for comment sent outside normal business hours by BI. Musk, SpaceX, the Pentagon and NASA also did not respond to similar requests for comment.

It's unclear whether the reported conversations between Musk and Putin will impact his public relations with former President Donald Trump, whom the SpaceX CEO has publicly supported.

In a statement to BI, Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said Musk is a “one-of-a-kind industry leader and our broken federal bureaucracy could certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency.”

“As for Putin, there’s only one candidate in the race under whom he hasn’t invaded another country, and that’s President Trump,” Leavitt said. “President Trump has long said he would restore peace through a strong foreign policy to deter Russian aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”

As Election Day approaches, Musk has actively campaigned for the Republican candidate and contributed at least $75 million to a super PAC supporting the latter.

Trump has often said that if re-elected, he would push Ukraine and Russia to reach a deal to end the war quickly.