The Kremlin on Friday denied a Wall Street Journal report about regular contacts between Elon Musk and President Vladimir Putin.
“No, this is not true,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said that Putin had one contact with Musk — the world’s richest man — and it was before 2022.
The Journal said Musk had been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022. Peskov said the report was false.
They added that the discussions touch on personal topics, business, and geopolitical tensions.
It comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues and the US election approaches next month.
However, the Kremlin and Mr Musk both denied the report.
Mr Musk himself previously said on his social media site that they had spoken around April 2021.
However, the new report says that more conversations followed this.
Mr Musk denied the report in a tweet, claiming The Wall Story Journal was biased.
The WSJ report claimed that, amid the conversations, Mr. Putin asked Mr. Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping – citing two people briefed on the request.
The report, which said the SpaceX founder has discussed “personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions” with the Russian leader, raises national security concerns as SpaceX’s relationships with NASA and the US military may have granted Musk access to sensitive government information and US intelligence.
It added that knowledge of Mr Musk’s alleged connections with Mr Putin was a guarded secret with several officials in the White House reportedly not aware of it.
The report also claimed that Mr Musk spoke to high-ranking Russian officials too. It named one as Sergei Kiriyenko, Mr Putin’s first deputy chief of staff – citing two officials.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Mr. Musk came out in support of Kyiv – tweeting “Hold strong Ukraine”.
He also donated Starlink terminals providing free internet access to much of the country under attack from Russia.
But last year, Mr Musk said he refused a Ukrainian request to activate his satellite network during an attempted attack on Russian ships.
Russia’s now-former space chief Dmitry Rogozin has threatened Mr. Musk over his support for Ukraine and has repeatedly shared messages about him, and Starlink, on his Telegram channel.
Mr Musk operates SpaceX, which runs the Starlink service and is the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA.
He has campaigned for Donald Trump, and given sizeable donations to his election efforts.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Friday called for an investigation into a Wall Street Journal report that SpaceX founder and Donald Trump ally Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been in “regular contact” since late 2022.
