Here's a look at Musk's contact with Putin and why it matters

WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of major government contractor SpaceX and a key ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the last two years, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A person familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, confirmed to The Associated Press that Musk and Putin have had contact through calls. The person didn't provide additional details about the frequency of the calls, when they occurred or their content.

Musk, the world's richest man who also owns Tesla and the social platform X, has emerged as a leading voice on the American right. He's poured millions of dollars into Trump's presidential bid and turned the platform once known as Twitter into a site popular with Trump supporters, as well as conspiracy theorists, extremists and Russian propagandists.

Musk's contacts with Putin raise national security questions, given his companies' work for the government, and highlight concerns about Russian influence in American politics.

Here's what to know:

Musk and Putin have spoken repeatedly about personal matters, business and geopolitics, The Journal reported Thursday, citing multiple current and former officials in the U.S., Europe and Russia.

During one talk, Putin asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite system over Taiwan as a favor for Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose ties to Putin have grown closer, the Journal reported. Putin and Xi have met more than 40 times since 2013.

Russia has denied the conversations took place. In 2022, Musk said he'd only spoken to Putin once, in a call 18 months earlier focused on space.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said Friday that it was “not aware of the specifics” of any requests made by Putin on China’s behalf.

There was no immediate response to messages left with X and Tesla seeking Musk's comment.

Musk’s relationship with Putin raises national security questions given the billions of dollars in government contracts awarded to SpaceX, a critical partner to NASA and government satellite programs.

Trump also has vowed to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said it’s unusual for business leaders to be in contact with Putin without informing U.S. authorities. While CEOs may often interact with foreign leaders, Putin stands apart, given his invasion of Ukraine, McFaul said.

“He’s a war criminal who is slaughtering civilians. That makes this wrong in my view,” McFaul said of Musk’s talks with Putin. “You have to decide what team you are on. Are you on the American team or are you on the Russian team?”

The request from Putin on Starlink as a favor to China is likely to get attention, given U.S. support for Taiwan and concerns about the growing partnership between the Kremlin and Beijing.

Musk, whose Tesla operates Gigafactory Shanghai, has developed a close relationship with China’s leaders. His remarks about China have been friendly, and he has suggested Taiwan cede some control to Beijing by becoming a special administrative region.

Moscow has growing ties to other American adversaries. The U.S. has accused Russia of sending ballistic missiles to Iran and said North Korea sent troops to Russia, possibly for combat in Ukraine.

On Ukraine, Musk's views have shifted since he initially supported Kyiv following Russia's 2022 invasion and provided it with his Starlink system for communications.

Musk then refused to allow Ukraine in 2023 to use Starlink for a surprise attack on Russian soldiers in Crimea.

He also floated a peace proposal that would have required Ukraine to drop plans for NATO membership and given Russia permanent control of Crimea, which it seized in 2014. The plan infuriated Ukrainian leaders.

The timing of the calls reported by The Journal and Musk’s changing views on Ukraine was a “disturbing coincidence,” said Bradley Bowman, a former West Point assistant professor who is now senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank.

“The policy of the U.S. government is to try to isolate Vladimir Putin, and Elon Musk is directly undercutting that,” Bowman said. “What is Putin doing with Musk? Putin is trying to reduce his international isolation and impact American foreign policy.”

One person familiar with the talks between Musk and Putin told The Journal that there is no evidence Musk's contact with Putin represents a security problem for the U.S.

Asked about Musk’s contacts with Putin, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday that he had no information to share.

The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence officials declined to comment. The State Department didn't respond to an email seeking comment.

Musk recently appeared at a Trump rally, sporting a Make America Great Again hat and delivered a ominous warning that if Trump lost the race “this will be the last election.”

Last year, Musk mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for aid and said in February that Ukraine couldn’t win the war.

Trump, who has praised Putin’s leadership and criticized the NATO alliance and U.S. aid for Ukraine, has raised questions about what he would be willing to concede if he's elected in a negotiation over Ukraine's future

U.S. intelligence officials and private sector analysts have concluded that Russia is working to covertly support Trump with disinformation and propaganda targeting his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Since Musk took over X, it has become a leading online source of Russian propaganda and disinformation aimed at Americans.

Trump has faced scrutiny over his own recent contacts with Putin, outlined in a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.

Woodward quoted an unnamed Trump aide who said the former president and Putin may have had as many as seven conversations since Trump lost reelection in 2020. Before one of the calls, the aide said they were asked to leave Trump’s office to give the two privacy.

The Trump campaign and the Kremlin have denied those calls occurred.

In response to questions about Musk and Putin, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Musk “a once-in-a-generation industry leader” whose ideas could benefit “our broken federal bureaucracy.”

“As for Putin, there’s only one candidate in the race that he did not invade another country under, and it’s President Trump,” Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump has long said that he will re-establish his peace through strength foreign policy to deter Russia’s aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday rejected The Journal’s report as “absolutely false information.”

Peskov said Putin and Musk once held a “medium-length phone conversation” prior to 2022 that was “more of an introductory nature” and focused on “visionary technologies."

“After that, Musk had no contacts with Putin,” Peskov said, dismissing The Journal’s article as political.

“The election has entered its home stretch, and of course the opponents stop at nothing,” Peskov said. “Remember that a week ago they were saying that Putin allegedly talks to Trump all day long. Now he allegedly talks to Musk all the time. It’s all untrue.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence told the AP that they would “refrain from commenting” about communication between Putin and Musk.

Associated Press writers Didi Tang in Washington, Daria Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.

FILE - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses a GOP fundraising event, Aug 11, 2015, in Birch Run, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Head of Federal Customs Service Valery Pikalyov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Here's a look at Musk's contact with Putin and why it matters

Here's a look at Musk's contact with Putin and why it matters

Elon Musk speaks at Life Center Church in Harrisburg, Pa., Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (Sean Simmers/The Patriot-News via AP)

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A private jet carrying Libya’s military chief, four other officers and three crew members crashed on Tuesday after takeoff from Turkey's capital, Ankara, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction on the plane.

The Libyan delegation was in Ankara for high-level defense talks aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries, Turkish officials said.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the death of Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad and the four officers, saying in a statement on Facebook that the “tragic accident" took place as the delegation was returning home. The prime minister called it a "great loss” for Libya.

Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya and played a crucial role in the ongoing, U.N.-brokered efforts to unify Libya’s military, which has split, much like Libya’s institutions.

The four other officers who died in the crash were Gen. Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, the head of Libya’s ground forces, Brig. Gen. Mahmoud Al-Qatawi, who led the military manufacturing authority, Mohammed Al-Asawi Diab, advisor to the chief of staff, and Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, a military photographer with the chief of staff’s office.

The identities of the three crew members were not immediately known.

Turkish officials said the wreckage of the Falcon 50 type business jet had been found near the village of Kesikkavak, in Haymana, a district some 70 kilometers (about 43.5 miles) south of Ankara.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, Turkey’s air traffic controllers said they lost contact with the plane, which was en route back to Libya, after takeoff from Ankara's Esenboga airport.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, said in a social media post that the plane took off at 8:30 p.m. and that contact was lost 40 minutes later. The plane issued an emergency landing signal near Haymana before all communication ceased, Yerlikaya said.

Burhanettin Duran, the head of Turkish presidential communications office, said the plane notified air traffic control of an electrical fault and requested an emergency landing. The aircraft was redirected back to Esenboga where preparations for its landing began.

The plane however, disappeared from the radar while descending for the emergency landing, Duran said.

Security camera footage aired on local television stations showed the night sky over Haymana suddenly lit up by what appeared to be an explosion.

While in Ankara, al-Haddad had met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and other officials.

The airport in Ankara was temporarily closed and several flights were diverted to other locations. Turkey’s Justice Ministry said four prosecutors have been assigned to investigate the crash, as is common in such incidents.

According to a government statement on Facebook, Libya will send a team to Ankara to work with Turkish authorities on investigating the crash.

Libya plunged into chaos after the country's 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country split, with rival administrations based in the east and west, backed by an array of rogue militias and foreign governments.

Turkey has been allied with Libya's government in the west, but has recently taken steps to improve ties with the eastern-based government as well.

Tuesday's visit by the Libyan delegation came a day after Turkey’s parliament approved to extend the mandate of Turkish troops serving in Libya for two years. Turkey deployed troops following a 2019 security and military cooperation agreement that was reached between Ankara and the Tripoli-based government.

Abuelgasim reported from Cairo.

FILE - Libya's army chief of staff Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad poses for a photo in Tripoli, Libya, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad, File)

Turkish soldiers and rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)

Turkish rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)

Turkish rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)

Turkish rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)

In this photo released by the Turkish Defense Ministry, Turkey's Chief of General Staff Gen. Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, right, poses for a photograph with Libyan Chief of General Staff Gen. Mohamed Ali Ahmed El Haddad during their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (Turkish Defense Ministry via AP)

In this photo released by the Turkish Defense Ministry, Turkey's Chief of General Staff Gen. Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, right, poses for a photograph with Libyan Chief of General Staff Gen. Mohamed Ali Ahmed El Haddad during their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (Turkish Defense Ministry via AP)