A brand new report that billionaire Elon Musk held secret conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin may elevate safety issues as a result of his top-secret clearance and using Starlink satellites in different nations.
What Occurred: Among the many conversations Musk had with Putin in recent times embody asking for Starlink to be restricted over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese language President Xi Jinping, a brand new report alleges. The report provides to the accusations of Musk being a Putin apologist, which he has denied.
The Wall Avenue Journal experiences that Musk has been involved with Putin since 2022, and subjects akin to enterprise and geopolitical issues have been mentioned.
Discussions of the way to deal with Starlink by Putin are drawing concern from the individuals who spoke to The Journal, given Musk’s further clearance due to authorities contracts.
SpaceX has offers in place with the Pentagon and NASA that give Musk top-secret safety clearance over sure issues, together with the U.S. area program.
“I do have a top-secret clearance, however, I would need to say, like a lot of the stuff that I am conscious of… the rationale they preserve it high secret is as a result of it is so boring,” Musk mentioned in a latest speech in Pennsylvania whereas campaigning for Donald Trump, the report mentioned.
An individual instructed WSJ that the federal government’s dependence on SpaceX and expertise managed by Musk may create a dilemma.
SpaceX at present launches nationwide safety satellites into orbit and is contracted by NASA to take astronauts to and from the Worldwide House Station.
The Pentagon declined to reveal the extent of Musk’s safety clearance.
“We don’t touch upon any particular person’s safety clearance, assessment or standing, or about personnel safety coverage issues within the context of experiences about any particular person’s actions,” a Pentagon spokesperson instructed The Wall Avenue Journal.
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Why It is Essential: The newest WSJ report is the newest to recommend Musk has been involved with Putin, although each the billionaire and Russian officers continuously deny these claims.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned Musk and Putin have solely mentioned area and “present and future applied sciences.”
Musk admitted to chatting with Putin in April 2021, speaking to the Russian chief about area, however has denied communications since then.
The billionaire helped help Ukraine with Starlink terminals to make use of after the nation was attacked by Russia. Ukraine later accused Musk of turning off Starlink expertise close to the Crimea area. Musk later mentioned he did in order he believed an assault by Ukraine on the Crimea area occupied by Russia may result in a nuclear battle.
Putin has spoken positively about Musk in recent times, calling the billionaire “a sensible particular person” throughout an interview with Tucker Carlson that aired on Musk-owned social media platform X.
“There isn’t any stopping Elon Musk, he will do what he thinks he must do,” Putin mentioned. “It is advisable to discover some frequent floor with him, that you must seek for some methods to influence him.”
Musk has mentioned he has no enterprise pursuits in Russia, with SpaceX and Tesla not concerned within the nation.
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