During his Twitter takeover, Elon Musk's secret talks with Putin intensified, according to a WSJ report.

• Since late 2022, Elon Musk has been secretly conversing with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
• This election cycle, Musk has emerged as a significant Republican donor and is recognized as one of the most influential backers of former President Donald Trump's campaign.
• The reported conversations took place during Musk's leveraged buyout and takeover of Twitter, which is now X.

Since late 2022, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has been in secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

According to the Journal, several current and former U.S., European, and Russian officials reported that conversations between Putin and Musk, a Republican megadonor and Pentagon contractor, took place while Russia was waging a brutal war on Ukraine, a top U.S. ally. The topics discussed included business, personal, and geopolitical issues.

According to the Journal, two sources informed that Putin urged Musk to withhold Starlink from Taiwan as a favor to Xi Jinping, who is a vital ally to the Kremlin. The military version of Starlink is called StarShield.

At a Semafor conference in Washington D.C. on Friday, NASA administrator Bill Nelson stated that if there have been multiple conversations between Elon Musk and the president of Russia, it would be concerning, particularly for NASA, the Department of Defense, and some intelligence agencies. He added that the matter should be investigated.

The Journal reported that the conversations were a closely held secret even within the U.S. government, but CNBC has not independently verified them.

The report raises new questions about how Musk makes decisions at his companies that impact geopolitics and national security, such as where and when to enable Starlink's satellite communications technology. Additionally, the way Musk operates the social network X, which he owns and leads as CTO, is also being questioned.

This election cycle, Musk has emerged as a significant Republican donor and is recognized as one of the most influential backers of former President Donald Trump's campaign.

In September, a congressional delegation led by Rep. Mike Gallagher, the chair of a House committee on China, returned from a Taiwan visit and discovered that StarShield was not functioning for American troops in the region. As a result, they sent a letter to SpaceX demanding that the company activate the system.

According to NBC News, Musk and SpaceX maintained they were following their Pentagon contract and refuted the House's assertion. Later, SpaceX proposed to Taiwan that it take majority ownership of a Starlink-based venture, which the island nation rejected, stating it was inconsistent with its laws.

The SpaceX website currently states that the "service date is unknown" for Starlink in Taiwan for general customers.

Neither Musk nor representatives from SpaceX or Tesla provided a comment when asked.

For decades, Russia's KGB and its successor agency, the FSB, have been interested in controlling media narratives and spreading anti-Western or pro-Kremlin messages. It is reported that Musk and Putin, who once ran the KGB, had conversations about this while Musk was in the midst of a leveraged buyout and takeover of Twitter.

Previously, it was reported that Musk had spoken with Putin in a direct conversation.

Ian Bremmer, the founder and political analyst of Eurasia Group, revealed in 2022 that Musk had communicated with Putin prior to the X owner's social media posts about Russia's conflict with Ukraine in early October.

Musk suggested that Ukraine should surrender Crimea to Russia and remain neutral instead of pursuing NATO membership. He persisted in advocating for this idea through X (formerly Twitter), stating that some Ukrainian citizens would prefer to join Russia.

While Kremlin officials praised Musk for his opinion, many others, including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., and Russia-born human rights activist and former chess champion Garry Kasparov, drew sharp criticism from Musk.

Musk closed his acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion on Oct. 27.

"Musk stated that he had only spoken to Putin once, which was 18 months ago, and the conversation was about space."

In September 2023, Putin publicly praised Musk, calling him a "talented businessman." This was after Musk refused an emergency request by the Ukrainian government to extend coverage of SpaceX's Starlink satellites to Sevastopol in Crimea. Putin made these comments at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, where he spoke about Russia's space program after a failed moon landing.

Over the years, Musk has actively pursued business opportunities with Russia through his companies SpaceX and Tesla.

In 2013, at the SXSW interactive conference, Musk revealed that he had gone to Russia three times in an attempt to purchase their largest intercontinental ballistic missiles. He discussed the difficulties of launching his reusable rocket business.

Despite the missile deal not happening, SpaceX received funding from Russian tech magnate Yuri Milner, who has connections to Silicon Valley companies. Now, SpaceX frequently collaborates with NASA astronauts and cosmonauts from Roscosmos, the Russian Space agency, in diplomatic missions, which is common in the aerospace industry.

The Commercial Space Act, which was passed in 2004, was inspired by Musk and SpaceX and enabled private sector companies to offer launch services to federal agencies.

For 30 years, Rohrabacher represented Orange County, California, in the House. However, he lost his reelection bid in 2018, partly due to his publicly acknowledged communication with the Kremlin, which included a meeting in Moscow in 2016 that troubled U.S. intelligence officials.

Recently, Tesla has established supply chain ties with Russia by purchasing millions of euros worth of aluminum from Rusal, a company founded by a sanctioned Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. The US Treasury had previously sanctioned Rusal due to Russia's "malign activities," but these sanctions were lifted under Trump in 2019.

If Trump wins, he has pledged to establish a "government efficiency" commission at Musk's suggestion, which would grant the tech billionaire significant influence over federal agencies responsible for enforcing federal regulations on him and his businesses.

In September, Trump stated at the New York Economic Club that the commission he envisions would be responsible for conducting a comprehensive financial and performance audit of the entire federal government. Trump has consistently asserted that Musk would lead the commission but would not be required to relinquish his businesses to do so.