• According to The Wall Street Journal, Vladimir Putin asked Elon Musk to withhold Starlink from Taiwan as a favor to China.
• The request came at a time when Moscow was increasingly reliant on trade with Beijing.
• Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since 2022, the Journal reported, citing officials.

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

The media quoted several unnamed current and former government officials in the US, Europe and Russia who said Musk had maintained regular contact with Putin since late 2022.

According to The Journal, the billionaire and world leader would discuss personal matters, business and geopolitics.

The allegations have unpleasant implications for the US, as Musk's SpaceX has defense and space contracts with the Pentagon and NASA. According to an analysis published Monday by The New York Times, the company has contracts worth $3.6 billion with the Defense Department — mostly for launching American satellites into orbit — and $11.8 billion with NASA .

The Journal reported that Musk received his first request from the Kremlin in late 2023 to refrain from activating Starlink because of Taiwan. The media quoted a former Russian intelligence officer whose name it did not name.

The report also said the request was made on behalf of Beijing because of Moscow's increasing reliance on trade with China.

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

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

Taiwan does not have official Starlink access because its laws require satellite services to be provided through a joint venture with a local operator, which retains majority ownership. The New York Times reported that SpaceX was not willing to accept such an agreement and that the self-governing island was doing the same Creation of our own satellite network in low Earth orbit.

Musk's alleged talks with Putin coincide with his apparent shift in rhetoric toward Ukraine in late 2022. Up to this point, the billionaire had loudly supported Kiev and provided it with 15,000 Starlink terminals.

In October of that year, he sought funding from the Pentagon to continue the free services, tweeting that they were taking a financial toll.

Musk also tweeted a poll that month about a peace plan that reflected some of Russia's wartime demands at the time, including Russia's formal seizure of Crimea and a guarantee of Ukraine's neutrality.

The billionaire's post drew the ire of pro-Ukrainian media, but he added that he only suggested these measures to prevent further deaths in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear war.

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

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

According to Bremmer, Putin had told Musk that he would resort to a “major escalation” if he could not achieve his goals in Ukraine.

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

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

In a statement to The Journal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described that call as the only time Putin's office was in contact with Musk.

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

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

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

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

“As far as Putin is concerned, there is only one candidate in the race under whom he has not invaded another country, and that is President Trump,” Leavitt said. “President Trump has long said he will restore peace through a strong foreign policy to deter Russian aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”

As Election Day approaches, Musk has been actively campaigning for the Republican candidate, donating at least $75 million to a super PAC supporting him.

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