The world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin about what it would take to end the war in Ukraine shortly before he publicly proposed something similar to Putin’s outline, Eurasia Group founder Ian Bremmer alleged Tuesday, though Musk denies any conversation took place, Forbes.com writes.
Bremmer wrote in a morning note to clients that Musk told him directly about the conversation with Putin two weeks ago, according to a copy of the email viewed by Forbes and first reported on by Vice. Putin told Musk Ukraine must minimally accept several conditions, including recognizing Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions as Russian territory and committing to neutrality, according to Bremmer, a political scientist and consultant who broke the news of then-President Donald Trump’s secret meeting with Putin in 2017. Those terms are quite similar to what Musk proposed in a Twitter poll last week: The billionaire called for Ukraine to remain neutral and formally cede Crimea to Russia, and suggested holding United Nations-supervised referenda on whether occupied Ukrainian territories should join Russia, after the Kremlin claimed those territories nearly unanimously voted to join Russia last month.Musk tweeted the report isn’t true, saying he has “spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago. The subject matter was space” (the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment), added the article on Forbes.com.
