Elon Musk spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin before he tweeted a "peace plan to end the war" that included Ukraine's consent to the annexation of its territories, according to Vice.
According to the publication, Musk told the American political scientist, head of the political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, about the conversation. The latter publicized the conversation with Musk in a mailing to Eurasia Group clients — this mailing is what Vice refers to.
Bremmer's message says that, according to Musk, Putin is "ready for negotiations", but only if Crimea remains Russian, Ukraine will declare neutrality and recognize the annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
According to Bremmer, Putin told Musk these goals would be achieved "no matter what," including the possibility of a nuclear strike if Ukraine invaded Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Musk said in a conversation with a political scientist that "everything must be done to avoid such an outcome."
The conversation between Musk and Putin, or even similar plans, has not been publicly reported anywhere. At the same time, we recall that in early October, Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina underwent training before being sent to the ISS on the Crew Dragon spacecraft developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX specialists. On October 7, she successfully arrived at the station.
Elon Musk's plan for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, according to which Ukraine should simply give up the territories occupied by Russia, caused a great resonance in the Russian, Ukrainian and world media. Russian propaganda publications commented positively on Musk's proposal. At the same time, in the world and Ukrainian media, the tweets of the American inventor caused a wave of criticism, including from representatives of the Ukrainian authorities.
Another scandal associated with Musk occurred immediately after his tweets with a “peace plan” and a proposal to determine the ownership of Crimea and Donbass in a second referendum. Ukrainian media reported that after the tweets and the negative reaction of Ukrainians to them, the Internet, supported by Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system, is intermittent on the front line. Later, however, clarifications were published that the Internet was blocked in the occupied territories, as the devices fell into the hands of the Russian military, and they already use the advantage of Starlink. Therefore, there are interruptions nearby.
Updated 20:10. Elon Musk said on Twitter that the last time he spoke with Putin was 18 months ago, and they talked about space.