The tech billionaire caused controversy last week following a tweet of a “peace deal” he created for Ukraine and Russia in which Ukraine would formally concede Crimea to Russia and the four recently annexed regions would hold new referendums over its sovereignty.
Claims have now arisen that Elon Musk spoke to the Russian President before he published his tweet, which Mr Musk vehemently denies. The proposed peace plan notably benefits Russia which fuels the reports that Putin’s talk of using nuclear weapons against Ukraine if it attempted to re-take Crimea scared the SpaceX founder into writing his tweet.
The claims of a conversation between Putin and the Tesla CEO emerged from Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, a political risk firm.
Mr Bremmer has claimed that Putin told Musk he was “prepared to negotiate” with Ukraine as long as Crimea remains Russian and Ukraine “accepts a formal status of neutrality”.
Mr Bremmer added: “The alternative being major escalation. And further, if Zelensky invaded Crimea, Russia would retaliate with a nuclear strike on Ukraine.
“Elon said everything needed to be done to avoid that outcome.”
Alongside calls for a “redo” of the referendums in the annexed regions under UN supervision, the tweet called for Ukraine to remain neutral and for the assurance of “water supply to Crimea”.
Musk’s plan also stated: “Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).”
The billionaire then added further tweets saying: “This is highly likely to be the outcome in the end – just a question of how many die before then.
“Also worth noting that a possible, albeit unlikely, outcome from this conflict is nuclear war.”
According to the foreign affairs columnist, Musk’s tweet urged him to divulge his alleged conversation with Musk.
In a newsletter on Monday, he wrote: “My response was to not take Putin at face value and that there was zero chance Ukraine could or the West would go for Putin’s ‘deal’.
“It felt to me like Elon considered that a reasonable response. But then last week, he posted essentially the same points on Twitter.”
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