Elon Musk has refuted claims that he communicated with Vladimir Putin before putting his recommendations for stopping Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a Twitter poll.

Head of the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer claimed that Mr. Musk had personally briefed him about the chat with Mr. Putin.  However, Mr. Musk has since denied this.

“Putin and I have only communicated once, perhaps 18 months ago. The topic concerned space, “Musk posted a tweet.

The Tesla CEO invited his 107.7 million followers to vote on how to end the conflict in Ukraine last week.

One of the ideas was to organise elections in regions of Ukraine that Russia claims it has seized and has occupied. His remarks were well received in Moscow.

If the people’s will is to have Russia go, the multibillionaire said. Four Ukrainian regions have already been annexed by Russia, according to President Putin, after phoney referendums that Kyiv and its Western partners deemed fake. All four of these regions are not entirely under Russian authority.

The illegally annexed Crimea by Moscow in 2014, according to Mr. Musk, should be “officially” recognised as a part of Russia. According to Mr. Bremmer’s account in a newsletter, Mr. Musk told him that the Russian president was “prepared to negotiate,” but only if Ukraine agreed to some form of permanent neutrality, Crimea remained under Russian control, and Kyiv acknowledged Russia’s annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

Mr. Bremmer claimed that the CEO of SpaceX had informed him that Mr. Putin had stated that these objectives would be achieved “no matter what” and that a nuclear attack may be launched if Ukraine attacked Crimea.

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