The Kremlin confirmed on Wednesday that Elon Musk spoke directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call but said that their conversation took place a year and a half ago.
Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov pushed back against allegations that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO spoke with the Russian president ahead of posting his controversial peace proposal for the Ukraine war.
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“I can only confirm to you that, indeed, about a year and a half ago they had a telephone conversation,” Peskov told reporters.
Ian Bremmer, founder and president of political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group, claimed that Musk had told him personally about this conversation with the Russian leader, and that they had spoken “directly about Ukraine.”
But Musk tweeted on Tuesday that he hadn’t spoken with Putin in over a year, and that “nobody should trust Bremmer.”
“I have spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago. The subject matter was space,” Musk tweeted.
Musk created a controversial Twitter poll last week urging his followers to vote on ways to resolve the Ukraine war, with options including Ukraine pledging to be “neutral” in world affairs, recognizing annexed Crimea as part of Russia, and steps to legitimize Russia’s recent claim of annexing four additional regions of Ukraine.
The poll was met with widespread condemnation from Ukrainian officials and the international community.
Newsweek has reached out to Russia’s foreign ministry, Tesla and Musk’s office for comment.
This is a developing story and it will be updated.