Ian Bremmer, president of the political risk research firm Eurasia Group, alleged that Musk spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin before he posted the poll, according to Vice News. Bremmer asserted Musk had a “direct conversation” with Putin about the conflict.
Vice, citing Bremmer’s claims, alleged Musk was told by Putin that he “prepared to negotiate” but only if the Crimean Peninsula remained under Russian territory amid other claims that Ukraine must adopt the formal status of neutrality and has to recognize Russia’s annexations of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
Musk, however, denied those claims on Twitter.
Earlier this year, Musk challenged Putin to “single combat,” adding he spoke to the Russian president through a video conference in 2021. In Ukraine, Musk became popular by sending his Starlink Internet terminals to keep the Ukrainian military online following the February invasion.
In one example, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) suggested that the Senate could take away tax breaks for electric vehicles, which Tesla manufactures, in a thread criticizing Musk’s Ukraine comments.
“With all due respect to Elon Musk—and I do respect him—I would suggest he needs to understand the facts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Graham wrote on Twitter. “Suggesting we end the Russian invasion by simply giving Russia parts of Ukraine—after all the suffering—is dumb. It is also an affront to the bravery of the Ukrainians fighting to defend their homeland.”
Later in the thread, Graham suggested lawmakers “should revisit the electric vehicle tax credit boondoggle” in what some said was a thinly veiled threat against Tesla.
