Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been holding secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022, according to a report published Thursday by the Wall Street Journal.

Citing “several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials,” the Journal reported that talks between Putin and Musk, a major Republican donor and Pentagon contractor, took place as Russia wages a brutal war against Ukraine, a key ally of the United States USA, led. Topics ranged from business to personal to geopolitical.

In one case, Putin pressured Musk to order SpaceX to withhold Starlink, its powerful satellite internet communications service, from Taiwan as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Journal reported, citing two people briefed on the request. Beijing is a crucial ally of the Kremlin. A version of Starlink available for military use is called StarShield.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a Semafor conference in Washington DC on Friday: “If the story is true that there have been multiple conversations between Elon Musk and the president of Russia, then I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA “The Ministry of Defense, for some of the intelligence agencies.” He also said that the matter “should be investigated.”

CNBC has not independently verified the conversations, which the Journal described as a “closely guarded secret” even within the U.S. government.

But the report raises new questions about how Musk makes decisions within his companies that affect geopolitics and national security, such as where and when to activate Starlink’s satellite communications technology. These questions also extend to the way Musk runs the social network X, which he owns and runs as CTO.

Musk has become a major Republican donor this election cycle and is one of the most influential supporters of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

In September, the chairman of a House China committee, Rep. Mike Gallagher, returned with a congressional delegation from a visit to Taiwan, where they learned that StarShield was not operational for American troops in and around the region. They sent a letter to SpaceX asking the company to shut it down.

As NBC News previously reported, Musk and SpaceX said they were in full compliance with their Pentagon contract and disputed the House claim. SpaceX later applied for controlling interest in a Starlink-based company requested by Taiwan. The island nation rejected this proposal on the grounds that it was incompatible with its laws.

Currently, the SpaceX website states that “a service date for Starlink in Taiwan for general customers is currently unknown.”

Musk and representatives from X, SpaceX and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Russian KGB and its successor agency, the FSB, have for decades been interested in controlling media narratives and reaching as many people as possible with anti-Western or pro-Kremlin messages. The talks between Musk and Putin, who once headed the KGB, reportedly took place as Musk was in the midst of a leveraged buyout and acquisition of Twitter.

It was previously known that Musk had spoken directly to Putin at least once.

In 2022, Eurasia Group founder and political analyst Ian Bremmer wrote that Musk spoke with Putin before the X owner posted social media messages about Russia’s war against Ukraine in early October.

Musk had suggested that Ukraine should hand over Crimea to Russia and that Kiev should remain “neutral” instead of trying to join NATO. Through X (formerly Twitter), he continued to promote the idea that some Ukrainian citizens would prefer to join Russia.

Kremlin officials praised Musk for his opinion at the time, while Musk drew sharp criticism from many others, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the senator. Lindsay GrahamRS.C. and Russian-born human rights activist and former chess master Garry Kasparov.

On October 27, Musk completed the acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion.

“I have only spoken to Putin once, and that was about 18 months ago,” Musk said at the time. “The theme was space.”

About a year later, in September 2023, Putin publicly praised Musk, calling him a “talented businessman.” Putin’s praise came after Musk said he had rejected an emergency request from the Ukrainian government to expand coverage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to Sevastopol in Crimea. Putin made the comments at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, where he discussed Russia’s space program after a failed moon landing.

Musk previously actively sought business with Russia for his companies SpaceX and Tesla for years.

“I went to Russia three times to try to buy a couple of their biggest (intercontinental ballistic missiles),” Musk told an audience at the interactive SXSW conference in 2013, where he recounted the challenges of starting his business with reusable rockets.

Although the rocket deal never materialized, SpaceX was funded in part by Russian-born Israeli tech tycoon Yuri Milner, who has close ties to Silicon Valley firms. In August 2022, Milner officially renounced his Russian citizenship. SpaceX now regularly conducts missions with NASA astronauts and cosmonauts from Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, although diplomatic cooperation of this kind is typical in the aerospace industry.

Musk and SpaceX are credited with inspiring the creation of the Commercial Space Act by then-Republican Representative. Dana Rohrabacher, which was passed in 2004 and allows private companies to provide launch services to federal agencies.

Rohrabacher represented Orange County, California, in the House of Representatives for 30 years, but lost his re-election bid in 2018. That loss was due in part to Rohrabacher’s publicly acknowledged communications with the Kremlin, which included a meeting in Moscow in 2016 that worried U.S. intelligence officials.

Musk’s Tesla has more recently forged supply chain ties with Russia, purchasing millions of euros worth of aluminum from Rusal since late 2020, as first reported by CNBC. Founded by sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, Rusal was once sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, which cited Russia’s “malicious activities” at the time. These sanctions were lifted under Trump in 2019.

If Trump wins, he has promised Musk a role on a commission on “government efficiency” that he would set up at the tech tycoon’s suggestion. Such a role would give Musk influence over federal agencies, including those tasked with ensuring that he and his companies comply with federal laws.

In a speech at the New York Economic Club in September, Trump said he envisioned the commission would be “charged with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government.” Trump has repeatedly said that Musk will lead the commission but does not have to leave his companies to do so.