Citing intelligence sources, a report from The Wall Street Journal said that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been in regular contact in private since late 2022.

Russia said the report is false on Friday.

“It’s all untrue, absolutely false information published in the newspaper,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to Agence France-Presse.

Sources told the WSJ that Putin had asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor for Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

The WSJ's report also said that Musk and Putin have spoken this year in secret.