Elon Musk’s invitation to Vladimir Putin to chat on Clubhouse ‘very interesting’, Kremlin says

Invite comes after reports in Russia of a ban on SpaceX’s Starlink space internet

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks on the phone in the settlement of Enem, Republic of Adygea, Russia, on 23 December, 2019 (Reuters)

Elon Musk’s invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin to join him for a conversation on the app Clubhouse has been described by the Kremlin as “very interesting”.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO put the call out on Twitter on Saturday, tweeting the official Russian presidential account: “Would you like [to] join me for a conversation on Clubhouse?”

A follow-up tweet in Russian stated: “It would be a great honour to speak with you.”

Responding to to the offer on a conference call with reporters on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that it was being considered.

“In general, this is of course a very interesting proposal, but we need to understand what is meant, what is being proposed,” he said, according to Reuters.

“First we need to check, then we will react. We want to figure it out first. President Putin does not personally use social networks directly, he doesn’t have them.”

It is unclear what topics Mr Musk wishes to discuss with the president, and it is not the only invitation to a high profile figure he has publicly made in recent days.

Last week, he invited rapper Kanye West to appear with him on the invite-only app, which allows users to join chat rooms focussed on certain topics.

The SpaceX boss, who overtook Amazon founder Jeff Bezos earlier this year to become the world’s richest person, may seek to question Mr Putin about his company’s Starlink project that seeks to deliver high-speed internet from a constellation of satellites.

Recent reports suggested that Russian regulators were considering fines for anyone using the space internet service, which could compete with the country’s own “Sphere” satellite service.