Musk denies talking to Putin ahead of Twitter poll

Tesla founder Elon Musk has denied claims that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to making a contentious Twitter poll suggesting a hypothetical peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

Political analyst Ian Bremmer wrote Monday that Musk had a "direct conversation" with the Russian leader and that the electric vehicle mogul was convinced that Putin's nuclear threats were serious, according to The Hill.

Musk flatly denied the claim in a Tweet, writing "I have spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago. The subject matter was space."

Earlier this month, Musk posted a poll asking his followers to weigh in on a possible peace plan in which Russia would retain Crimea, the UN would supervise new referendums in the disputed regions, and Ukraine would became a neutral buffer state between NATO and Russia.

Ukrainian public figures were swift to denounce Musk's proposed plan. Among the more chaffing remarks from Musk was his discussion of "Khrushchev's mistake," referring to the Soviet leader's transfer of Crimea from the Russian soviet republic to the Ukrainian one in the middle of the 20th century.