Twitter boss Elon Musk has been caught rubbing shoulders with a 'corrupt' Russian propagandist, it is claimed.
The Tesla billionaire was in Qatar watching the World Cup final yesterday when he posed for pictures with Nailya Asker-Zade, who is claimed to be one of the most infamous Russian propagandists.
The Russian television presenter was investigated by Alexey Navalny's Foundation Against Corruption group and is already sanctioned by Canada and the UK.
Asker-Zade, 35, is one of Vladimir Putin's key allies and is the girlfriend of the despot's private banker Andrey Kostin, whose business and personal life has also been restricted for his role as Putin's "piggy bank".
The selfie comes just hours after Musk promised to step back from running Twitter after he asked followers whether he should quit in a poll.
Mr Musk launched the Twitter poll on Sunday night after watching Argentina beat France in the World Cup final in Qatar.
The Tesla billionaire launched the 12-hour ballot on his page on Sunday night at 11.20pm asking: "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll."
Mr Musk tweeted along with the options "Yes" or "No."
He lost the damning poll, which would potentially see Musk stepping down as CEO of Twitter, but it's thought the mogul would still retain ownership of the company.
Around 57 per cent of 17.5million voters had said that Mr Musk should resign as Twitter chief executive with 43 per cent saying he should stay with around three hours to go before the poll closed.
It was unclear whether Mr Musk would respect the results and actually step down if that was the choice. Last week he removed a poll on reinstating the accounts of suspended journalists before it had concluded.
After launching the poll, the billionaire Tesla boss also tweeted that people should be careful what they wish for, but denied that he has already selected his potential replacement.
“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” Mr Musk said.
Overnight, Mr Musk also liked a Tweet reading: “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus. – Turkish proverb.”
It was not immediately clear whether this was aimed towards his Twitter poll.
