Russia's Putin praises Elon Musk as an 'outstanding person' and 'talented businessman'

MicroWave@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 956 points – Russia's Putin praises Elon Musk as an 'outstanding person' and 'talented businessman'
cnbc.com
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday praised Elon Musk, calling the Tesla and SpaceX founder a “talented businessman.”
  • Putin was discussing Russia’s space program after a failed moon landing last month.
  • His comments come after Musk said last week that he refused an emergency request by the Ukrainian government to extend coverage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to Sevastopol in Crimea.
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Can we define Musk as a traitor now? He is actively interfering in a conflict in an active combat zone the USA has already picked sides in and sided with the enemy.

At the very least, all government contracts and grants should be pulled from SpaceX, Tesla, Starlink, and any other Musk run businesses.

I say nationalize anything with a government contract. Starlink could be extremely useful to the military and musk shouldn't be in charge of anyone's Internet connection, defense contract or not. Military would still get to use it and people would have a taxpayer funded alternative to companies like Comcast.

Can we cut out the middle-part and just send him back to South Africa?

Nah, send him to his father illegal mine in Zambia as a worker.

Love the name, Jason Mantzoukas reference?

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If he actually did tell his company to take an action that effectively contravened official US policy (and it looks like he did), he broke the law. Specifically, 18 U.S. Code § 953 - Private correspondence with foreign governments:

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

I am willing to bet that someone in the Ukrainian foreign ministry was aware of this law, and then had some pointed questions for the US State Department on whether or not Elon’s refusal to share intelligence should be taken as an official US position on the matter, and if not, why Elon/SpaceX’s behavior is effectively contradicting official US policy.

This should get interesting, and it could put Elon in some real legal jeopardy on a matter that the US tends to not fuck around with.

I am praying so! I have my popcorn ready and I can't afford to waste it. Lmao

But seriously, I really do want to see some Justice here. He is one man, a private citizen who directly involved himself in foreign affairs and I would believe, he technically committed an act of war by aiding and abetting Russia.

When it happened there was public outcry and as I recall the excuse given was that he had given them Starlink to assist in recovery efforts which is fine. When they started strapping it onto weapons that moved from providing aid to providing weapons to a foreign nation whom at the time was authorized to receive weapons and Starlink isn't an authorized weapons dealer to begin with. So it was shut down as a knee jerk reaction to avoid penalty US arms dealing penalties.

Mind you this is just from my imperfect memory and only hearsay at that, I honestly don't know why six out of every ten articles are about this guy.

Violating the Logan Act is a felony, but since 1799 there have been precisely two indictments and zero convictions.

Probably depends on who is in charge and if they'll indict

Dick Cheney is a war criminal and still walks free, and so does George W Bush, where the fuck do you think Elon learned that shit from? Ha!

Only thing about that though, is that they were all representing our country and had the right to influence policy since we elected them or they were appointed after an election. Elon has no such right. He hasn’t been elected or appointed for anything.

Congress did, when they started treating him like something special and he played them all. He knew he can influence Ukraine war by giving Ukraine free sat connection and then control it by taking it away from them, oldest game in the book.

Elon has no such right. He hasn’t been elected or appointed for anything.

If Putin were to say Biden was a great guy would that make Biden a traitor? No. Putin is full of shit and he is setting out to create as much trouble as he can to destabilize the western powers who he views as his enemies.

Has putler ever praised Biden? No. This is because Musk is putler's, Biden is not.

What if, we sieze his assets and pay off the US national debt 👍

Pfft.. You and so many other people hear he is worth $200 billion plus and think that is his actual worth lmao. If you sold everything Elon has and liquidated it, it would not come up to $30 billion in cash. US national debt will never ever be paid.

What if, we sieze his assets and pay off the US national debt

Also, a portion of that $200 billion likely directly or indirectly is US debt.

Traitor? He's south african

Merica' fuck yea

He immigrated here. His route went from SA, to Canada, to USA. As an immigrant citizen, I would expect more loyalty.

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You know you’re a bad human being when Putin praises you.

He praised Biden as well.

I wouldn’t take anything Putin says at face value.

That's about the same praise he gave to Trump.

And just like Trump, Musk is a piece of shit as well.

There's good reason to expect that Putin has some sort of hold over Trump- he fits the profile (bad at business, constantly needs money, will do anything for attention, has been mob-adjacent his whole life, has been actively groomed to be an asset by soviet-bloc intelligence services, etc).

Now that I see Elon getting the same sort of head-pat treatment, I expect he's in similar thrall and begin to wonder if that kind of public statement from Putin is anything but a public, encoded reminder that the leash is still there and if he doesn't behave it all comes tumbling down.

Tesla stock is down 2% today, and down 12% over the last 12 mo. The funny part is that Musk, unlike Trump, has more money than god and 100% doesn't need Putin or anyone else for that matter. He's also not shy about saying anything controversial or anything like that, so it is very, very weird what Putin might possibly have over Musk's head. Unlike Trump who was rumored to have golden shower videos over his head, I highly doubt sex-stuff would bother Musk one bit. And of course money is immaterial to him at this point - Tesla stock could go to 0 and Musk would still be one of the richest people on the planet. And being as rich as he is, power comes naturally. Such a weird dynamic.

what Putin might possibly have over Musk’s head

Well they both had connections with Epstein and have moved in similar circles- that whole thing smells like a long-running Kompromat operation targeting top industrialists and financiers, frankly.

As for Elon's wealth making him untouchable? My dude, leverage is a thing and he is leveraging other people's money and as such, he depends heavily upon those arrangements staying where they are. The interest on loan he took to fund the Twitter takeover (with other people's money) is a lot, and whether or not Twitter can cover those costs is a very real question. This looks a lot like the debt traps Trump is in- they might both have money, but their money is tied up in assets it'll cost them something to liquidate (and which they can't readily get more of) and when that starts to look like cycling loans around to stay liquid, that adds up to pressure.

Except Epstein was working with Mossad, and as such American intelligence not Russian.

All Russia has to do is hack in and borrow a kopy, which they are pretty good at.

If you've got a murderous autocrat praising you, it should trigger an "I've made a huge mistake" response.

Not so for narcissists though - anything that boosts their ego is welcome, anything. Russia knows this, and plays the fuck out of it like a shit fiddle, Randy.

And useful idiots fall for it, like really powerful idiots. It makes me sad for humanity that such depraved sociopaths can still win out in this day and age.

The twat comes from apartheid gem money. I don't think he minds getting head pats from Vlad.

Elmo is going to take the praise and dwell in it. He won't care who these words came from, and he's going to praise Putin back for his "insightful observation". And Elmos fanboys are going to suck it up, and will probably go on to say that the world better bows to them both. I hate everything about this, so much.

I wonder how much Putin paid for Elon. I can't help but imagine it was as little as a scratch behind the ear and telling him that "he's a good boy, yes he is! Yes he is!"

Elon is a fragile narcissist, all Putin has to do is say nice things about Elon, and Elon will eat out of Putin's hand.

Exactly. Elon’s loyalty comes cheap, just like Trump’s.

I wouldn't call it loyalty, I don't think Elon or Trump are actually capable of loyalty.

I believe the term is favor. Putin has easily earned Trump and Elon's favor, because all these rich assholes see themselves as modern day lords and ladies. Which is true in a way, it's just that they also have all the stupidity, cruelty, and corruption of medieval lords.

You may have a decent point there.

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Praising Elon like a baby is part of Russia's war plan. That's the timeline we are in.

When you do a job for someone and they only pay you in "exposure"

Actual traitor Elon Musk.

And not just to something as banal as his country; to democracy, liberalism, international order and the value of human life.

Completely 100% not suspicious! Nothing to see here

Putin should know to just shut up about him. He’s doing everything he can to be useful to Putin. Why implicate him by association? Just shut up and enjoy your tool.

Probably he is doing deliberately to trigger the US government, we bought one of your oligarchs.

He bought several, if anything this is less about antagonizing the US and more of an open application

He has to pay back his debts, and Musk likes to be paid in praise.

Shocker; the guy who conspired with Russia to thwart Ukraine gets praised by Putin.

I smell Kompromat.

Maybe. Musk seems like as likely to suck anyone's dick if it meant he got praise though. Like Trump, Putin make have dirt, but they're both very shallow people desperate for praise.

pootin also mentioned, under his breath: "he's also really naive and never checks for cameras before he does objectionable stuff!"

I mean, what else is there to know now? If Vladimir Putin is giving a person praise, they're likely a piece of shit.

There’s totally a piss tape

FRIENDSHIP ENDED WITH TRUMP.

NOW MUSK IS MY BEST FRIEND.

Putin is obviously a gold digger.. trump has no money

But Elon does.. lmao

If Elon really doesn’t have any alliances, he really knows how to put himself between a rock and a hard place.

Sucks I don’t give a fuck about billionaires or their miserable, stressful, apathetic, pathetic, shallow existences.

Live like a hedonistic die like one.

He also called Prigozhin a "talented person" just after he had killed him. So Elon, don't get too comfortable.

Somebody send that jet tracker link to Pootie

Are we gonna have to eat this shit up forever? Watching megalomaniacs lick each other's assholes with their tongues padded with bills?

So this is just confirmation he's in his pocket. I mean how else could anyone look at this?

I see it as Putin seizing an opportunity to troll. Anything to stir shit up and divide people.

That's exactly what Putin/Russia wants you to think. I mean, cmon...

Musk is an idiot and a tool, but this is just Putin playing with the public opinion :)

Putin stirring the pot again. Picking a insane richy to prop up.

A psychopathic tyrant who sucks a psychopathic rich fuck off? Unheard of!

And yet Phoney Stark has the gall to blame Dark Brandon and Co for not extending SpaceX coverage to Crimea.

If you drive a Tesla you may have blood on your hands.

I mean, that is true of a ton of other, if not most, consumer goods

What belongs together comes together.

The circle jerk between these three is mind blowing.