Russian President Vladimir Putin is rhapsodizing about X owner and space entrepreneur Elon Musk despite the Kremlin’s tense negotiations with the United States over ending its invasion of Ukraine.
Putin spoke briefly about his admiration for Musk, whom he previously called an “outstanding person,” during a meeting with students at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, a school specializing in science and engineering.
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“You know, there’s a man — he lives in the States — Musk, who you could say raves about Mars,” Putin told the students. “These are the kind of people who don’t often appear in the human population, charged up with a certain idea.”
The Russian president compared Musk to Soviet space program lead engineer Sergei Korolev, who oversaw some of the USSR’s landmark missions.
“If it seems incredible even today, such ideas often come to fruition after a while,” Putin said. “Just like the ideas of Korolev, our pioneers came about in due time.”
Korolev was born in a region of the Russian Empire absorbed into the Soviet Union and now part of post-Soviet Ukraine. He played a lead engineering role in missions such as the orbit of space dog Laika and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s successful mission as the first human being in space.
Putin has sung Musk’s praises for a while, saying in 2023 that the SpaceX CEO is “undoubtedly an outstanding person” in the realm of “private business.”
“This must be recognized, and I think it is recognized all over the world,” the Russian president said at the time, calling Musk “an active and talented businessman, and he is succeeding a lot, including with the support of the American state.”
The timing of Putin’s latest remarks is notable due to the negotiations among the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia to end the invasion that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians.
Trump has described himself as “pissed off” over the Kremlin’s continued stalling in the peace deal through unrealistic, maximalist demands.
“Kremlin officials continue to demand that Ukraine surrender territory that Russia does not currently occupy and to justify Russia’s ambitions of asserting control over independent countries, including NATO member states,” the Washington-based nonprofit organization Institute for the Study of War said in a report this week.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government’s relationship with Ukraine continues to deteriorate after President Donald Trump accused the embattled nation of instigating its own invasion.
“You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,” Trump said on Tuesday. “When you start a war, you got to know you can win.”
“How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering, to understand what the Russians are doing, and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war?” Zelensky told CBS News in a weekend interview. “This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia’s information policy on America, on U.S. politics, and U.S. politicians.”
Vice President JD Vance dismissed the Ukrainian leader’s accusations, saying, “It’s sort of absurd for Zelensky to tell the [U.S.] government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we are somehow on the side of the Russians.”