Russian President Vladimir Putin has heaped praise on Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, describing him as an exceptional individual and a highly talented entrepreneur. This admiration comes just days after Musk publicly acknowledged preventing Ukraine from using his company’s Starlink satellite network in a potential attack on Russian warships.
Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin expressed his appreciation for Musk, stating, “As for the realm of private enterprise, Elon Musk is unquestionably an extraordinary individual. I believe that recognition of his capabilities will extend worldwide. He is a proactive and exceptionally skilled entrepreneur.”
Putin’s compliments were prompted by Musk’s recent announcement on his social media platform, X (formerly known as Twitter), where Musk disclosed his refusal of an emergency request from Ukrainian authorities to activate Starlink services directed towards Sevastopol, a crucial port city in Crimea.
Musk clarified that granting permission for such an action would have resulted in SpaceX being “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
It’s important to note that Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and engaged in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of the previous year.
Notably, SpaceX receives support from the U.S. government, and Putin underscored Russia’s openness to engaging private investors in its space industry. He also affirmed Russia’s commitment to lunar exploration, despite the recent failure of the Luna-25 mission.
NASA, in collaboration with SpaceX, uses SpaceX rockets for missions to the International Space Station and is working with the company as part of the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the moon.
Russia encountered its own setback in lunar exploration when a robotic spacecraft crashed during its landing attempt near the moon’s south pole in August. This failure meant that Russia lost the race with India to be the first country to reach this lunar region, marking Moscow’s return to lunar exploration almost fifty years after its last Soviet mission.
Putin emphasized that other global space programs have also faced failures and expressed determination to continue Russia’s lunar exploration efforts, stating, “It’s unfortunate that the lunar landing didn’t succeed. However, this doesn’t signify that we will abandon this program. We will persist in our endeavors.”
Bloomberg, source
