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Russia's Putin praises Elon Musk as an 'outstanding person' and 'talented businessman' (www.cnbc.com)

submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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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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[-] exohuman@programming.dev 307 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 142 points 9 months ago

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

[-] Chainweasel@lemmy.world 96 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 59 points 9 months ago

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

[-] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 9 months ago

South Africa has suffered enough

[-] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago

Instead let him fly to Russia so he can get his medal.

[-] Techmaster@lemm.ee 10 points 9 months ago

Or just lock him in a padded cell where they force him to listen to Die Antwoord 24/7.

[-] LiveLaughLovecraft@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

I know we don't like Musk, but this is going too far

[-] Birch@sh.itjust.works -1 points 9 months ago

Don't threaten him with a good time

[-] zerodown@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

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

[-] HoustonHenry@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Love the name, Jason Mantzoukas reference?

[-] Touching_Grass@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

ARE THEY A BALCONEY GOBLIN

I HATE BALCONEY GOBLINS

[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 months ago

Thank you. It is indeed a reference to Jason Mantzoukas from The Good Place. By far my favorite Derek character on a TV show.

[-] HoustonHenry@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

The superior Derek to all other Dereks, I agree!

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 43 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] TruTollTroll@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] extant@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] DarthBueller@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

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

[-] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 points 9 months ago

First time for everything

[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 0 points 9 months ago

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

[-] Echo71Niner@kbin.social 12 points 9 months ago

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!

[-] exohuman@programming.dev 8 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] Echo71Niner@kbin.social 0 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] exohuman@programming.dev 3 points 9 months ago

Man, congress really looks dumb right now.

[-] NekoKamiGuru@ttrpg.network 4 points 9 months ago

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.

[-] Grant_M@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago

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

[-] exohuman@programming.dev 4 points 9 months ago

For me, it’s not so much the praise from Putin, but Musks own admission that he intentionally hampered the war effort.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/elon-musk-ukraine-starlink-twitter-b2408081.html

[-] CCatMan@lemmy.one -1 points 9 months ago

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

[-] Echo71Niner@kbin.social 5 points 9 months ago

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

[-] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 5 points 9 months ago

national debt is also in the tens of trillions

[-] Makiterr@iusearchlinux.fyi 1 points 9 months ago

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

[-] CCatMan@lemmy.one 0 points 9 months ago

Well, even 10 billion would be nice.

this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023

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