Tesla boss Elon Musk is not only the richest person in the world. He is also involved in the Ukraine war. He was still celebrated for his Starlink satellites. However, his “peace plan” has met with a lot of criticism. What does the entrepreneur want?
They are two of the most powerful men on this planet. Millions of people are interested in what they say and do. One sits in Russia, wages a war of aggression against Ukraine and is seen as an unpredictable despot.
The other lives in Texas, runs Tesla and is the richest man on earth with a total fortune of around 200 billion US dollars. These two men, Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk, are said to have recently spoken to each other on the phone.
At least that’s what the US online magazine “Vice” reports, citing Ian Bremmer, head of the political consulting firm Eurasia Group. He claims in a newsletter that Musk told him Putin was “ready for negotiations.”
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The meeting with the Russian president reportedly took place before Musk tweeted his “peace plan” for Ukraine on Oct. 3. A “peace plan” that includes several proposals that coincide with the Kremlin’s ideas.
These include Ukraine’s renunciation of the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia and a neutral status for the country. It was foreseeable that the contribution would cause criticism.
The multi-billionaire’s tweet was not well received, especially in Ukraine. “The only result is that no Ukrainian will ever buy your fucking Tesla crap. Fuck off,” rumbled Andriy Melnyk, ambassador to Germany.
Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak was more diplomatic, saying a “better peace plan” would be the liberation of all Ukrainian territories. Russia will then be completely demilitarized, will have to give up its nuclear weapons and “can no longer threaten anyone”.
The Kremlin, on the other hand, welcomed Musk’s proposal to end the war. Even if Moscow rejects real referendums in Russian-occupied areas, one of the core demands.
Musk, however, denies having consulted with the Kremlin boss beforehand. “I only spoke to Putin once and that was 18 months ago,” he wrote on Twitter. “It was about space travel.” In another post, he warned against trusting Bremmer.
It is unclear who is telling the truth – Musk or political adviser. The “peace plan” undoubtedly came from the Tesla boss’s pen. And regardless of whether he spoke to Putin on the phone beforehand or not, the proposals contained therein often coincide with the Kremlin’s demands.
For many, it looks like Musk wants to stab Ukraine in the back and suck up to Russia. Ultimately, his “peace plan” clashes with Ukraine’s goals of liberating its entire territory and slipping under the NATO umbrella.
Possibly the Tesla boss wants to prevent a nuclear war by all means. In any case, he expressed concern on Twitter. On Sunday he wrote that the risk of a nuclear catastrophe was increasing “rapidly”.
“I lie awake all night thinking about how this war can be de-escalated.” In the past, Moscow had repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons. Musk apparently takes this very seriously and wants to get involved geopolitically.
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The very rich American has been involved in the Ukraine war for some time anyway. Because a few days after the start of the Russian invasion, Musk made his Starlink satellites available to Ukraine.
The reason: Moscow had partially cut off the neighboring country from the Internet as a result of a cyber attack. Since then, Musk’s technology has enabled Ukrainian soldiers to communicate securely in battle, control drones and send videos. Frontline fighters say without Starlink, the army would collapse in no time.
It is true that most of the approximately 20,000 portable receivers are paid for by the West. Despite this, Musk is in control of the Starlink satellites. He can turn them off if he wants. And has thus become a central figure in the Ukraine war.
A few days ago, it became apparent what the consequences could be if the satellite system failed. After Ukraine reported major reconquests, there were disruptions on several front sections, including in the Cherson and Zaporizhia regions. This is according to a report by the Financial Times.
The front line in the east of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk was also affected by the failures. A Ukrainian government official told the Financial Times that the Starlink problems had resulted in a “catastrophic loss of communications.”
It is still unclear exactly why the failures occurred. Some military bloggers suspected that Musk struck a deal with Putin, to the detriment of Ukraine.
The fact that the satellites didn’t work could also have had completely different reasons. For example, experts consider a technical malfunction possible or a cyber attack that the Russians launched against Starlink.
Neither SpaceX, Musk’s space company behind Starlink, nor the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense have commented on this so far. And the Tesla boss himself is also silent. What is happening on the battlefield is secret, he wrote on Twitter.
In the end, Musk is an entrepreneur, not a politician. He says and does what he thinks is rational. How close his contact with Putin really is cannot be said with certainty. But there are certainly indications that speak against a pact.
What the debate about Musk’s “peace plan” tweet ultimately shows is that the Ukraine war is causing growing unrest among entrepreneurs.
Or as the “Magdeburger Volksstimme” comments: “The war in Eastern Europe is reducing profits, and considerably so. That’s why one will hardly blame Musk in business circles in this country, too.”