Putin Praises ‘Outstanding’ Elon Musk After Billionaire Foils Ukrainian Military Operation

Russian President Vladimir Putin called billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk an “outstanding person” and “talented businessman” on Tuesday after Musk’s decision to deny Ukrainian military forces access to his Starlink satellites over Russian-occupied Crimea was made public last week.

“As far as private business and Elon Musk is concerned… he is undoubtedly an outstanding person. This must be recognized, and I think it is recognized all over the world,” said Putin. “He is an active and talented businessman and he is succeeding a lot, including with the support of the American state.”

An excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Musk published in the Washington Post last Thursday described Musk’s decision not to allow the Ukrainian military to use Starlink in Crimea:

What the Ukrainians did not know was that Musk decided not to enable Starlink coverage of the Crimean coast. When the Ukrainian military learned that Starlink would not allow a successful attack, Musk got frantic calls and texts asking him to turn the coverage on. Fedorov, the deputy prime minister who had originally enlisted his help, secretly shared with him the details of how the drone subs were crucial to their fight for freedom. “We made the sea drones ourselves, they can destroy any cruiser or submarine,” he texted using an encrypted app. “I did not share this information with anyone. I just want you — the person who is changing the world through technology — to know this.”

Originally, the excerpt claimed that Musk had turned off access that had previously been enabled, but Isaacson eventually corrected his mistake, pointing out that Musk did not turn off coverage over Crimea, but rather failed to honor Ukrainian requests that it be extended over it.