Billionaire Elon Musk raised eyebrows Thursday after he complimented a high Kremlin official who had mocked Liz Truss’ sudden resignation as the UK’s prime minister.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Safety Council of Russia and a high ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, trolled Truss on Twitter following her announcement.
Medvedev’s tweet referenced a viral marketing campaign from British tabloid The Every day Star, which jokingly questioned on Oct. 14 whether or not Truss’ tenure would outlast the shelf lifetime of a head of lettuce. Truss resigned after simply 44 days in workplace.
“Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce,” Medvedev tweeted.
“Fairly good troll tbh,” Musk responded. He adopted up with an obvious dig about Russia’s army efforts.
“Btw, how’s it stepping into Bakhmut?” Musk added in a separate tweet, making reference to a metropolis in jap Ukraine the place Russia has suffered army setbacks.
Medvedev, a full-throated supporter of the invasion of Ukraine who has made nuclear threats in current days, replied by inviting Musk to Russia.
“See you in Moscow on Victory Day!” Medvedev mentioned.
The change sparked an uproar on social media, with some customers criticizing Musk for exchanging phrases with the Putin crony.
Musk has drawn scrutiny in current days for his commentary on the Russia-Ukraine warfare.
The Tesla boss infuriated high Ukrainian officers, together with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, after he recommended Ukraine ought to cede territory to Russia to realize peace.
Critics accused Musk of parroting a Kremlin speaking level. In response, Musk argued his objective was to de-escalate tensions between the Kremlin and Western allies amid an increase in nuclear saber-rattling.
“F— off is my very diplomatic reply,” tweeted Ukrainian diplomat Andrij Melnyk in response to Musk’s proposal.
In the meantime, Zelensky shared a ballot asking, “Which @elonmusk do you want extra?” – with “One who helps Ukraine” and “One who helps Russia” as the 2 potential responses.
Musk additionally drew the ire of Ukraine’s supporters by indicating his agency SpaceX might cease offering free Starlink satellite tv for pc web throughout the nation. Starlink has performed a key position in facilitating communication and army motion in Ukraine.
The billionaire later backed off the menace and mentioned SpaceX would proceed to supply Starlink.
“The hell with it … although starlink continues to be shedding cash & different firms are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll simply preserve funding ukraine govt free of charge,” Musk tweeted final Saturday.
Musk’s current tweets have purportedly garnered the eye of Biden administration officers, who’re mentioned to be weighing a national security review of his pending acquisition of Twitter.
Musk lately denied a claim that he told a geopolitical analyst he personally met with Putin to debate an finish to the warfare.
