Russian President Vladimir Putin commended Elon Musk as an “outstanding person” and a “talented businessman” during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. This recognition comes just days after Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, publicly acknowledged denying an emergency request from Ukrainian authorities to activate his company’s Starlink satellite network for potential use in an attack on Russian warships.
Putin’s praise for Musk’s business prowess occurred against the backdrop of a notable decision that drew international attention. Elon Musk revealed on his social media network, X (formerly Twitter), that he had refused the Ukrainian request to activate Starlink over Sevastopol, a port city in Crimea.
In explaining his decision, Musk stated that granting the request would have made SpaceX “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.” This move brought Musk into the center of geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, given Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its subsequent invasion of Ukraine.
Despite this controversy, Putin emphasized Musk’s global recognition as an active and talented businessman.
Notably, SpaceX receives support from the U.S. government, and Putin expressed Russia’s openness to involving private investors in its own space industry. He also reaffirmed Russia’s commitment to lunar exploration, even in the wake of the Luna-25 mission’s failure in August.
While addressing the forum, Putin acknowledged that space exploration is fraught with challenges and setbacks, emphasizing that Russia remains dedicated to advancing its lunar program. He highlighted NASA’s collaboration with SpaceX in the Artemis program, focused on returning astronauts to the moon.
Russia’s recent lunar mission faced disappointment when its robotic spacecraft crashed during an attempted landing near the moon’s south pole. This failure meant that India won the race to reach this region, and Moscow missed the opportunity to mark its lunar return almost fifty years after the last Soviet mission.
Putin, however, remained optimistic about Russia’s space ambitions, noting that setbacks are not unique to any one space program and reaffirming Russia’s determination to continue its lunar exploration efforts.
As geopolitical tensions persist and space exploration remains a global endeavor, Putin’s recognition of Musk’s business prowess underscores the importance of private sector involvement in the space industry.
Sources By Agencies
