Putin's comments come after Musk said last week that he refused an emergency request by Ukraine to extend coverage of Starlink satellites to Crimea.
  • 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.
  • exohuman@programming.devEnglish
    3136·
    1 year 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.

    • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1431·
      1 year 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.worldEnglish
        1004·
        1 year 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.

    • gravitas_deficiencyEnglish
      463·
      1 year 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.

      • Evie @lemmy.worldEnglish
        111·
        1 year 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.worldEnglish
        5·
        1 year 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.worldEnglish
        51·
        1 year ago

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

    • Echo71Niner@kbin.social
      164·
      1 year 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.devEnglish
        91·
        1 year 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
          22·
          1 year 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.

    • NekoKamiGuru@ttrpg.networkEnglish
      73·
      1 year 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.

    • CCatMan@lemmy.oneEnglish
      34·
      1 year ago

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

      • Echo71Niner@kbin.social
        5·
        1 year 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

      • exohuman@programming.devEnglish
        91·
        1 year ago

        He immigrated here. His route went from SA, to Canada, to USA. As an immigrant citizen, I would expect more loyalty.