- 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.
There’s good reason to expect that Putin has some sort of hold over Trump- he fits the profile (bad at business, constantly needs money, will do anything for attention, has been mob-adjacent his whole life, has been actively groomed to be an asset by soviet-bloc intelligence services, etc).
Now that I see Elon getting the same sort of head-pat treatment, I expect he’s in similar thrall and begin to wonder if that kind of public statement from Putin is anything but a public, encoded reminder that the leash is still there and if he doesn’t behave it all comes tumbling down.