Russia’s Putin praises Elon Musk as an ‘excellent particular person’ and ‘gifted businessman’

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday praised Elon Musk, calling the Tesla and SpaceX founder a “gifted businessman.”

Putin made the feedback on the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok as he spoke about Russia’s house program.

“Elon Musk … is undoubtedly an excellent particular person. It have to be admitted. I believe the entire world admits it. He is an lively, gifted businessman,” Putin stated, based on a Reuters translation.

Putin stated that Musk does enterprise with the help of the U.S. state.

The Russian president added that Russia is “prepared to develop” help for personal companies within the nation.

Putin stated Russia has already executed this for for its house applications underneath the company Roscosmos.

The feedback come after Russia’s first house launch to the moon in almost 50 years, failed final month after the Luna-25 lander crashed onto the lunar floor.

The flop was seen as a serious setback for Russia’s house program simply days earlier than India successfully landed its first spacecraft on the moon.

Musk stated final week that he refused an emergency request by the Ukrainian authorities to increase protection of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to Sevastopol within the Crimea, a area Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

In a put up on X, previously recognized as Twitter, Musk stated that if he agreed to the emergency request “then SpaceX can be explicitly complicit in a serious act of struggle and battle escalation.”

Musk’s Starlink terminals arrived within the early days of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as Western governments labored to produce Kyiv with artillery and air protection programs.

— CNBC’s Ashley Capoot contributed to this report.