How Elon Musk Became Putin’s Most Useful Idiot

When one of the worst criminals in the world speaks highly of you, you have to reconsider your priorities, right?

Vladimir Putin this week described Starlink’s boss as an “excellent person”. Elon Musk is “an active, talented businessman,” the Russian kleptocrat said during an appearance in Vladivostok.

The renowned American historian, writer and Russia expert Anne Applebaum comes to a diametrically different conclusion. She says to Musk:

As is known, Putin and other Kremlin officials have repeatedly threatened Ukraine and the West with nuclear escalation. The Russian propagandists and their helpers strike a chord, especially among right-wing enemies of democracy and left-wing ‘doves of peace’.

Musk is also said to have had a vague fear of World War III after secret conversations with Russian diplomats (or even with Putin himself). In fact, the tech billionaire’s latest statements about Taiwan, which is under threat from China, suggest that his concerns are of a more selfish nature. Business comes first.

How Musk became Putin’s useful idiot

The biography about Elon Musk, written by the American writer Walter Isaacson, was recently published – and the author has already had to correct it. There is one particularly explosive point: the book states that Musk had disabled his Starlink satellite communications service in Russian-occupied territory to make a Ukrainian attack on Putin’s Black Sea fleet impossible.

This is not true, Musk immediately protested after the Washington Post published an excerpt from the biography in advance, triggering a global shitstorm against him. And in fact, the author himself returned shortly afterwards. There was an urgent request from Ukrainian government authorities to activate the coverage of the Starlink network up to Sevastopol. So to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

But Musk decided against it because, according to Isaacson, he “probably rightly thought it would start a big war.” There it was again: the diffuse fear of Putin’s atomic bomb and a world war.

According to this account and currently available information, Musk did not actively stop the Ukrainian missile attack, but rather prevented it through inaction. This did not change the tragic consequences – namely the continuation of Russian rocket terror against the Ukrainian civilian population. At least not for now.

The attack that belies Putin and makes Musk look stupid

The Russian escalation narrative that has been circulating since the invasion in February 2022 has been repeatedly debunked. Most recently on Tuesday of this week. There was a successful missile attack by Ukrainian forces on a Russian naval base in Crimea.

Anne Applebaum summarized it:

On Musk’s online platform

What remained after the rocket attack and the burning Russian military facilities were signs of a massive military escalation on Putin’s part.

When Putin declared the formal annexation of parts of eastern Ukraine in October 2022, he indicated that an attack on the seized territory would be treated as an attack on Russia in violation of international law. This was believed to mean the Kremlin could respond with a nuclear strike.

There it was again, the diffuse fear. And so back to the facts…

In fact, observers recall that there have been several attacks on Russian military vessels since the Sevastopol incident described by Isaacson. This included a naval drone attack in October 2022, which also did not provoke a massive Russian response.

Ukraine continued to attack the territory and even retook some of it from Russia without provoking the nuclear response threatened by Putin, Business Insider notes in a recent report. Even Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory would not have caused a massive escalation.

For critics, Musk is one of the most successful targets of Russian propaganda and fear-mongering. Nicholas Grossman, professor of international relations at the University of Illinois, stated via online platform

How Musk became Xi Jinping’s useful idiot

In recent days, Musk has again commented on Starlink in the Ukraine war, but has not helped clarify outstanding questions. On the contrary, his contradictory statements are likely to strengthen critical voices calling for an official US investigation.

Musk now tried to blame the Biden administration for the Starlink debacle. US sanctions against Russia ensured that satellite links near Crimea could not be used for a Ukrainian military operation without permission from the US president, he explained this week at the ‘All-In Summit’ in Los Angeles.

And then the Starlink boss caused new irritation with pro-China statements. During the online lecture, he claimed that Taiwan was “an integral part of China.” The American tech billionaire supported a narrative that only benefits Beijing.

Taiwan is “not for sale,” the island’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, replied in an X-Posting on Thursday evening. And he reminded Musk that the Chinese government has blocked X, as well as other major Western social media platforms and media outlets.

Maybe Musk thinks the X ban is good policy, like shutting down Starlink to thwart Ukraine’s retaliation against Russia, Wu scoffed.

This is not the first time Musk has angered Taiwan, Reuters news agency notes, recalling that the American entrepreneur runs a large Tesla factory in Shanghai. Last October, Musk suggested that tensions between China and Taiwan could be resolved by Taiwan giving the Chinese some control over the island.

And we remember Musk’s “swear” that Ukraine could cede the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, occupied by Russian troops. An absurd suggestion from a Ukrainian perspective: why should one give up part of one’s own national territory to the neighbor who terrorizes the civilian population, has children kidnapped and threatens to destroy them? Moreover, this would set a dangerous precedent for the entire world: it would send a message to all despots that military incursions and land theft are worth it.

And so back to Ukraine…

Fear: China could decide the drone war

The Ukrainian daily ‘The Kiev Independent’ published an illuminating article this week about the ‘deadly drone arms race’ with Russia.

It says:

Then the report is worth reading (see Resources) Warning notes were sounded: Ukraine’s military and state defense industry are not doing enough to support the domestic drone industry.

The alarming conclusion is partly based on conversations that journalists had at the front. But you also spoke to leading Ukrainian manufacturers.

The responsibility for Ukraine’s success in drone warfare lies largely with volunteers and private companies, the report said. However, the actors face an uphill battle “to keep pace with Russia’s centralized military machine.”

Independently of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the drones from private manufacturers are purchased directly from the combat units at the front, it is said. This is made possible through voluntary fundraising campaigns. Special mention is made of the Adam Tactical Group, a Ukrainian special forces unit that promotes the use of cheap quadcopters as improvised precision weapons.

The broad role of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on both sides of Russia’s war against Ukraine ranges from simple reconnaissance to long-range strikes deep into the enemy’s rear.

The journalists spoke to a 52-year-old drone technician from the Adam Group named Vitalii. And this expert on the new war apparatus finds clear words: it is China that worries him most.

Chinese manufacturer DJI – which not only dominates the global civilian drone market but also produces the aircraft most commonly used in wars – says it has halted sales to both Ukraine and Russia. Nevertheless, a July investigation by Politico found that drones worth more than $100 million had already flown directly from China to Russia, largely through private companies linked to both countries.

More than the hardware imbalance, Vitalii fears that Beijing could soon take out Ukraine’s massive fleet of DJI drones by blocking the accounts needed to operate them.

Sources