Speaking to students at the Moscow State Technical University, Putin cited Musk’s ambition to send humans to Mars. “There is a man living in the United States—Musk—who dreams of Mars,” he said.
“If today these ideas seem incredible, they often become reality over time, just as the ideas of Korolyov and our pioneers eventually did.”
Korolyov (1907‑1966) spearheaded the development of Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, and the Vostok 1 spacecraft that carried Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961. Putin’s remarks linked Musk, whose company SpaceX leads the private space industry, with that Soviet legacy.
The Russian leader has lauded Musk before, calling him “outstanding” in September 2023 after the entrepreneur acknowledged blocking a Ukrainian request to activate Starlink satellite service over Crimea’s Sevastopol port—thereby thwarting a planned drone strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
At the time, former President Dmitry Medvedev called Musk “the last sane mind in North America.”
Putin’s latest praise comes as Musk, an informal adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, has escalated criticism of Kyiv.
Last month he accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of seeking “endless war,” and in February said Ukraine had gone “too far” in its conflict with Russia.
Trump has similarly charged Zelensky with prolonging the fighting and failing to pursue peace.
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Source: TVP Info, Business Insider