Elon Musk’s Ukraine proposal delights the Kremlin Dmitry Medvedev thinks he might even be ‘worthy of a promotion’
On October 3, Elon Musk outlined a four-point proposal for achieving peace in Ukraine. His plan involved concessions to Russia on a scale that Kyiv instantly deemed unacceptable. The Kremlin, on the other hand, responded to Musk’s “initiative” with apparent delight.
Musk’s plan for regulating the current situation in Ukraine consisted of four points, to quote straight from his tweet:
- Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people.
- Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).
- Water supply to Crimea assured.
- Ukraine remains neutral.
Following the tweet proposing these deep concessions to Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s federal Security Council, compared Elon Musk to Shtirlits, the iconic (though fictional) undercover Russian spy. “Well done, Musk, it must be said,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel. “He’s worthy of a promotion to the next officer’s rank. In his next post he might say something like ‘Ukraine is an artificial state’.”
The Russian presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin has “noticed that Musk’s initiative made many lose sleep in Europe, in Ukraine, in Poland, and in the Baltic republics.” Peskov also attributed the results of the poll, organized by Musk on Twitter, to an influx of “bots.”
“It’s actually quite positive that someone like Elon Musk should look for a path towards peacefully resolving the situation,” Peskov said. “Unlike professional diplomats,” he went on,
Musk tries to find a way towards reaching peace. And reaching peace is completely impossible without meeting Russia’s conditions. Many [of Musk’s] ideas deserve attention. With regard to the referendums, the residents have already expressed their opinion.
Sergey Tsekov, the Russian senator representing the annexed Crimea, called Musk’s idea of new referendums “utopian.” Nevertheless, he thinks it “fine” that Musk “unequivocally recognizes the Crimea as a Russian region.”
Dmitry Rogozin, the former director of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, guessed that Musk’s statements on Ukraine were prompted by the fact that the Russian astronaut Anna Kikina is slated to be on the SpaceX’s Oct. 5 Crew Dragon flight. “That’s what a Russian woman has done to the American.”
Earlier, Musk’s proposal provoked a wave of internet criticism.
Follow Meduza in English on Twitter to stay up to date.