Top Russian officials are rallying around Tesla CEO Elon Musk following his commentary Monday that Ukraine should be “neutral” as Russia continues to wage war in the country.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said that Musk should be given an award for his comments.
“Musk did well, by the way. He’s worthy of being awarded with a new officer rank out of order,” Medvedev said.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said that he was glad Musk was proposing this peace deal.
“In fact, it is very positive that a person like Elon Musk is looking for a peaceful way out of the crisis,” Peskov said, adding that the proposals “deserve attention.”
Moscow’s applause for Musk comes just hours after he set off a firestorm on Twitter when he posted a poll asking if his followers agreed that Ukraine should be “neutral” and that Crimea—which Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014—should be given to Russia. Crimea, though, is considered a part of Ukraine, and world leaders have declared the referenda that took place there in 2014 illegitimate.
Several of Musk’s proposals for a supposed peace deal parrot demands that Russia had made earlier in the war. Those talks disintegrated as Ukrainians gained momentum in the conflict.
Peskov said that world leaders and Ukrainian officials would do well to listen to Musk on how to end the war.
“Achieving peace without fulfilling Russia's conditions is absolutely impossible,” Peskov said.
Ukrainian officials lambasted Musk for falling in line with the Kremlin and for echoing information operations aimed to influence public opinion on the war.
“Even the best of us can fall victims to misinformation,” Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States said.
Russia has been conducting influence operations aimed at undermining western support for Ukraine in the war for months now, as The Daily Beast first reported in June. Russian state media and proxies have been circulating information that appears aimed at diluting support for Ukraine, according to an intelligence bulletin from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.
Just this week, senior FBI officials said Russia has continued to try to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Ukraine is a very hot topic for the Russian government… the messaging themes in their influence operations mirror a lot of what we’re seeing from official channels,” one official said.
Musk himself has attempted to smooth over his comments, which came across as support for Moscow’s goals in the war. Musk sought to reassure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in particular that he still supports Ukraine.
“I still very much support Ukraine, but am convinced that massive escalation of the war will cause great harm to Ukraine and possibly the world,” Musk said in reply to a tweet Zelensky posted, asking his followers if they preferred a Musk supportive of Russia or Ukraine.
For now, any potential peace settlements don’t appear to be on the table. Ukrainian officials have said that Kyiv will not agree to give up any territory to Russia, and Zelensky reiterated just last week that any negotiation Ukraine participates in must be about “coexistence on equal, honest, dignified, and fair terms.”
