“Russian roots” of Elon Mask: why he breathes unevenly towards Russia
The billionaire’s friend knows Russian thanks to her Ukrainian grandmother
American billionaire Elon Musk, speaking on Friday at the Russian educational marathon “New Knowledge”, supported the strengthening of the dialogue between the United States and Russia, confessed his love for Tsiolkovsky and announced the possibility of building a Tesla plant in our country. Where does the head of Space X have an interest in our country – let’s try to figure it out.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk tweeted an invitation to Vladimir Putin to join him on the Clubhouse social network and talk. The Kremlin expressed interest in the entrepreneur’s initiative, but, as far as is known, that was the end of it.
Meanwhile, for several years, Elon Musk has been pleasing the Russian-speaking part of the Internet with tweets in Russian. And this despite the fact that Russians were not seen in Musk’s South African and Canadian relatives.
In the year before last, a businessman-inventor, to the words of one of the users about whether he is mastering space in order to bring aliens to Earth, answered in Russian with a question to the question: “Where are the aliens?”
When another user shared his opinion that aliens on Mars live underground, Musk responded with the Russian phrase: “This is where the dog is buried.”
And Elon commented succinctly on the remark of another of his subscribers: “They say that chickens are milked.” Commenting on the publication about the old Lada model, Elon Musk also wrote in Russian: “Ha-ha, awesome.”
Even the American ex-Minister of Labor Robert Reich, Musk “ran over” in Russian too, calling him a “boring idiot” – after Reich reacted to an article in The Washington Post, which spoke of Musk’s threats to move production from California to Texas and Nevada, as Alameda County authorities banned companies from operating due to coronavirus restrictions.
But what is Musk himself – even his girlfriend, the Canadian singer Grimes, congratulating Ilona on his birthday, left a comment in Russian “My demon, happy birthday” under her Instagram post – accompanied by an emoji in the form of a black heart and flying saucer.
Social media users even suggested that Russian hackers must have infiltrated Grimes’ brain. However, with Grimes, everything is more or less clear: in an interview with Exberliner in 2012, she said that she spent her childhood with her Ukrainian grandmother, who, of course, knew the Russian language and instilled in her love for Dostoevsky, Bulgakov and Nabokov.
And, as they say, she consolidated knowledge in the language of Pushkin and Tolstoy at the university. The same Grimes even released her album Visions with a cover with a quote from Anna Karenina.
Musk’s interest in Russia is largely due to his respect for our country’s contribution to space exploration. It is no coincidence that he quoted Konstantin Tsiolkovsky at the educational marathon, whom he calls one of the founding fathers of space engineering. Of course, Musk also admires Yuri Gagarin. He also highly appreciated Sergei Korolev, whom Elon called “the best”.
But, of course, the American billionaire sees the Russian space industry as a competitor for his extraterrestrial projects – and a competitor needs an eye and an eye. In the end, a competitor – like an enemy – must be known by sight …
However, in the rather distant past, invisible threads stretched between Mask and Russia. In the early 2000s, young and not as famous as now, Elon Musk came to Russia with the intention of buying converted ICBMs, in which he was going to launch mice to Mars.
According to the biography of the billionaire, written by journalist Ashley Vance, Musk did not bargain with Russian partners, who did not take him seriously, and flew home without missiles. And as if on the way from Russia, he decided to build missiles on his own.