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Elon Musk (2019): »I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to a man-to-man fight«
Photo: Frederic J. Brown/ AFP
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a duel.
It should be about nothing less than the fate of Ukraine.
“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to a man-to-man fight.
The mission is Ukraine,” tweeted the 50-year-old Tesla founder.
Musk wrote the name of the Russian President in Russian and the name of Ukraine in Ukrainian.
The rest of the tweet is in English.
In a second message, Musk added in Russian: "Are you taking on this fight?" He tweeted this directly to the 69-year-old leader's official English-language Twitter account.
He's "absolutely serious," Musk continued, after one of his 77.8 million followers asked if he'd really considered the challenge.
“If Putin could humiliate the West so easily, he would accept the challenge.
But he won't,' he added.
So far, there has been no reaction from the Kremlin.
This is how Ramzan Kadyrov reacted to Musk's tweet
Instead, Putin's ally and ruler in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, got involved.
On the Internet service Telegram he wrote to Musk: "I would not advise you to measure your strength with Putin." And further: "Your weight classes are too different."
Kadyrov is the official president of the autonomous republic of Chechnya and is considered a close confidant of Putin.
He is often referred to as his "bloodhound".
With Kadyrov's help - and thanks to the support of his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was killed in a terrorist attack in 2004 - Putin won the Chechen war.
Kadyrov claimed in a video on Monday night that he had traveled to Ukraine to fight.
Elon Musk, the eccentric billionaire and founder of the aerospace company SpaceX, has already provided massive support to Ukraine: He responded to a request from Kyiv by activating his Starlink internet service in Ukraine and sending devices to areas hit by Russian military attacks to provide internet.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Musk for his support.
aar/AFP
