WASHINGTON,
United States — Put up your dukes, Vlad —
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, on Monday challenged Russian President
Vladimir Putin to a fight, with nothing less than the fate of Ukraine, scene of
Moscow’s brutal invasion, at stake.
اضافة اعلان
The eccentric billionaire and founder of
aerospace company
SpaceX took to Twitter, where his messages are notoriously
erratic, to see whether the Russian leader would test his mettle in person
rather than through his country’s forces fighting across the border.
“I hereby challenge
Vladimir Putin to single
combat. Stakes are Ukraine,” said Musk.
“Do you accept this fight?” he added in
Russian, directly addressing the official English-language Twitter account of
the 69-year-old president.
When one of Musk’s 77 million followers wrote
that the Tesla founder might not have thought his challenge through, Musk said
he was “absolutely serious.”
“If Putin could so easily humiliate the west,
then he would accept the challenge. But he will not,” he added.
There was no immediate reaction from the
Kremlin.
The South African-born Musk, 50, had already
offered his support for Kyiv, tweeting “Hold strong Ukraine” this month while
also offering “my sympathies to the great people of Russia, who do not want
this” war.
He also responded to a Kyiv plea by activating
the Starlink internet service in Ukraine and sending equipment to help bring
connectivity to areas hit by Russian military attacks.
Musk often raises eyebrows on Twitter. In February
he accused the US stock market regulator, which had imposed fines and
restrictions on Musk and Tesla, of trying to muzzle his free speech.
And he compared Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in a message supporting opponents of government
COVID-19 restrictions.
He later deleted the post.
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