Elon Musk called a genius by Putin as Russia rolls out Starlink rival

Putin praised Musk as he acknowledged Russia is beginning to roll out its ‌answer to his Starlink satellite internet system.According Reuters news agency, the admission was all the more striking because a version of Starlink, developed by Musk's SpaceX, has been used by Ukraine's military throughout the war with Russia as a key component of drone operations and battlefield communications.Putin made the remark while listening to a presentation by Digital….

Elon Musk is a genius, he's just a real genius," said Putin, who was accompanied by a group of African leaders attending a summit in Moscow.Shadayev said in reply to a question from Putin that Musk had more than 5,000 low-orbit satellites up and running — although the actual number is close to 10,000, according to independent tracking site Orbital Radar."Over 5,000 — while we are only taking our first….

But we are proud that we have begun to do this, and started to do it independently," Putin said, adding that the task now was "to move from quality to quantity"."We ‌are in ⁠close contact with our American partners, including Mr Musk, because it is very important, in orbit, not to get in each other's way and to maintain a certain level of discipline and order," he said.

Elon Musk called a genius by Putin as Russia rolls out Starlink rival October 28, 2026.