The president of Russia, praised on Wednesday (16) the billionaire, comparing him to Sergei Korolev, the chief engineer behind the spatial success of the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s, said state news agency Tass.
Tass cited Putin, who talked about Russia’s space policy at a meeting with students, saying, “You know, there is a person who lives in the United States, it can be said that they are absolutely crazy about Mars.”
He was quoted making a comparison between Musk and Sergei Korolev, a Soviet engineer who was fundamental to the success of the Soviet Union by sending Yuri Gagarin on the first manned space flight in history in 1961.
“These people rarely appear in the human population, loaded with a certain idea. Although it may seem amazing today, after a while, such ideas often come true,” Putin said, according to Tass.
Putin had already praised Musk, whose commercial interests include Spacex space technology company as “an extraordinary person.”
One of US President Donald Trump’s top counselors, Musk has become increasingly critical of Ukraine, who has been fighting Russia since 2022, when Kremlin ordered to send tens of thousands of troops to neighboring territory.
