Elon Musk Spoke to Putin Before Tweeting Ukraine Peace Plan | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk Spoke to Putin Before Tweeting Ukraine Peace Plan

vice.com

52 pointstosh26 comments

EM has denied the article. In a tweet : [..]No, it is not. I have spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago. The subject matter was space.[..]

> According to Bremmer, Musk said Putin told him these goals would be accomplished “no matter what,” including the potential of a nuclear strike if Ukraine invaded Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Bremmer wrote that Musk told him that “everything needed to be done to avoid that outcome.”

"He said that this guy said that this other guy said..."

I don't have access to Bremmer's article, but it looks like he called up Elon on the phone, and Elon was referring to that much previous conversation and Bremmer jumped to the conclusion that it was more recent than it was.

UPD: Ian Bremer just tweeted:

> elon musk told me he had spoken with putin and the kremlin directly about ukraine. he also told me what the kremlin’s red lines were.[0]

[0] https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1579941475613229056

Elon has a huge conflict of interest here.

Much of the supply chain for Tesla (and EVs in general) are sourced through Russia. Lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt. Even second order resources like neon (used for lasers and chip manufacturing).

His businesses need Russia to stay afloat in the medium-term.

> Much of the supply chain for Tesla (and EVs in general) are sourced through Russia. Lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt.

This is simply false. Russia is not a major exporter of any of those, Lithium especially.

You could make that argument about China maybe because they're involved in the refinement chain, but certainly not Russia.

A few seconds on OEC world would show how off you are.

Cobalt ore: https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/show/all...

Lithium carbonates: https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/show/all...

Nickel ore: https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/show/all...

Copper ore: https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/show/all...

Thread: https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1580000350626799616

If that's true, it's more or less treason. If not literally so, it puts his judgement into even greater doubt.

As a solution to problems like this I propose the US Snowden them. That is, put Trump and Musk on a flight to Moscow and revoke their US passports while in-flight.

So Elon is actively collaborating with regime hostile to the Western nations? Wow, what a journey from ignorant tech bro fool to a treason.

IANAL but a potential violation of 18 U.S. Code §953 and maybe even Section 612(a) of FARA too? Did he not even bother consulting an attorney before attempting to barter international "peace" deals?

Edit:

18 U.S. Code §953 Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

FARA 612(a) mandates that anyone acting on the behalf of or advocating for a foreign government must register with the feds. Michael Flynn had been nailed on this one.

A few days ago SpaceX rocket sent a Russian astronaut to ISS along with three other.

What does that tell you? It tells me that someone had to collaborate.

Has Elon's plan been taken seriously by anyone or has it been dismissed because wanting to have war with Russia seems to be The Thing right now?

18 U.S. Code § 953 - Private correspondence with foreign governments

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/953

... aka the Logan Act.[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act

The diplomats in question have a wide range of options available to them including "Elon's plan". however, they are much wiser and more experienced than him, and rightfully ignore him. It wasn't his plan (obviously) and the consequences of following his suggestions would be dire.

In general, appeasing Putin hasn't worked out particularly well for Ukraine (see, for instance, Crimea), so I'm not sure what would make them think that it was a good idea now.

The Ukrainian government will presumably be relying on expert advice, rather than weird car manufacturers, here.

Based on the presence of the... unusual phrase "Khrushchev's mistake", I'd assume it isn't _his_ plan, anyway; it's something he read on the internet and is regurgitating.

Probably not because there's no reason to think Russia is being serious.

Russia's non-negotiable tiny footnote in all of their peace proposals so far has been to take control of the security policy of every surrounding country. Giving them parts of Ukraine and then letting them re-establish the USSR seems like something that will never happen.

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