Qatar tribune dpa Berlin Tesla boss Elon Musk has adamantly denied gifting Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov a Cybertruck, after the ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin posted a video of himself in the vehicle with a machine gun mounted to the top. “Are you seriously so retarded that you think I donated a Cybertruck to a Russian general?” Musk wrote on his social media platform X late Sunday. He was replying to a post by US author and journalist Seth Abramson.
“Yet another example of how much the legacy media lies,” Musk continued. The leader of Russia’s semi-autonomous republic of Chechnya in the northern Caucasus, who is subject to Western sanctions, claimed that he had received the luxury Tesla truck from Musk. “A truly invulnerable and fast animal,” Kadyrov said in a Telegram post at the weekend, which also featured a video.
In the footage, Kadyrov drives around the Chechen capital Grozny in the boxy silver vehicle, which was fitted with a gun turret. The 47-year-old then poses by the gun mounted on top of the car wearing ammunition belts across his shoulders and over his chest. Civil rights activists accuse the ardent supporter of Putin of murdering political opponents, torturing prisoners and kidnapping.
Kadyrov fills public offices with relatives and, with the tacit approval of the Kremlin, repeatedly and brazenly violates laws. The video is another sign that the rich and influential in Russia are continuing to obtain luxury goods that are not allowed.