https://news.yahoo.com/why-elon-musk-repeating-putin-173534008.html
Fortune
Why is Elon Musk repeating a Putin talking point? The Russia expert who
testified in Donald Trump’s impeachment says the world’s richest man is
‘transmitting’ Russian messages
Tristan Bove
Mon, October 17, 2022 at 10:35 AM
Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is not going to plan, and the Russian
president may be enlisting the help of the world’s richest man to see
the conflict end on his terms.
Earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared his opinion on how the
Ukraine War could end. In a tweet, he argued that recent elections in
the Russian-annexed regions of eastern Ukraine that were widely
described as a sham should be redone with international oversight, and
that Ukraine should permanently cede ownership of the Crimean Peninsula,
a territory that Russia forcibly absorbed in 2014.
Musk’s proposal was condemned by Ukrainian diplomats and Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who implied Musk’s stance was pro-Russia.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, was more forgiving of Musk, with government
spokesman Dmitry Peskov later saying it was “very positive that such a
person as Elon Musk is trying to look for a peaceful settlement.”
But Musk’s formula for peace in Ukraine, and other comments the
billionaire has made in recent months, may be part of a larger ploy by
Putin to have his terms known to the international community, according
to Fiona Hill, a top Russia diplomat during the Trump administration.
“It’s very clear that Elon Musk is transmitting a message for Putin,”
Hill said in an interview with Politico published on Monday.
“Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play
a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages
from Vladimir Putin.”
Musk’s role in Ukraine
Musk has played an active role in the Ukraine War so far, receiving
plaudits from the international community after his company, SpaceX,
delivered Starlink internet terminals to Ukraine shortly after the war
began. The satellite internet access has proved invaluable to the
Ukrainian military.
Musk has since gotten himself into hot water over Ukraine, however. He
reportedly asked the Pentagon last week to foot the Starlink bill in
Ukraine, saying it was “unreasonable” to expect SpaceX to continue
covering most of the cost of the internet service.
Musk appeared to have changed his mind by the next day. “The hell with
it,” he wrote on Twitter, announcing that SpaceX would continue to do
“good deeds” while operating on a loss in Ukraine.
But with his recent statements and peace formula for Ukraine, Musk’s new
role in the war may be as one of Putin’s “intermediaries,” according to
Hill.
“This is a classic Putin play,” Hill said. “Putin does this frequently.
He uses prominent people as intermediaries to feel out the general
political environment, to basically test how people are going to react
to ideas.”
In his proposed peace plan, Musk wrote that water supply to Crimea must
be assured in any resolution. The Crimean Peninsula has no major rivers
and relies on water supply from the currently annexed Kherson region to
the north, Hill explained, a point so obscure it suggests Musk may be
speaking for Putin.
“It’s unlikely Elon Musk knows about this himself. The reference to
water is so specific that this clearly is a message from Putin,” she said.
Hill referenced an instance from last month, when Musk proposed the same
peace plan to attendees at a festival in Aspen, as further evidence of
his connection to Putin. At the festival, Musk argued that the eastern
provinces of Ukraine could become “quasi-independent” republics and
permit water supply to keep flowing to Crimea, CNN reported from
attendee testimonies. One attendee reportedly said it was “clear” that
Musk had been in communication with the Kremlin, based on his statements.
Last week, Ian Bremmer, a political scientist and founder of research
firm Eurasia Group, alleged in a tweet that Musk had spoken with him
directly about his conversations with Putin over the fate of Ukraine and
what Putin’s terms for peace would be. Bremmer did not say when the
reported conversation had taken place.
Musk has yet to respond to Hill’s accusation that he is repeating
Putin’s talking points, but in response to a tweet referencing Bremmer’s
allegations, Musk denied the claims, saying he has not spoken to Putin
in 18 months.
Putin’s playbook
Putin may be eager to find alternative avenues to end the war on his own
terms as the conflict has so far not been going well for him, according
to Hill. The war is now entering its eighth month, and Ukrainian forces
have made steady progress in reclaiming Russian-annexed land in the east
of the country.
The prospect of a drawn-out engagement has pushed Putin to authorize the
mobilization of hundreds of thousands of additional troops, and the
Russian president has not shied away from making nuclear threats either.
Enlisting the help of Musk and more threats of escalation may be an
essential part of Putin’s playbook at this stage of the conflict,
according to Hill.
“Putin is obviously hoping that now, with all of the nuclear
saber-rattling, threats of nuclear Armageddon, deploying Elon Musk and
others to convey his messages, that basically he can take the territory
that he’s got and get recognition of that,” she said.
AND
https://news.yahoo.com/billionaire-investor-bill-ackman-joins-175616088.html
Fortune
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman joins Elon Musk calling for a Ukraine
cease-fire that includes major concessions to Russia
Christiaan Hetzner
Mon, October 17, 2022 at 10:56 AM
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has joined industrialist Elon Musk in
openly saying that Ukraine should surrender any claims over Crimea in
exchange for an end to hostilities with Russia.
The Pershing Square hedge fund manager is the latest wealthy businessman
to favor a cease-fire, urging U.S. military support continue only so
long as Ukraine needs to return its borders to what they were prior to
the invasion in February—but after Russia's annexation of Crimea eight
years ago.
“If we return to the status quo ex ante [sic] 2/24, Russia is not
rewarded for its aggression and Ukraine can immediately begin to rebuild
with support from the West,” he posted late on Sunday. “Thousands of
lives will be saved and resources can be invested to rebuild Ukraine
rather than in a war that will only lead to more destruction and death.”
https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1581823490021548032?s=20u0026t=5b71yZo5IgK3QSus0sb15Q
Crimea was illegally seized by Putin in 2014 in a move that Russia
claimed was to protect the ethnic Russians that comprised a majority of
its population. Ukraine has never relinquished its claims, and the UN
voted overwhelmingly against recognizing the annexation. The land grab
was a response to the Euromaidan revolution, in which Ukrainians
protested successfully for closer ties with the West rather than Putin’s
Russia.
Ukraine had been in possession of a nuclear deterrent in the immediate
aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union, but the newly independent
country agreed in the early 1990s to surrender its stockpiles in
exchange for security guarantees by Russia.
Musk and venture capitalist David Sacks, a former PayPal senior
executive, have recently been arguing in favor of an end to hostilities
involving Ukraine concessions to major Russian demands.
Sacks argued in a series of tweets on Sunday that the U.S. should
propose an armistice based on the territory that existed before the
Ukraine invasion, and Ukraine should promise not to join NATO.
https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1581738302222217216?s=20u0026t=bKgzsMpsJLuDtdej9tvfpA
Late on Sunday night, Ackman supported Sacks' call that the military
alliance guarantees Ukraine would not be allowed to join.
“Ukraine has proven it can defend itself without NATO membership.
Properly armed it will deter future aggression,” he wrote.
“If there is a viable path to peace, we should pursue it," he added.
Musk's initial "peace" plan was immediately met with backlash when he
posted it on Twitter in early October.
“Which @elonmusk do you like more?” Ukraine's President Zelensky asked
in a Twitter poll similar to the one that Musk posted. "The two choices?
One who supports Ukraine, and one who supports Russia."
Ukraine's former ambassador to Germany was even more blunt.
"F--- off is my very diplomatic reply to you," Andrij Melnyk wrote on
Twitter.
And on Monday, in an interview with Politico, former top U.S. diplomat
Fiona Hill accused Musk of "transmitting a message for Putin," who she
said was adept at playing on the "egos of big men."
'Attack on the western world'
On Monday, Musk reiterated his view that the Crimean peninsula was a red
line for the Kremlin—one for which they would risk mutually assured
nuclear annihilation if need be.
“Crimea *is* seen as a crucial part of Russia by Russia, much as Hawaii
is seen as a crucial part of America,” he wrote. “If Russia is faced
with the choice of losing Crimea or using battlefield nukes they will
choose the latter.”
He posted the tweets in response to an op-ed that Sacks had written for
Newsweek writing about Musk's first much-pilloried tweets earlier this
month. Sacks' essay, published a day after Musk's early October tweets,
is titled: "The Neocons and the Woke Left Are Joining Hands and Leading
Us to Woke War III."
https://twitter.com/genuine_impact/status/1581326457967906816?s=20u0026t=6VUFbnv4BOZtFVxsOKVR-Q
Not all business tycoons were pushing for Ukraine to agree on a
cease-fire with Russia, a country that under Putin has not been a
reliable partner for peace.
The CEO of the world’s most valuable bank, for example, likened the
threat from Russia to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. JPMorgan
Chase’s Jamie Dimon said last week in London liberal democracies need to
prove they can rise to the threat lest they embolden autocratic regimes
like Russia or China.
“It’s really an attack on the Western world,” he said. “If we don’t get
this one right, that kind of chaos you can see around for the next 50
years.”
Putin however, does not appear to be backing down. Instead of paying
talk of a cease-fire any heed, he has mobilized conscriptions and
dispatched tank echelons to Belarus for a possible attack from the north
after Kyiv seized key rail links in the eastern Donbas.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported Putin struck a deal with
pariah state Iran, currently facing its own uprising, to procure cruise
missiles capable of striking targets as far as 700 kilometers away.
