Putin's comments come after Musk said last week that he refused an emergency request by Ukraine to extend coverage of Starlink satellites to Crimea.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday praised Elon Musk, calling the Tesla and SpaceX founder a “talented businessman.”
  • Putin was discussing Russia’s space program after a failed moon landing last month.
  • His comments come after Musk said last week that he refused an emergency request by the Ukrainian government to extend coverage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to Sevastopol in Crimea.
  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    402·
    1 year ago

    If he actually did tell his company to take an action that effectively contravened official US policy (and it looks like he did), he broke the law. Specifically, 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.

    I am willing to bet that someone in the Ukrainian foreign ministry was aware of this law, and then had some pointed questions for the US State Department on whether or not Elon’s refusal to share intelligence should be taken as an official US position on the matter, and if not, why Elon/SpaceX’s behavior is effectively contradicting official US policy.

    This should get interesting, and it could put Elon in some real legal jeopardy on a matter that the US tends to not fuck around with.

    • Evie @lemmy.worldEnglish
      91·
      1 year ago

      I am praying so! I have my popcorn ready and I can’t afford to waste it. Lmao

      But seriously, I really do want to see some Justice here. He is one man, a private citizen who directly involved himself in foreign affairs and I would believe, he technically committed an act of war by aiding and abetting Russia.

    • extant@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      When it happened there was public outcry and as I recall the excuse given was that he had given them Starlink to assist in recovery efforts which is fine. When they started strapping it onto weapons that moved from providing aid to providing weapons to a foreign nation whom at the time was authorized to receive weapons and Starlink isn’t an authorized weapons dealer to begin with. So it was shut down as a knee jerk reaction to avoid penalty US arms dealing penalties.

      Mind you this is just from my imperfect memory and only hearsay at that, I honestly don’t know why six out of every ten articles are about this guy.

    • DarthBueller@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      1 year ago

      Violating the Logan Act is a felony, but since 1799 there have been precisely two indictments and zero convictions.