[Skybird]

FOCUS writes:
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They are two of the most powerful men on this planet. Millions of people care about what they say and do. One sits in Russia, wages a war of aggression against Ukraine and is considered an unpredictable despot.

The other lives in Texas, runs Tesla and is the richest man on earth, with a total fortune of around $200 billion. These two men, Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk, are said to have spoken on the phone recently.

At least that's what the U.S. online magazine " Vice " reports with reference to Ian Bremmer, the head of the political consulting firm Eurasia Group. He claims in a newsletter that Musk told him Putin was "ready for negotiations."

The conversation with the Russian president reportedly took place before Musk shared his "peace plan" for Ukraine on Twitter on Oct. 3. A "peace plan" in which several proposals appear that coincide with the Kremlin's ideas.

These include Ukraine's renunciation of the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia and a neutral status for the country. It was foreseeable that the contribution would provoke criticism.

Especially in Ukraine, the multi-billionaire's tweet did not go down well at all. "The only result is that no Ukrainian will ever buy your ****ing Tesla crap. **** off," rumbled Andrij Melnyk, still ambassador to Germany.

Presidential adviser Mychailo Podolyak put it more diplomatically, saying a "better peace plan" would be the liberation of all Ukrainian territories. Russia would then be completely demilitarized, would have to give up its nuclear weapons and "can no longer threaten anyone."

The Kremlin, on the other hand, welcomed Musk's proposal to end the war. Even if Moscow rejects real referendums in Russian-occupied territories, i.e., one of the core demands.

Musk, meanwhile, denies having coordinated with the Kremlin chief in advance. "I've only talked to Putin once, and that was 18 months ago," he wrote on Twitter. "It was about space travel." In another post, he warned against trusting Bremmer.

Who is telling the truth - Musk or political advisers - is unclear. But the "peace plan" was undoubtedly penned by the Tesla CEO. And regardless of whether he spoke to Putin on the phone beforehand or not, the proposals it contains coincide in many cases with the Kremlin's demands.

For many, it looks as if Musk wants to stab Ukraine in the back and suck up to Russia. After all, his "peace plan" clashes with Ukraine's goals of liberating its entire territory and slipping under the NATO umbrella.

It is also possible that the Tesla boss wants to prevent a nuclear war by any means necessary. In any case, he showed concern on Twitter. On Sunday, he wrote that the danger of a nuclear catastrophe is "rapidly" increasing.

"I lie awake all night thinking about how to de-escalate this war." Moscow had repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons in the past. Musk apparently takes this very seriously, wants to get involved geopolitically.

The heavily wealthy American has been involved in the Ukraine war for some time now anyway. A few days after the Russian invasion began, Musk made his Starlink satellites available to Ukraine.

The reason: Moscow had partially cut off the neighboring country from the Internet through a cyber attack. Musk's technology has since enabled Ukrainian soldiers to communicate securely in battle, control drones and send videos. Frontline fighters say without Starlink, the army would collapse in short order.

True, most of the 20,000 or so wearable receivers are paid for by the West. Still, Musk has control over the Starlink satellites. He can shut them down if he wants. And has thus become a central figure in the Ukraine war.

The consequences that can result if the satellite system fails were demonstrated a few days ago. After Ukraine reported major recaptures, there were disruptions on several front lines, including in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, according to a report in the Financial Times.

According to the report, the front line in the east of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk was also affected by the outages. A Ukrainian government official told the Financial Times that the Starlink problems resulted in a "catastrophic loss of communications."

Exactly why the outages occurred is still unclear. Some military bloggers suggested Musk had struck a deal with Putin, to Ukraine's detriment.

However, the fact that the satellites did not work may also have had completely different causes. For example, experts believe a technical malfunction is possible, or a cyberattack launched by the Russians against Starlink.

Neither SpaceX, Musk's spaceflight company behind Starlink, nor the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense have yet commented on the matter. And the Tesla boss himself has also remained silent. What happens on the battlefield is secret, he wrote on Twitter.
Musk is an entrepreneur, not a politician

In the end, Musk is an entrepreneur, not a politician. He says and does what he thinks is rational. How close his contact with Putin really is cannot be said with certainty. But there are certainly indications that speak against a pact.

What the debate about Musk's "peace plan" tweet ultimately also shows is that the Ukraine war is causing growing unrest among entrepreneurs.

Or as the "Magdeburger Volksstimme" comments, "The war in Eastern Europe is cutting into profits, and considerably so. That's why Musk's move will hardly be resented in business circles, even here in Germany, behind closed doors."
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