On Saturday, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov posted a video of himself driving a Tesla Cybertruck equipped with a machine gun turret, claiming he received the vehicle from Elon Musk—a boast that the billionaire Tesla CEO mockingly denies.
In the video first shared to Telegram, Kadyrov praised the Cybertruck, calling it the “Cyberbeast” and announcing plans to send it to the front lines in Ukraine, believing it will greatly benefit Russian troops. “Elon, thank you!” Kadyrov wrote. “Come to Grozny, I will receive you as my most dear guest.”
Kadyrov said he received a Tesla Cybertrack from Elon Musk. He promised to send it to the "special military operation" zone and attached a machine gun to it.
"Elon, thank you! Come to Grozny, I will receive you as the most dear guest! I do not think that our Russian MFA will be… pic.twitter.com/m72fg2G2PU
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) August 17, 2024
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While Kadyrov expressed deep admiration for Musk and invited him to visit Chechnya, Musk clearly did not share the Chechen leader’s affection. In response to media reporting on the story, Musk quipped “Are you seriously so retarded that you think I donated a Cybertruck to a Russian general?”
“Yet another example of how much the legacy media lies,” he said.
Yet another example of how much the legacy media lies
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2024
Given Kadyrov’s sanctioned status and Tesla’s absence in the Russian market, it is likely the vehicle was acquired through unofficial channels.
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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