Russian President Putin Praises Musk as a "True Genius"

October 28 — At the Russia-Africa summit held in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Elon Musk as a "true genius" and highlighted SpaceX's achievements in the field of satellite communications. Putin said Russia is maintaining contact with Musk and has begun deploying its domestic satellite network "Rassvet," which is intended to replace SpaceX's Starlink project. He acknowledged that Russia still lags far behind SpaceX in satellite communications, as the latter has already launched thousands of satellites into orbit.