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Tesla Cybertruck might enter the war in Russia and Ukraine on the Russian side, as the leader of the Chechen region got one and put a machine gun on it.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechen region, has one of the worst modern human records as the defacto dictator of Chechnya for the past two decades. He has been directly implicated in countless torture and murders.
But he loves Elon Musk and the Tesla Cybertruck.
In messages on Telegram, Kadyrov shared images of himself driving a Cybertruck on which he had a machine gun installed:
As you can see above, the Chechen leader thanked Elon Musk for the Cybertruck, which some are taking as him saying that Musk gave him the truck, but that’s unlikely as it would circumvent sanctions against Russia and Kadyrov.
It’s more likely that he is thanking Musk for “creating” the Cybertruck.
Top comment by Dave Cundiff
Chadyrov's wording suggests that he expects some advantage from flattering Musk. Unfortunately, he might be right.
The goal is to induce Musk to leverage his economic, political, and legal power on Russia's side, or at least to move him to a more explicit neutrality than he showed early in the war.
It appears to me that our USA is strongest when it stands for freedom everywhere. In this case, that means strong support for Ukraine.
Unfortunately, Chadyrov thinks he can sway Musk. Even more unfortunately, I fear that maybe he can.
However, according to his messages on Telegram, what is clear is that Kadyrov believes Musk is the “strongest genius of modern times,” and he claims that the Cybertruck will be used in a “special military operation,” which is what Russia is calling its invasion of Ukraine.
The Chechen leader also invited Musk to come to Chechnya.
Earlier this year, we reported on two Cybertrucks that were stopped at Lithuanian customs due to suspicions that they were going to Russia.
We later heard from a source that the Cybertrucks ended up making it past the Lithuanian customs and made it to Russia, but we couldn’t confirm it. It’s unclear if Kadyrov got one of them or if these are different Cybertrucks.
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