Russian President Vladimir Putin called EspaceX CEO Elon Musk is a “genius,” as he revealed the two were in “close contact” to develop a Russian alternative to Starlink.
“Elon Musk is a genius, truly a genius,” Putin said Wednesday at the Russia-Africa summit in Moscow. “It has already had more than 5,000 such satellites in orbit, while we are still in the early stages,” he said at an event where he discussed Russia’s satellite connectivity project, Rassvet.
Rassvet is a low-Earth orbit satellite internet constellation, built by private Russian aerospace company Bureau 1440. It currently has 31 satellites in orbit, out of 32 launched since March this year, according to satellite tracker Orbital Radar. Twenty-six are in their working orbit at approximately 509 kilometers.
“We are proud that we started doing it and started doing it independently,” Putin said according to a translation. “We are in close contact with our American partners, including Mr. Musk.”
“In orbit, it is very important not to interfere with each other and to respect certain rules, disciplines and orders. We and our American partners value this mutual understanding. With Mr. Musk, despite all political issues, we continue to work closely.”
SpaceX, which owns Starlink, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
Starlink operates a constellation of more than 11,000 satellites in orbit, providing high-speed Internet access to 174 countries, according to the company.
The service gained attention earlier this month after Ukraine accused SpaceX and Musk of imposing restrictions that slowed the country’s military satellite internet access, harming its defensive capabilities.
The restrictions affected Starshield, SpaceX’s satellite communications service for governments, causing connectivity to drones and other terminals moving above about 100 miles per hour to be lost or degraded, according to Ukrainian officials.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the restricted service of disrupting its air defense capabilities during frequent Russian air attacks.
Musk said Starshield was controlled by the US government, and ultimately the president, while other reports indicated the restriction was imposed by Musk. US President Donald Trump has denied ordering the restriction.
The White House and SpaceX did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on whether the service had been limited and where such an order came from.
Musk later said Ukraine violated Starlink’s terms of service by using a civilian commercial network for offensive drone strikes. Ukraine has denied doing so.
Putin’s remarks Wednesday evening come amid continued strikes between Russia and Ukraine as the war draws closer to five years.
On Thursday morning, 13 people were killed and 10 injured in a Russian jet drone attack on a railway station in Dnipro, eastern Ukraine, according to regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha.
Russia also attacked Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, damaging an educational institution, the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, wrote on Telegram, while the Russian Defense Ministry said it intercepted and destroyed 1,214 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles overnight.
Peace talks between Putin, Zelensky and Trump, brokered by the United States, could take place next month.
Zelensky said on Wednesday that preparations were underway for a trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi, which is expected to take place by November 10.
Moscow has not yet proposed a specific date for the negotiations, which will depend on several factors, including the war in Iran, Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s foreign policy adviser, said on Wednesday.
“It will also depend on the situation on the battlefield and the situation in general. You can see the current situation in the Middle East. This simply does not allow us to hold the conflict in the near future. This is my assumption,” Ushakov told reporters, Reuters reported, citing Russian media.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
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