Earlier this month, excerpts from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk revealed that the billionaire tech founder had thwarted a planned Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Black Sea fleet. The incident in question, which occurred in September 2022, involved Musk denying Starlink internet access to a fleet of Ukrainian unmanned water vehicles that had been deployed to strike the Russian naval base at Sevastopol in occupied Crimea.
Musk was reportedly motivated by fears that the operation would prompt Moscow to “escalate” its war against Ukraine by proposing a nuclear response.
Musk was wrong about the location of this particular Kremlin “red line.” In October 2022, a month after its explosives-laden boat safely ran aground on the coast of Crimea due to a lack of Starlink connectivity, Ukraine managed to carry out a successful strike, damaging up to to four Russian warships. Then, just last week, a new attack on the naval base caused even more damage to the Russian fleet.
Unsurprisingly, Moscow’s response has not been to wipe kyiv – much less London or Washington – from the face of the Earth. Instead, as it has done every time one of its so-called “red lines” has been crossed, Moscow has proven its nuclear bluster to be just that: a bluff.
But it is important to note that these repeated bluffs should not be taken as proof that Russia does not have a nuclear “red line”, but simply that every point of no return raised so far in the conflict is It turned out to be a Kremlin deception.
Yes, Elon Musk fell for a false Kremlin propaganda narrative. However, he has plenty of company around the world. At different times, countless citizens of civilized countries have fallen for one or another of the Kremlin’s deceptions, including, among others, these claims: that the United States surrounded Russia with a network of biological and chemical weapons facilities operating in the guise of public health institutes; that Putin was so informationally isolated on February 24, 2022 that he sincerely believed that Ukrainian IT workers would greet Russian tank crews like liberators on the streets of kyiv.
Let anyone who has never been fooled by a false Kremlin propaganda narrative throw the first rhetorical stone at Elon.
USA News Gb2
