Elon Musk is a “real genius”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, revealing that the two are in “close” contact about satellite technology.
The remarks came at the Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow, where Putin was discussing Rassvet, Russia’s own satellite internet project, which provides internet connections from orbit.
“He’s a genius, a real genius,” Putin said of Musk, according to a BBC translation. “We are in close contact with our American partners, including Mr. Musk.” Starlink is part of Musk’s company SpaceX, which did not respond to a request for comment.
The stated reason is technical
Putin said it was important for Russia to be in contact with Musk so that Rassvet and Starlink satellites do not “interfere with each other in orbit”.
“We and our American partners value this mutually, and despite all the political questions, we are working hard,” he said.
Orbital coordination is a real requirement and not a diplomatic fiction. Satellites in low Earth orbit cross paths constantly, and avoiding collisions needs operators to share position and manoeuvre data regardless of what their governments think of each other. It is one of the few areas where cooperation survives political breakdown, because the alternative is debris that ruins the orbit for both sides.
But the two systems are not comparable
Starlink has launched roughly 13,000 satellites, according to the company. Rassvet has only a couple of dozen in orbit, according to online satellite trackers.
The Russian Embassy in South Africa called Rassvet “Russia’s Starlink alternative”, adding that it “marks only the country’s first steps in this field”, and that “Russia maintains close contacts with the US on space, including with Elon Musk”.
That framing is worth reading carefully. A constellation of two dozen satellites does not provide continuous global coverage — it provides intermittent passes. Describing it as an alternative to a 13,000-satellite network is a statement of intent, not of capability, and the embassy’s own “first steps” phrasing concedes as much.
The context the quotes sit in
Putin’s comments came as the US and Russia appear to be growing closer, nearly five years into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine relied on Starlink to keep Russian forces at bay. But last week its military suddenly suffered Starlink connectivity problems — something Musk has admitted SpaceX did intentionally. We reported this month on how exposed that dependence is: Ukraine cannot replace Starlink, and Europe will not have an answer for years.
Alongside that, US President Donald Trump said earlier this month he had struck a deal with Russia to import diesel, to lower petrol prices that rose sharply because of the US war with Iran. He then waived certain sanctions against Russia that were due to take effect. Not long after, a US citizen was released from Russian custody, with US envoy Steve Witkoff referring to Putin as a “humanitarian”.
Why this is a technology story, not just a political one
Because of who is being praised, and for what.
Musk was born in South Africa, immigrated to Canada and settled in the US. All his ventures — Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink — are American companies, most operating out of California and Texas. He has been one of the biggest political allies and financiers of Trump and other Republican politicians.
So a head of state at war with a Starlink-dependent neighbour is publicly praising the private individual who controls that network, days after that individual acknowledged restricting it. Whatever else it is, it is a demonstration that satellite internet is now infrastructure operated at the discretion of a company rather than a treaty.
That is the part with consequences for everyone else. Countries contracting for satellite coverage — Bangladesh among them, with Banglalink switching on Starlink direct-to-cell — are buying from a network whose availability has been shown to be adjustable, and whose owner holds conversations like this one.
The practical question for any government signing such a contract is not whether the service works. It is what the contract says happens if somebody decides it should stop working, and who that somebody is.
