Elon Musk’s father said Ukraine and its people “really should be part of the Russian Federation” in an interview with a pro-Kremlin newspaper.
Errol Musk spoke to Komsomolskaya Pravda, which has been described by Steve Rosenberg, Russia editor for BBC News, as an ultra pro-Kremlin paper. Musk, who is currently in Russia, said: “I know good people from Ukraine, but I am not a fan of its government.”
“Meeting Ukrainians I noted that they all speak Russian. To me they are all like Russians,” he also said. “I don’t quite get what the problem is,” he continued, “I think that they really should be part of the Russian Federation.”
Russian newspapers, however, also focused on domestic issues, as explained by Rosenberg. Nizhny Novgorod Gazeta said “Vladimir Putin’s domestic approval rating is falling”.
The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, Rosenberg went on saying, reported a new drop in the approval ratings of the Russian authorities, something which is blamed on “the widely unpopular crackdown on the internet,” the newspaper wrote.
The same newspaper also said Putin’s approval rating is 66.7% now, down 1.1% [on the previous week]. But the president’s rating has reportedly been falling for several weeks now.
The Gazeta also said that Russia’s economy minister, Maxim Reshetnikov, asserted that the country’s resources are exhausted.
According to him, “due to the strong Rouble, high interest rates, labour shortages, and budget constraints, reserves in the Russian economy are largely exhausted”. By ‘reserves,’ the paper explained, he meant ‘opportunities for manoeuvring.’
But Komsomolskaya Pravda, however, had a more positive outlook and said “life has become four times more joyous”. The same paper admitted that Russians are now 45 trillion Roubles in loan debt”.
On Monday (April 20), the Ukrainian drone swarm triggered loud explosions the giant oil complex at Tuapse on the Black Sea.
All schools and most kindergarten classes were cancelled today in Tuapse as black smoke from the local Rosneft-owned oil refinery choked the resort town.
The key storage tanks at the Putin export hub appeared to have been destroyed. One man was reported killed in the ferocious attack.
