Ramzan Kadyrov is one of the most loyal leaders of Russian President Vladimir Putin within Russia. Head of the Chechen Republic since 2007, he has become famous in recent years for his peculiar perception of music and for his repression of homosexuals. Now, he has risen to fame again for a peculiar reason: he has a Tesla with a built-in machine gun. Or so he says.
A combat Cybertruck. In mid-August, Reuters published that the head of the Chechen Republic had spread through his Telegram channel several photos and videos where he appeared driving and praising the maneuverability of a Tesla Cybertruck that, he claimed, Elon Musk had given him.
However, this was not a conventional Cybertruck, as it sported a large-caliber machine gun mounted in the rear, making it a military vehicle.
The news reaches X. Anton Gerashchenko, a former advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, echoed Kadyrov’s claims from his X profile, including a video of the president driving his Cybertruck equipped with its deadly accessory on the back.
In his message, the former advisor highlighted that the Chechen leader had promised to send the vehicle to the war zone as support for Russian troops in their offensive and a message addressed to Elon Musk: “Elon, thank you! Come to Grozny, I will receive you as the most beloved guest!”
Tap on the image to go to the original message
Elon denies it. Elon Musk was quick to deny the news by responding to the journalist from The New York Times, Seth Abramson, who had republished Gerashchenko’s message. “Are you seriously so retarded that you think I donated a Cybertruck to a Russian general? This is unbelievable.”
How could a Cybertruck, whose production is still relatively low, get into Kadyrov’s hands? The truth is that we cannot know. He could have acquired it as an individual through intermediaries, later applying the modifications shown in the videos released by the president.
Tap the image to go to the original message in X
What Musk gives you, Musk takes away. In a new episode of this serial that could well pass as a sequel to Mad Max, with post-apocalyptic vehicles mounting impossible weapons, sources of Fortune They claim that the Chechen leader had published on his Telegram account that Elon Musk had remotely deactivated his military Cybertruck.
“Musk remotely disabled the Cybertruck. That’s not a nice thing for Elon Musk to do. He gives expensive gifts from the bottom of his heart and then shuts them down remotely.” According to FortuneKadyrov reportedly posted: “That’s not manly. We had to tow the iron horse. How could you do that, Elon?” Neither Elon Musk nor any other Tesla representative has commented on this accusation.
Combat Cybertrucks. From CNN They suggest that Ramzan Kadyrov would have in his possession three Cybertrucks equipped with machine guns. Two of which would have been sent to support Russian forces. “Two more Cybertrucks have been sent to the SVO (Ukraine) war zone. The remote shutdown did not affect these vehicles. They are operating normally, without any failure. You couldn’t ask for better publicity for the Cybertruck,” they say in CNN which Kadyrov had published.
The enthusiasm about the reliability of the Cybertruck of the Chechen ruler contrasts with the numerous reliability problems that some units of this model are suffering since it went on sale at the end of 2023. The last known failure of the Tesla pick-up is a problem with the accelerator pedal that has caused a recall of almost 4,000 vehicles.
In WorldOfSoftware | The Tesla Cybertruck is synonymous with the anti-European car: for all this it will be very rare to see it in Europe
Image | Unsplash (Somalia Veteran), Wikimedia Commons (tatarstan.ru)
