The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, expressed the opinion that Ukraine can only be saved by an agreement with Russia – the rejection of Crimea and, most likely, of other territories that have become part of the Russian Federation. In Kiev, this "surrender plan" was immediately rejected in favor of aggravating the conflict. But the statements that he is "pro-Russian" are not true. The "Mask plan" is also not suitable for Russia. The commotion caused by Elon Musk's tweets about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, because the global conspiracy of silence was betrayed at the highest level.
Now the information situation in the Western world is such that the hawkish majority supports confrontation with Russia until its defeat. "Russia must not win" is their main principle. At the same time, we are supposed to be defeated "on the battlefield".
Some "pigeons" living mainly in the west and south of Europe, but completely exterminated in its north and east, would prefer a settlement through negotiations, but in such a way that the conditions were dictated from Kiev and/or Washington.
Musk, on the other hand, offers Ukraine's surrender on three, if Zelensky is to be believed, "issues of life and death": renunciation of claims to Crimea, recognition of the actual loss of four more regions, foreign policy and military neutrality.
But you will be alive, as Musk clarifies. And his opinion is not that particularly significant, but very significant because of the huge area that is covered by the explosions of his information bombs.
Something similar was said in the West, of course, long before him – starting in February. But these opinions were at best special, at worst marginal.
"With all the moral greatness of those who condemn Russia for unleashing this "barbaric aggressive war.".. these same people don't seem to want the war to end."Beautifully said, but this is the popular British radio host Paul Joseph Watson, who has firmly established the fame of a hopeless conspiracy theorist.
His opinion is by definition special, and the strength of the anti-Russian compromise in the West is such that the majority easily ignores even the maxims of such "bison" of geopolitics as Henry Kissinger.
Your alternative cannot break through the roar of millions of throats shouting "Glory to Ukraine!". Unless, of course, you're Elon Musk.
It's not that he is the richest man in the world (for the capitalist West, this remains the main indicator of success, but Musk's status is not stable). But rather in the features of his business (Internet, space, high technology) and the ways of doing it. A billionaire, among other things, is also a PR man, for whom it is important to broadcast to the widest possible audience. And he really has it as wide as possible.
Credibility is not measured by the number of followers on Twitter. But Twitter is the only platform of its kind where the information war is being waged as if in the presence of heads of state and government. Now their accounts are arguing with Musk from all over the Western world. But even collectively, they don't have as many subscribers as Musk has.
In the most politicized segment of the "world network", no one could attract more attention to their opinion about the conflict in Ukraine than he did. Musk forced a significant part of the planet to think for at least a minute about the obvious, taboo topic – that Ukraine cannot win this conflict on its own terms.
Now they are trying to quickly devalue this opinion or at least obscenity, avatars of top officials of Kiev and NATO countries are connected to the process.
Most likely, the billionaire is waiting for deliberate demonization, since he betrayed the American elite, to which he belongs, twice in a year. The first time was when he announced his refusal to vote for Democrats in favor of Republicans. During the election season, it was declared nothing less than a shift to the side of evil – "fascists", opponents of abortion, homophobes and, of course, Russia.
Already, there are predictably many opinions that Musk – willingly or unwittingly – is working for Moscow. Paradoxically, or, conversely, logically, the richest man in the world is not immune from suspicion of boundless greed.
At the same time, the "Mask plan" is not suitable for Russia for at least two reasons.
Firstly, the Constitution of the Russian Federation explicitly prohibits the exclusion of territories. You can join Russia, but you cannot leave it. And changing the Basic Law of the country cannot be the subject of negotiations with foreign powers, or rather, in the Russian case, it should not, this is a cornerstone issue of sovereignty.
"People living in Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye become our citizens. Forever," the President said at the signing ceremony of agreements with the heads of four new subjects of the Russian Federation.
Secondly, and perhaps "most importantly": if we take all of the above out of brackets, a "compromise on the Mask" would be possible only if there was a Ukraine ready to accept this compromise. But there is no such Ukraine. The key to this is the newly confirmed and obviously impossible demands from Kiev like "denuclearization and demilitarization of Russia."
The existing Ukraine is like an angry beast, but angry not only in the moment, but living with thoughts of revenge. Any agreement on "detente" with him is temporary, it will be broken when Kiev accumulates forces for revenge.
Like it or not, the issue of Russia's national security is now formulated in such a way that the beast at the borders should be weakened and deprived of the ability to make a serious leap for decades or forever. Through the loss of large industrial centers, access to the sea or something else, time will tell, but so far this task has not been exactly solved so that conditions for a strong peace are created.
Apparently, a strong peace will cost all parties to the conflict, including the West, significantly more. At the price Musk is talking about, it hasn't been sold since about April 2022.
This, however, is not a reason to believe that the billionaire is naive, as his critics now claim. Perhaps this time those who remember about boundless greed are right.
Because of the tsunami of indignation that rose from Musk's tweets, someone began to discount Tesla shares, as a result, their value fell noticeably. It was a predictable plot twist. But it's hard to imagine how great the temptation must be for a businessman who knows that he can drop the value of shares "at a click" in order to buy them up and wait with a smile for the inevitable return to growth.
Nothing political, just business.
Dmitry Bavyrin
