The father of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that he had a “brief but memorable” meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
“Although it was short, I remember it well,” the 79-year-old Errol Musk told the state-run news agency RIA Novosti, which described him as a high-tech investment and innovation expert.
Musk did not specify when and under what circumstances the meeting with the Russian president took place, noting only that it lasted more than an hour and included several other people.
“[Putin] shook my hand and said, ‘Welcome to Russia’,” Musk recalled.
Errol Musk said Tuesday that he was in Russia for a two-week trip focused on research projects with Russian scientists.
The pro-Kremlin Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, which arranged the trip, said Musk is expected to visit a high-tech plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region, attend a venture capital forum in Kazan and visit an Orthodox Church in Sergiyev Posad outside Moscow.
The elder Musk has previously voiced his admiration for Putin, saying his family was “in awe” of the Russian leader.
In June, he heaped praise on Russia while attending a far-right forum in Moscow hosted by the Tsargrad Institute, which was founded by the businessman Konstantin Malofeyev and directed by ideologue Alexander Dugin.
Musk called Putin a “real man” in an interview with Russia’s state-run news agency TASS in October.
Errol and Elon Musk suffered a major split when Errol had a child in 2017 with a stepdaughter four decades his junior. The elder Musk said their relationship has since improved.
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