Russia offers Elon Musk political asylum after billionaire's public feud with Donald Trump
Russia has said it would offer political asylum to billionaire Elon Musk following his high-profile feud with US President Donald Trump.
Dmitry Novikov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, told the state news outlet TASS: 'I think that Musk has a completely different game, [so] he will not need any political asylum, although if he did, Russia, of course, could provide it.'
The surprise offer comes after Musk and Trump clashed publicly earlier this week in a series of heated exchanges on social media and in comments to the press, rattling markets and plunging shares in Musk's Tesla company.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to directly weigh in on the dispute when questioned by reporters on Friday, describing the row as a 'domestic issue of the United States'.
'We don't intend to interfere,' Peskov said. 'We're confident the US president will handle this situation on his own.'
Russia previously made headlines for granting political asylum to US whistleblower Edward Snowden and pro-Kremlin British blogger Graham Phillips.
The row erupted after Musk resigned last week as head of a controversial federal agency called DOGE, aimed at cutting US government spending. He described President Trump's spending bill, a key piece of domestic policy, as a 'disgusting abomination' that would irresponsibly add to the national debt.
Trump publicly criticised Musk's stance, telling reporters during a news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday: 'I'm very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here. All of a sudden he had a problem.'
Trump implied Musk was primarily concerned about the removal of subsidies for electric vehicles, potentially hurting Tesla. Musk denied this, tweeting: 'Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill.'
The relationship deteriorated further when Musk claimed Trump was 'ungrateful,' stating: 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election.'
Musk had previously donated $300 million to Trump's 2024 re-election campaign and had been considered a close ally on issues such as spending cuts.
Despite the acrimonious exchanges, both parties appeared open to reconciliation by late Thursday. Trump told Politico the situation was 'going very well, never done better,' with aides scheduling a phone call between the pair.
Musk also signalled a potential cooling of tensions, responding to prominent Trump supporter Bill Ackman's suggestion they should reconcile, by writing: 'You're not wrong.'
However, Musk's vow to scrap a key US space programme in response to the feud has already sent shockwaves through the markets, deepening concern about the longer-term implications of the row.
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