13 August 2021, Brandenburg, Grünheide: Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, stands at a press event on the grounds of the Tesla Gigafactory. The first vehicles are to roll off the production line in Grünheide near Berlin from the end of 2021. The US company plans to build around 500,000 units of the compact Model 3 and Model Y series here each year. Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Elon Musk Challenges Vladimir Putin to a Fight on Twitter (Which Egomaniac Would Win?)

Talk about a battle of the egomaniacs. In a recent tweet, Tesla founder and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk challenged none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin to a fight.

“I hereby challenge Владимир Путин to single combat,” the entrepreneur wrote, using Russian characters for Putin’ name. “Stakes are Україна.” (That’d be Ukraine, in Ukrainian spelling.)

He followed that challenge up with another tweet tagging the Kremlin, which translated to, “Do you agree to this fight?”

While Putin didn’t reply to the tweet (dictators have better things to do, apparently), a dude named Dmitry Rogozin, who’s the head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, did.

“You, little devil, are still young,” he wrote.  “Compete with me weakling; It would only be a waste of time. Overtake my brother first.”

Um…we’re not really sure what that means. (Something clearly got lost in translation.) Things got even more confusing and convoluted as Rogozin cited The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda, a 17th fairytale by Russian poet A. S. Pushkin. It follows a lazy Russian orthodox priest who hires a laborer that eventually outsmarts him and makes him crazy.

We majored in English in college, but we’re still struggling to see what the metaphor is here. Regardless, we can all agree that fairytales are frightening, especially when referenced by grown-ass men.

While there’s no way Musk could ever compete against Putin – especially in combat – one person was cheering Musk on: Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

“I am sure that @elonmusk can send Putin to Jupiter,” he tweeted. He also added a link to a crowdsourcing campaign “to help us build a rocket that will send a bloody dictator far far away.”

A guy can hope. Unfortunately, even space isn’t far enough away when it comes to baddies like Putin – or annoying a-holes like Musk.

Cover Photo: picture alliance / Contributor (Getty Images)

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