Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Russia's Chechen Republic, accused Elon Musk on Thursday of disabling a Tesla Cybertruck which he claimed he got from the billionaire last month.
Kadyrov, who's been in control in Chechnya for the last 17 years, shared a video in August of him driving an electric vehicle with what appeared to be a machine gun on the roof.
Musk had called the claims of him getting the vehicle from him a lie, Agence France-Presse reported.
Kadyrov, in the Telegram message, claimed Musk had remotely disabled the vehicle. "That’s not a nice thing for Elon Musk to do. He gives expensive gifts from the bottom of his heart and then remotely switches them off," he said.
When Kadyrov had initially shown off the vehicle, he had planned on sending it to Ukraine where Russia is engaged in a conflict.
Kadyrov, known for extravagant publicity stunts, heaped praise on both the vehicle and Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk on the Telegram messaging app, calling him the "strongest genius of modern times" and inviting Musk to Chechnya.
"We... await your future products that will help us finish the special military operation," Kadyrov had written, using the official term by which Russia describes its war in Ukraine.
(With Reuters inputs)
Published 20 September 2024, 06:42 IST