Elon Musk has continued his attempt to goad Vladimir Putin into a fight by sharing a photo of him sumo wrestling.
The SpaceX boss has waged his own war of sorts against the Russian president ever since Russian troops invaded Ukraine last month.
Alongside practical assistance including the delivery of his Starlink terminals to provide internet to the people of Ukraine, Musk bizarrely challenged Putin to a ‘single combat’ fight.
Since sharing the offer last week, the tech billionaire has posted a series of tweets and responses on social media, the latest being from Changpeng Zhao, the chief executive of crypto platform Binance.
Zhao wrote: “Brother, I wish for you to win of course, but the reality is… [laughing face emoji]. I haven't seen your kong fu videos,” to which Musk replied with an image of him fighting a sumo wrestler.
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While this appeared to be Musk, 50, demonstrating his combat capability, he admitted in a follow-up message: “Managed to throw him, but it cost me smashing my c5-c6 disc & 8 years of mega back pain! Finally fixed with c5-c6 disc fusion.”
The tweets have received hundreds of comments from the online community, with one joking: “Damn, Elon is really training.”
“Is Elon not the funniest Billionaire?” wrote another, while a third quipped: “Nobody saw sumo coming.”
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This is just the latest in Musk's ever-evolving challenge, which saw him adding some wild terms to the offer such as allowing Putin to 'bring [his] bear' after the head of Russia's space agency Dmitry Rogozin got involved.
Russian ally and infamous dictator Ramzan Kadyrov similarly threw himself into the mix, warning Musk that Putin will 'beat [...] the hell out of you'.
In response to the threat of physical violence, Musk chose the power of humour and even momentarily changed his Twitter name.
Since becoming the Head of the Chechen Republic in 2007, Kadyrov has been accused of kidnapping citizens, journalists and even government officials – which has similarly been reported as occurring in Ukraine – alongside being accused of homophobic hate crimes.
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In response to Musk's challenging of Putin, Kadyrov took to Telegram to offer Musk 'a word of advice'.
"[Translation] Don't measure strength against that of Putin's. Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin's middle name) will look unsportsmanlike when he beats the hell out of you, a much weaker opponent," he wrote, adding that the Tesla CEO would 'need to pump those muscles in order to change from the gentle (effeminate) Elona into the brutal Elon you need to be'.
And in classic Musk fashion, for his clap back against the Head of the Chechen Republic, he opted for simplicity and humour by changing his Twitter name to – you guessed it – Elona.
Although his name is back to Elon on the platform, his response to Kadyrov's offer of training remains on his page, stating: "Thank you for the offer, but such excellent training would give me too much of an advantage. If he is afraid to fight, I will agree to use only my left hand and I am not even left-handed," signing off with, 'Elona.'
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If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information
Topics: Ukraine, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Elon Musk
Daisy Phillipson