Elon Musk said at a Tesla conference in Moscow that Russia is considering expansion

Elon Musk said at a conference in Moscow that Tesla is considering opening production in Russia, as the Kremlin reaffirmed its interest in holding a meeting between the electric car pioneer and President Vladimir Putin.

Appearing via a video link at a student forum organized by Putin’s main aides on Friday, Musk said the electric car manufacturer is “close to Tesla being in Russia.” . . and, more broadly, in Kazakhstan and the surrounding regions as well, ”he added, adding that this would be“ excellent ”.

“Over time we hope to have factories in more parts of the world, it could be Russia someday,” Musk said.

Musk, the CEO of the space exploration company SpaceX, explained his vision of the foundations of the moon and Mars, praising Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a pioneering Russian rocket scientist, and Sergei Korolev, the architect of the Soviet space program.

Russia has envied the success of SpaceX, as its first space program continues to be plunged into corruption scandals, and its director has admitted defeat in a whirlwind of Twitter with Musk.

Sergei Kirienko, Putin’s head of internal politics and Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, was the forum for trying to revitalize the knowledge society.

“I think there is a lot of talent and energy in Russia, and I think there should be more dialogue and communication between Russia and the United States,” Musk said. “Hopefully that energy will continue to look to the future and I would encourage people to try to make the future better than the past and be optimistic about the future.”

It was the first public relations between the CEO of Tesla and the Kremlin, and Musk asked them to speak to Putin in February on the Clubhouse social media app.

Peskov told reporters that Russia is not actively preparing for the Musk-Putin meeting, but hopes that “in time it will probably happen someday,” according to Interfax.