(Moscow) Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Thursday accused Elon Musk, the billionaire boss of automaker Tesla, of remotely disabling a Tesla Cybertruck electric off-road vehicle that he says he received from him as a gift in August.
Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist for more than 17 years, shared a video in August showing himself driving a Tesla Cybertruck with a machine gun mounted on the back of the vehicle.
Mr Kadyrov had claimed the vehicle had been given to him by Elon Musk, allegations the US carmaker’s boss dismissed as lies on the social network X.
“Recently, Musk remotely disabled the Cybertruck,” Kadyrov said in a message on Telegram.
“It’s not nice of Elon Musk to act like this. He gives expensive gifts from the bottom of his heart and then deactivates them remotely,” adds the strongman of the small Russian republic in the Caucasus.
Production of the Cybertruck, presented by Tesla in 2019, began in 2023.
Mr Kadyrov said the vehicle he received was used in the theatre of military operations and sent to Ukraine, where it “performed admirably well”.
Ramzan Kadyrov, 47, has shown unconditional support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He claims to have deployed thousands of soldiers to help the Russian army in its offensive in Ukraine.