On October 28th local time, during the third 'Russia-Africa' Summit held in Moscow, Russian President Putin praised SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk as a 'true genius' and revealed that Russia is in contact with them regarding satellite system technology.
During the visit to the advanced technology exhibition on Wednesday, Russian Minister of Digital Development Markut Shadayev reported to Putin that Russia has currently launched more than 30 satellites and is fully engaged in the construction of an independent low-orbit satellite communication system called "Rassvet," aimed at competing with SpaceX's "Starlink" system.
Putin interrupted his speech upon hearing this and gave Musk high praise. "Wait a moment, I want to point out that this is just the first step. Elon Musk is a genius, a true genius. How many of these satellites are he has in orbit? More than 5,000, and we are only at the beginning."
Putin also stated that it is very important for Russian experts to maintain contact with American partners, including Musk, in order to ensure that the 'Dawn' and 'Starlink' satellites do not interfere with each other during their operations in orbit.
We and our U.S. partners highly value this point. Although there are various political issues, we are still actively carrying out relevant work. He said.
Putin revealed that Russia's deployment of the "Dawn" system is still in its initial stages. The next step is to send the necessary number of satellites into orbit, and the mission will shift from focusing on quality to quantity.
He also said that Russia is proud of starting to build its own low-orbit satellite system that meets the standards of "Starlink". "We have only taken the first step, but what's important is that this step has been taken."
Reuters noted that Putin's statement is particularly noteworthy, as during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Ukrainian army has been using SpaceX's Starlink system as a key component for drone operations and battlefield communication. Not long ago, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy also had tensions with Musk due to the speed limits imposed by Starlink.
