Kadyrov Accuses Elon Musk of Remotely Disabling His Military Cybertruck

Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic, accused Elon Musk on September 19 of remotely disabling a Tesla Cybertruck that he claimed to have received as a gift from the tech billionaire last month.

Kadyrov, who has governed Chechnya with a tight grip for over 17 years, shared a video in August showing him driving the electric vehicle, which appeared to have a machine gun mounted on its roof. He claimed the Cybertruck had been gifted by Musk, a claim Musk later dismissed as false on his social media platform X.

“Recently, Musk remotely disabled the Cybertruck,” Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram account, expressing his frustration. “It’s not right for Elon Musk to do this. He gives generous gifts from the heart, only to shut them down later.”

On August 17, Kadyrov posted a video on his Telegram channel showing him driving the armed Cybertruck, insisting it was a personal gift from Musk. However, Musk quickly denied the claim, saying that anyone who believed it was true was “out of their minds.”

In response, Kadyrov later claimed that the Cybertruck had been sent on a “special military operation” and had “fulfilled its combat duties perfectly.” He also complained about Musk disabling the vehicle remotely, saying, “It’s not manly. I had to tow the iron horse. What’s going on, Elon?”

Although Tesla has never officially sold its cars in Russia, its vehicles do occasionally enter the country in limited numbers. Investigative project “Sistema” found three Tesla Model 3s imported from China in 2023, but no Cybertruck models have been recorded in Russian databases.