By Dan Seddon
Tesla mastermind Elon Musk has been offered political asylum by Russia in light of his Donald Trump feud.
The 53-year-old from South Africa, who is broadly considered to be the world’s wealthiest person, seemingly closed off his “great relationship” with the US president earlier this week, and now the Kremlin has stepped in.
Dmitry Novikov, first deputy chair of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, likened Musk the whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“I think that Musk is playing a completely different game, that he will not need any political asylum, although if he did need it, Russia, of course, could provide it,” he said (via Metro).
According to Novikov, over the last few years, the tech billionaire has produced “certain political communication” that ensures “individual disagreements will remain individual disagreements.”
For those of you who are just joining us, the argument began yesterday when Mr Musk publicly criticised the US president’s new spending bill.
The Tesla boss labelled the legislation a “disgusting abomination,” with Trump then saying he was “very disappointed” in Musk’s criticism. “
In the ensuing social media spat, Musk asked his followers if there should be a new political party for the “80% in the middle,” claimed Trump would never have won the election without his support and alleged that the Republican was in the Epstein files.
Meanwhile, Trump said Musk was “wearing thin” before threatening to cancel Musk’s government contracts, such as deals SpaceX has with NASA.
Musk added that Trump would have lost the election without him and called for him to be impeached.
Related: Tesla stock suffers biggest ever one-day drop after Musk-Trump fall out