Russia Gets Dunked At The UN

Putin Doesn't Care About Angola's Vote; He's Got Elon Musk On His Team

"Balance of Power" by Nancy Ohanian

Reporting for the Washington Post yesterday, Joseph Menn and Cat Zakrzewski wrote that Elon Musk, the world’s richest mentally ill man, “has proposed solving the war in Ukraine by letting Russia keep territory, won praise from a top Chinese diplomat for suggesting China take control of Taiwan.”

Right after Zelenskyy announced a largely symbolic bid for fast-track membership of NATO, Alexander Venediktov, the deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council was quoted in TASS saying that “such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to WWIII… The suicidal nature of such a step is understood by NATO members themselves.” Since all 30 members of NATO would have to agree— including Putin ally Viktor Orbán— there’s no chance this is going to happen.

Light Reading While You Watch The Hearing Today:

The UN General Assembly voted to condemn Russia’s annexation of 4 parts of Ukraine it seized. 143 countries voted for the toothless and completely symbolic proposal and just 4 besides Russia voted against it— Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Nicaragua. 35 countries abstained. That’s the light reading:

• Algeria

• Armenia

• Bolivia

• Burundi

• Central African Republic

• China

• Republic of Congo

• Cuba

• Eritrea

• Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)

• Ethiopia

• Guinea

• Honduras

• India

• Kazakhstan

• Kyrgyzstan

• Laos

• Lesotho

• Mali

• Mongolia

• Mozambique

• Namibia

• Pakistan

• South Africa

• South Sudan

• Sri Lanka

• Sudan

• Tajikistan

• Tanzania

• Thailand

• Togo

• Uganda

• Uzbekistan

• Vietnam

• Zimbabwe

On March 2nd, the vote was much the same when the UN demanded Russia end its offensive. Thailand (which is a major destination for Russian tourists), Eswatini, Lesotho, Uzbekistan, Togo, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Honduras had voted for that but abstained on this one. And an equal number of delegations— Angola, Madagascar, Senegal, Iraq, Iran, El Salvador, Pakistan and Bangladesh— abstained on the first one and voted for this one.

Back to that report (up top) by Menn and Zakrzewski yesterday for a moment. They wrote that "since autocrats already use [Twitter] to spread lies about opponents and whip up violence and mayhem, Musk’s pursuit of approval from two of the most powerful is especially unnerving. 'It’s a very good illustration as to why it would be a disaster if Musk does come to own Twitter,' said Paul Barrett, deputy director of New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. 'You could have provocations, whether engineered by Musk himself or by others, that could have global implications.'"

The latest scrutiny came Tuesday, when prominent geopolitical analyst Ian Bremmer said Musk had been speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin before tweeting out a three-point plan for Ukraine that would leave Crimea, taken by force in 2014, in Russia’s hands.

“I spoke with Elon two weeks ago, and he told me Putin (in a direct conversation with him) was ‘prepared to negotiate’ … and had outlined the minimum the Russian president would require to end the war,” Bremmer wrote to newsletter subscribers.

As word spread on a second day of intensive Russian attacks on civilian population centers in Ukraine, law professors speculated on whether Musk should have registered as a foreign agent.

“Logan Act” became one of Twitter’s trending topics in the country, referring to the 223-year-old law that bars private citizens from conducting foreign policy.

Only then did Musk deny having spoken to Putin, since a conversation a year and a half ago about space issues.

Bremmer, a Time magazine columnist and author as well as head of the Eurasia Group consultancy, stood by his account, tweeting that “Elon Musk told me he had spoken with Putin and the Kremlin directly about Ukraine. he also told me what the Kremlin’s red lines were.”

Four days earlier, Musk said in a Twitter conversation that he was in touch with “quite a few” parties in the war.

...Accountable Tech, a left-leaning group that has advocated for regulation of tech giants, sent a letter last week to congressional leaders that called for an investigation into Musk’s relationships with foreign actors. The letter says Congress should use its subpoena powers to determine whether Musk is in communication with senior officials at the Kremlin or in China “who could use this acquisition to undermine American national security interests.”

“It is critical that Congress immediately investigate the national security implications of this acquisition and take steps, as necessary, to protect American democracy and independence,” the group’s leaders, Nicole Gill and Jesse Lehrich, wrote.