Chechen warlord shows off gun-mounted Tesla Cybertruck

By Christian Edwards, CNN

(CNN) — The warlord leader of Chechnya has mounted a machine gun on a Tesla Cybertruck that he says he plans to send to Russian forces on the battlefields in Ukraine.

Ramzan Kadyrov published a video on Saturday of himself driving the vehicle, which he said had been sent to him by “the strongest genius of our time,” Elon Musk, before it was adapted.

Musk later denied giving the vehicle to the Chechen leader. “Are you seriously so retarded that you think I donated a Cybertruck to a Russian general?” Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns.

In the slickly produced video, a grinning Kadyrov is seen driving the vehicle through an empty square in Grozny, Chechnya’s capital. He then gets out of the truck and stands behind the machine gun with an ammunition belt draped round his neck.

“We received a Tesla Cybertruck from the respected Elon Musk. I was happy to test the new equipment and personally saw that there’s a reason that it is called the ‘Cyberbeast,’” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.

Kadyrov said he “literally fell in love” with the vehicle, which he said was “invulnerable,” “fast,” “comfortable” and “maneuverable.”

“Based on such excellent characteristics, the Cybertruck will soon be sent to the special military operation zone,” he said, using the Russian euphemism for its invasion of Ukraine.  “I am sure that this ‘beast’ will bring a lot of benefit to our fighters,” he added.

Kadyrov thanked Musk for sending him the vehicle and invited him to Grozny, where he said he would be received “as the most dear guest.”

Late Sunday, Musk denied he had sent Kadyrov the vehicle, saying the story is “yet another example of how much the legacy media lies.”

After the Soviet Union crumbled, insurgents in neighboring Chechnya fought two separatist wars for independence. Russia labeled the uprisings as terrorism and responded by leveling Grozny. Russian President Vladimir Putin then installed Kadyrov, a former warlord known for his brutality and his allegiance to Putin, as leader.

For decades, Kadyrov has been criticized for alleged human rights violations. The US State Department sanctioned him in 2020, saying it “has extensive credible information” that Kadyrov was responsible for “gross violations of human rights,” including torture and extrajudicial killings. Kadyrov has also been sanctioned by the United Kingdom and European Union.

Musk unveiled the Tesla Cybertruck, which runs on an electric battery, in 2019 in Los Angeles. At the event, Musk asked a Tesla employee to throw a rock at the vehicle’s windows, which had been billed as virtually “unbreakable.” Two windows broke. The Cybertruck retails from around $90,000 in the United States.

After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Musk – who is also the CEO of SpaceX – provided Starlink satellite internet service to Kyiv, to replace the systems damaged during the war. Starlink has been used by Ukraine’s military to carry out military operations against Russia.

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CNN’s Darya Tarasova contributed reporting.