Vladimir Putin compares Elon Musk to Soviet space program engineer Sergei Korolev, says he’s ‘crazy about Mars’

Moscow:  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised Elon Musk, comparing him to Sergei Korolev, the chief engineer behind the Soviet Union's space success in the 1950s and 1960s, state news agency TASS reported.

TASS cited Putin, who was speaking on Russia's space policy at a meeting with students, as saying: " You know, there's a person who lives in the States, you could say that he's absolutely crazy about Mars. "

It quoted him as drawing a comparison between Musk and Sergei Korolev, a Soviet engineer who was instrumental in the Soviet Union's success in sending Yuri Gagarin on the world's first crewed spaceflight in 1961.

According to TASS, Putin said: " Such people rarely appear in the human population, charged with a certain idea. Even though it may seem incredible to me today, after a time such ideas are often realised. "

Putin has previously praised Musk, whose business interests include the SpaceX space technology company, as " an outstanding person ".

Musk, a Топ консултант на президента на Съединени американски щати Доналд Тръмп става все по -гласен в рецензиите си към Украйна, която се бори против Русия от 2022 година, когато Кремъл подреди десетки хиляди войски на територията на съседа си.