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16th Mar 2022

Anonymous responds to Elon Musk’s ‘publicity stunt’ challenge to fight Putin in single combat

Kieran Galpin

‘Shame on you’

Hacktivist group Anonymous has responded to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s recent tweet which challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to single combat, branding it a “publicity stunt” by a man with “no authority.”

The mysterious hacker group has played a strange part in the Russian invasion so far, having previously leaked around 364,000 documents and even hacked Russian broadcasters. Now, the worldwide hacker alliance has targeted Tesla boss Musk, who welcomed a secret baby with partner Grimes back in December.

Initially, the controversial 50-year-old tech mogul took to Twitter, writing: “I hereby challenge Владимир Путин to single combat.

“Stakes are Україна.”

Musk later replied to his first tweet, tagging the Kremlin Twitter page directly and adding, “Do you agree to this fight?” in Russian.

While the world didn’t take Musk particularly seriously, Anonymous has taken issue with his statements.

Retweeting Musk’s post, the group wrote: “Elon has no authority regarding the legal status of statehood & sovereignty of Ukraine. People are suffering, innocents are being killed, cities are being bombed, women and children are dying: Elon pushes publicity stunt. Shame on you.”

On March 15, reports suggested that Anonymous also targeted Rosneft Deutschland, a German subsidiary of the Russian energy company Rosneft, alongside continued attacks on Russian infrastructure.

The group also claimed to have leaked private correspondence between Putin and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu.

According to a translation posted by a fellow Twitter user, the letter allegedly reads: “Dear Vladimir… In order to create fortifications to provide formations, military units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation involved in a special military operation, felling is required on defence lands and other categories, followed by the use of the resulting wood by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”

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