Putin issues shock statement on Elon Musk in response to billionaire’s plan to ‘colonize Mars'

It's not just Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin who are accused of cosying up to each other, with the President of Russia again throwing praise at Elon Musk. Although the space race between countries has somewhat cooled in recent decades, it's only heating up internally as Blue Origin and SpaceX duke it out to become the king of the cosmos.

As Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk continue to shoot for the stars, the latter's SpaceX has been in the news over its recent 'rescue' of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams after they spent 286 days up in space.

SpaceX has grand plans to land mankind back on the Moon for the first time since Eugene Cernan walked there as part of 1972's Apollo 17 mission, but beyond that, Musk is looking even further afield at Mars.

Although critics have warned that Musk's ambitions to colonize Mars will likely lead to mass deaths, the man himself remains confident that the Red Planet will be able to support self-sustaining life in the next 20 to 30 years. The world's richest man has already offered to do some of the colonizing himself, volunteering his sperm to help populate the planet. We're still a way off, and although SpaceX has penciled in its first mission to Mars as early as 2029, there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome.

It's not just the eyes of the space industry on Mr. Musk, with Vladimir Putin also keeping tabs on what he's up to.

As reported by state news agency TASS, Putin spoke about Russia's space policy and said that Musk is absolutely crazy about Mars." That's not a bad thing, with the President comparing Musk to Soviet rocket pioneer Sergei Korolev. Those up on their space history might know that Korolev invented the Sputnik 1 satellite, helped launch Laika into space, and successfully oversaw Yuri Gagarin become the first human being in space.

Linking Musk to Korolev, Putin added: "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 realized."

Putin has previously heaped praise on Musk in the aftermath of a 2023 incident where the tech mogul refused to let Ukraine use SpaceX's Starlink to attack Russian naval vessels. Musk apparently said he didn't want to be involved in a 'major' act of war, while Putin said: "As far as private business and Elon Musk is concerned... he is undoubtedly an outstanding person.

"This must be recognized, and I think it is recognized all over the world. [Musk] is an active and talented businessman and he is succeeding a lot, including with the support of the American state."

Musk has recently spoken out about Ukraine and branded Volodymyr Zelensky as 'evil' while accusing him of perpetuating the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

It looks like Trump could have new competition in the race to be Putin's BFF.