Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, proposed his own way of resolving the conflict in Ukraine. Musk urged to conduct a new referendum in Ukraine's former regions with the participation of the UN and to recognize Crimea as Russian territory.
According to Musk, as part of future agreements, Ukraine should ensure water supplies to the Crimean peninsula and secure a neutral non-bloc status. Crimea itself should finally become part of Russia as it was from 1783 until Khrushchev's mistake, which delivered Crimea to the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954.
The businessman stressed that in the event of the new referenda, Russia would have to refuse to conduct the special military operation and leave those territories provided that the people make an appropriate decision themselves.
Tesla shares plunged more than 8 percent in early trading on Monday, October 3, according to NASDAQ data. As of 20:30 Moscow time, they were traded at a price of $242.5 per share (minus 8.44 percent). Such dynamics was observed against the backdrop of Elon Musk's proposal about the peaceful settlement of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
In 1954, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to "gift" Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR. After the collapse of the USSR, Crimea became part of Ukraine. The State Duma believes that in 1991 the peninsula was, in fact, peacefully annexed by Ukraine.
Crimea joined Russia after a referendum in March 2014. The Ukrainian authorities, as well as the United States and a number of European states, refused to recognize the results of the vote and called the reunification of the peninsula with mainland Russia an annexation.