Originally published 2022-03-23.
In mid-March 2022, three weeks into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Elon Musk challenged Vladimir Putin to a one-on-one fight with Ukraine as the prize. Putin never took it up, but Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed head of Chechnya, answered on Telegram. He mocked Musk as “Elona”, told him he needed to bulk up before taking on Putin, and offered to train him in Chechnya. Musk replied with a joke and briefly changed his Twitter name to “Elona Musk”.
Ramzan Kadyrov (right) with Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow on 31 August 2019. Photo: Alexey Nikolsky/AFP via Getty Images.
It was an online exchange, not a real fight: no meeting was ever planned and Putin never accepted. But the episode is a useful window into who Kadyrov is, why he matters to the Kremlin, and how he uses social media.
How Musk’s challenge started
On 14 March 2022, Musk tweeted that he was challenging Putin to “single combat”, adding that the stakes were Ukraine. He followed it with a message in Russian asking whether Putin agreed to the fight, and tagged the Kremlin’s official account.
Musk had already become part of the war story. Days after the invasion began, SpaceX shipped Starlink satellite internet terminals to Ukraine at the request of its digital minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. So the tweet was read by many as a provocation aimed at Moscow, and by others simply as a Musk stunt.
Kadyrov’s “Elona” reply
Kadyrov answered on his Telegram channel, where he posts to millions of followers. According to reports from the time, he:
- called Musk “Elona”, using a feminised form of his name, and described him as soft or effeminate;
- warned him not to measure his strength against Putin’s, saying a win over a much weaker opponent would make Putin look unsporting;
- suggested Musk would need serious muscle before he could become the tough “Elon” he wanted to be;
- offered him training at one of three centres in the Chechen Republic, promising it would turn him into a completely different person.
Whether the feminine name was meant as a deliberate insult or a play on words, its tone was clear: mockery wrapped in a show of loyalty to Putin.
How Musk answered
Musk shared a translation of the post, thanked Kadyrov for the offer, and joked that such training would give him too big an advantage. If Putin was afraid to fight, he added, he would use only his left hand, even though he is not left-handed. He signed off as “Elona” and swapped his Twitter display name to “Elona Musk” for a while, turning the insult into a running gag. The exchange went viral, but nothing came of it. The war, of course, went on.
Who is Ramzan Kadyrov?
Kadyrov has ruled Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic in Russia’s North Caucasus, since 2007. His path there is tied to two wars.
In the first Chechen war, which began in 1994, Chechen separatists fought Russian forces for independence, and Kadyrov and his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, were on the separatist side. When the second war broke out in 1999, the family switched sides and backed Moscow. Akhmad, a former mufti, became Chechnya’s president in 2003 and was killed in a bomb attack on 9 May 2004. Ramzan, then too young to take the post under the republic’s rules, rose through the security forces, and Putin made him acting president in February 2007. He was sworn in that April.
Since then he has presented himself as one of Putin’s most loyal allies, while running Chechnya with a large personal security force and heavy federal subsidies. That history is why many observers found it striking to see him send fighters to support Russia’s war, given how many Chechens died fighting Russian troops in the 1990s.
Chechen fighters in Ukraine
From the first days of the invasion, Kadyrov publicised Chechen units heading to Ukraine, including videos of fighters gathering and praying before deployment. Large round numbers circulated online, including a widely shared claim of 70,000 Chechen fighters ready to join the war. That figure was never independently confirmed and should be treated as propaganda rather than fact.
Kadyrov’s own later statements, as summarised on Wikipedia, gave different totals over time: 26,000 Chechen troops sent by May 2023, 43,500 by May 2024, and 55,000 fighting in Ukraine according to a claim he made in May 2025. These numbers also come from Kadyrov himself and cannot be checked independently.
Instagram, Telegram and a long list of feuds
Kadyrov has long used social media as a stage. His posts show him at the gym, hunting, riding horses and showing off his wealth. Instagram removed his accounts in 2017 after US sanctions, and Telegram became his main channel.
Musk was not his first celebrity spat. In 2016, Kadyrov posted an appeal for help finding his lost cat, which led John Oliver to mock him on HBO’s Last Week Tonight. After a back-and-forth on Instagram, including a doctored photo of Oliver in a Putin T-shirt, Kadyrov ended it with a line that sums up his style: “I am tired of jokes. I want to care for cats in Chechnya. By the way, Putin is our leader.”
Why human rights groups see him differently
Behind the jokey online persona, Kadyrov’s rule is linked to serious abuses. In April 2017, international media reported a campaign in which gay and bisexual men in Chechnya were detained, beaten and tortured. Chechen officials denied it, and in a July 2017 HBO interview Kadyrov claimed there were no gay people in Chechnya. Rights groups have also documented enforced disappearances and pressure on critics, including Chechens living abroad.
That is the real context of the “Elona” exchange: a viral joke between a billionaire and a regional strongman, set against a war and a record of repression that were anything but funny.
Sources: Newsweek: Who is Ramzan Kadyrov?; Aaj News: Chechen leader mocks Elon Musk; Wikipedia: Ramzan Kadyrov. Photo: Alexey Nikolsky/AFP via Getty Images.
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