Chinese Retailer Caught Selling Starlink Terminals to Russia
NewsweekMar 01
The Facts
House Democrats have opened an investigation into SpaceX over Russia's alleged use of its Starlink satellite internet service in the country's war against Ukraine.
Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Elon Musk's company on Wednesday asking it to report on complaints regarding possible illegal acquisitions of Starlink terminals, specifically in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
While Elon Musk may claim that Russia isn't gaining access to Starlink, multiple reports show that the Kremlin is deploying SpaceX technology to aid its brutal invasion of Ukraine. Even if SpaceX isn't completely defying US sanctions by directly providing Starlink terminals to Russia, Musk's company is clearly not implementing the requisite safeguards to prevent Russian interference. Failing to stop Russia from using Starlink amounts to being complicit in its attack on Ukraine, and SpaceX must be investigated for its failures.
Establishment-critical narrative
Paranoid intelligence officials and politicians are falsely accusing SpaceX of providing Starlink terminals to Russia despite obvious evidence to the contrary. SpaceX owner Elon Musk has vehemently rejected claims that Russia was ever granted access to Starlink technology, and he has complied with all of the US sanctions against Moscow. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has also echoed these facts and publicly acknowledges that it has never been supplied with Starlink terminals.
Nerd narrative
There's a 50% chance that there will be at least 10.8K Starlink satellites in operation on Jan. 1, 2028, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
