Elon Musk’s family foundation took Tommy Robinson to Russia, according to the billionaire X owner’s father, who was with the British far-right activist in Moscow as he encouraged anti-migration protests in Britain.
Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – appeared last month in Moscow, from where he issued calls for supporters to take to the streets after a knife attack in Belfast. He shared video of himself in a luxury Moscow hotel with the older Musk, whose son has been a vocal supporter of Robinson.
“I brought him out to Russia,” Musk’s father, Errol, told the Guardian, adding that both men had held meetings with Russian business figures. He said the trip had been covered by the Musk Foundation, a private philanthropic organisation founded by Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk.
The visit to Moscow came at a time when Vladimir Putin’s regime and its proxies have appeared to be forging links with European far-right figures. At the same time, Russia was also hosting Andrew Tate, the self-styled misogynistic influencer, and his brother, who posted footage of themselves firing weapons and riding in a tank in the apparent company of the Russian military.
Police in Britain subsequently stopped and seized Robinson’s phones as he returned from a trip to Russia. While Robinson had previously visited Russia several years ago, this time he appeared to be more explicit in his praise for Russia, sharing footage of Russian ultra-nationalists holding a rally in memory of the murdered British teenager Henry Nowak.
Errol Musk, who also went to St Petersburg for an annual Kremlin-backed economic forum, said that Robinson was “a fine young man”.
“He’s very hotheaded, but at the same time, he’s learning,” claimed the South African, who has travelled to Russia in the past and at one point met Putin. A Russophile who said he believed that Russia had a “genetic advantage” over the west, Errol Musk holds firmly pro-Russian positions on the conflict in Ukraine.
Topics covered in meetings alongside Robinson included Russia’s attempts to address a decline in births. “Tommy really got into these meetings,” he said.
Musk senior said he had become familiar with Robinson after the far-right activist was imprisoned. Robinson has a number of convictions but sought the spotlight in particular after he was sent to prison for breaching a contempt of court order.
“So I contacted Tommy, I was asked on British television once what I think of Tommy,” Errol Musk added.
Last month, Robinson told the Guardian that he had come to see the “beauty of a civilised society” after visiting Russia.
Prof Stephan Lewandowsky, at the University of Bristol, who has studied the threat posed to society by misinformation, said the visit by Robinson and Tate came against the backdrop of a hybrid war that Putin was waging against the west.
“Part of that means he will recruit anyone to undermine western democracy from within, whether that is Robinson, the Tates or others involved in more conventional politics,” he said. “There is a pragmatic reason for the Russians to be making links like this.
“It is to their political advantage, but there is also clearly examples of ideological alignment to the extent that we are talking about ultra-nationalist birds of a feather.”
The Guardian revealed earlier this year that the head of a leading British far-right group spoke at a summit of European extreme nationalist groups convened in Russia by an influential oligarch linked to Putin.
The event in St Petersburg was addressed by Mark Collett, a longstanding far-right activist and founder of Patriotic Alternative, which attempted to exploit the summer of unrest outside asylum hotels in Britain.