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How Do You Like Kalashnikov's New Electric Car, Elon Musk?

Yaplakal.com / Twitter

Kalashnikov's release of an electric concept car on Thursday — which it claimed would compete with Elon Musk's Tesla brand — sparked a flurry of meme activity on Russian social media. 

Elon Musk has featured as a central character in the world of Russian memes ever since his company, SpaceX, launched a red Tesla car into space last February. 

Not to be outdone by Musk's high-tech feat, Russians offered their own examples of ingenuity peculiar to the country (and poking fun at its problems), tagging their posts with the challenge: "How do you like that, Elon Musk?"

Kalashnikov's bold claim on Thursday that its new car could compete with Musk's Tesla seemed to have been tailor-made for the meme craze.


Here is a selection of our favorites below:

"Kalashnikov just released an electric car that will compete with Tesla. Let's go!"

"How do you like that, Elon Musk?"

"My neighbor bought himself a domestically-produced electric car."

This meme imagines Kalashnikov's new electric car flying out in space like Musk's Tesla in February.

"Musk is gutted."

"Kalashnikov, I await your job offers," says a user who suggested adding Christian icons to the displays of the new Kalashnikov cars.

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