The 19-year-old boy, who turned down Musk’s $ 5,000 offer to delete his Twitter account, recently released two new automated handles on Twitter. @RUOligarchJets and @Putinjet – after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The two profiles have amassed nearly 300,000 followers together and provide almost updates on the movement of private jets, along with photos of maps that find them. Sweeney told the Wall Street Journal that people have long told him to create Twitter accounts like this, and those requests have increased as sanctions have been targeted at Russia’s richest.
Russia’s oligarchs are facing economic chaos at home and punishment from the West after President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to enter Ukraine. The United States and its allies have responded by imposing sanctions on wealthy people close to the Kremlin.
Some of the planes tracked by the bills include Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, businessman Alisher Usmanov and Leonid Michelson, a billionaire and chairman of Russian gas producer Novatek.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Sweeney said he was stunned by the size of the planes used by Russian oligarchs.
“The planes that these oligarchs have are absolutely crazy,” Sweeney said. The richest people in the country travel on commercial planes such as the Airbus A319 and Boeing 737. “Their planes are huge compared to other planes.”
In total, the accounts track more than 40 planes and helicopters linked to Russian oligarchs. He has invited others to help increase the number of aircraft that can be traced.
Sweeney’s Twitter account to track Musk is still live. He told the Journal that he would delete it only in exchange for a new Tesla 3 model.