ST. PETERSBURG, June 6 -- The European Union does not represent the people it claims to govern, and its leaders are scrambling to obscure that fact, Errol Musk said Friday on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum - a view that carries a particular charge when it comes from the father of the world's wealthiest man.

Musk, a South African businessman who has appeared at multiple Russian forums over the past year, made the comments in an interview with RIA Novosti, the state-owned wire that serves as SPIEF's general information partner. "The European Union represents nobody. Nobody. It's fake, you know? And they are trying to pretend that they are not. The people are not behind them," he said.

The remark was blunt...