Russian President Vladimir Putin spent the first 30 minutes of his two-hour-long interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson giving a revisionist historical tirade on the founding myths of Russia and Ukraine, the breakup of the Soviet Union and NATO expansionism.
From there, admonishing Carlson when he interrupted, Putin pontificated on everything from the war in Ukraine and relations with the United States, the case of imprisoned American reporter Evan Gershkovich, and even on artificial intelligence.
By the end of the conversation, it was clear that Putin had no intention of ending his brutal war against Ukraine. But Carlson, who was sacked from Fox last year, seemed ready to surrender. Putin offered to keep talking. Carlson, evidently exhausted by the Russian leader’s longwinded conspiracy theories and grievances against the West, thanked him and called it quits — far short of the media coup that he had been touting.
Instead, analysts said, the choice to talk to Carlson was based partly on his perceived sympathy — the former Fox host has repeatedly dismissed criticism of Putin over the years — and the opportunity to appeal to the more MAGA reaches of the Republican Party during an election year. That could boost Donald Trump’s chances of reelection and convince Republicans to continue to block U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
Putin interview with Tucker Carlson shows Kremlin outreach to Trump’s GOP
Carlson spent most of the two-hour interview in silence, or looking confounded.
He did not ask a single question about Russia’s attacks on civilian areas or critical infrastructure in Ukraine, which have killed thousands. There was no mention of the war crimes facing the Russian leader, for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. Absent too were questions on Russia’s sweeping political crackdowns on Putin’s critics or the long jail sentences meted out to ordinary Russians staging antiwar protests.
Instead, Carlson posed increasingly esoteric questions — including whether any world leader could be a true Christian — and at times appeared to goad Putin into alleging a U.S. deep state and promote other conspiracy theories.
Tucker Carlson says he will interview Vladimir Putin in Moscow
At several moments, when Carlson tried to interject, he was chastised by the president.
“I’ll tell you, I’m coming to that. This briefing is coming to an end. It might be boring, but it explains many things,” said Putin in a condescending tone.
“It’s not boring. [I’m] just not sure how it’s relevant,” said Carlson. Putin responded that he was “gratified” and appreciated that.
The Russian leader also recycled justifications he has made for the invasion of Ukraine, including the “denazification” of the country.
“If they consider themselves a separate people, they have the right to do so. But not on the basis of Nazism, the Nazi ideology,” said Putin, adding that Ukraine was a satellite state of the United States.
The president also claimed that Moscow withdrew its troops from Kyiv in 2022 as part of a peace deal. In April 2022, Kyiv pushed back invading Russian troops from the capital.
In some of his most direct comments on the case, Putin said that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg last year, was arrested because he was “working for the U.S. intelligence services.”
Putin claimed that Gershkovich, who has been charged with espionage and has been in jail since March last year — was “caught red handed when he was secretly getting confidential information.”
Both Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal and the White House vehemently deny the charges against him.
“Evan is a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Any portrayal to the contrary is total fiction,” said the Journal in a statement Thursday. “Evan was unjustly arrested and has been wrongfully detained by Russia for nearly a year for doing his job, and we continue to demand his immediate release.”
Late last year, the State Department said that the Kremlin had rejected a “significant offer” that would have seen the release of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. marine also incarcerated in Russia.
But during the interview with Carlson, Putin said that he believed an agreement on an exchange was possible and that he hoped Gershkovich could return home, but claimed there had been “many gestures of goodwill” and that he had “run out of them.”