Putin calls on the US to 'negotiate' over Ukraine in an interview with Tucker Carlson

President Vladimir V. Putin called on the United States to “make an agreement” on ceding Ukrainian territory to Russia to end the war. He spoke for two hours with a former Fox News host in an interview broadcast Thursday that was the Kremlin's most direct appeal to the American public since its invasion began two years ago.

'Wouldn't it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement,” Putin told Tucker Carlson, the American conservative commentator, in the Russian leader's first interview with an American outlet since 2021. “Start respecting our country and its interests and look for certain solutions.”

Much of the interview was a familiar Kremlin history lesson about Russia's historic claim to Eastern European countries, beginning in the ninth century, which Mr. Putin made little effort to distill for American ears. Mr Putin also laid out his threadbare and false justifications for the invasion of Ukraine, claiming that Russia's aim was to “stop this war” that he claims the West is waging against Russia.

But Putin was more direct than usual about how he sees his invasion of Ukraine ending: not with a military victory, but through an agreement with the West. At the end of the interview, Mr. Putin told Mr. Carlson that the time had come for talks about ending the war because “those in power in the West have come to realize” that Russia will not be defeated the battlefield.

“If that is the case, once the realization has sunk in, they need to think about what to do next. We are ready for this dialogue,” Putin said.

In response to Mr. Carlson's question about whether NATO could accept Russian control of parts of Ukraine, Mr. Putin said: “Let them think about how to do that in a dignified way. There are options if there is a will.”

The original Russian version of Mr. Putin's remarks was not immediately released, leaving viewers to rely on Mr. Carlson's on-air dubbed translation.

The interview, conducted on Tuesday, was Putin's first with a Western media outlet since the start of the war in Ukraine and his first with an American one since 2021. While Putin regularly gave interviews to mainstream US media in his first two years , After decades in power, his spokesman said the Kremlin chose Carlson this time because these traditional channels take “an exclusively one-sided position” towards Russia.

When given the opportunity to expand Carlson's efforts to portray Russia as a defender of “traditional values” in the face of what he often portrays as a degenerate and declining West, the Russian president was unusually reluctant. “Western society is more pragmatic,” he said. “Russian people think more about the eternal, about moral values.”

He added that “there is nothing wrong with” the Western path, noting that it had led to “good success in manufacturing, even in science.” It was an echo of Putin's frequent assertion over the past two years that his conflict is not with the West as a whole, but with a hegemonic ruling elite.

Putin's actions underlined his tactical confidence as his opponents face a vulnerable moment: Ukraine struggles on the battlefield, further military aid is halted in the US Congress and Kremlin-friendly politicians are on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic. Chief among these politicians is former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate whom Mr. Carlson frequently praises.

That coincidence means that the interview with Mr. Carlson comes at a time when Mr. Putin is feeling his “finest hour,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

Putin's end goal, she said, is to secure a peace deal in Ukraine that would strengthen Russian control over territory it has already captured and install a friendly government in Kiev, Ukraine's capital. But to achieve this, Putin appears to believe he needs the United States to pressure Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war, rather than continuing to oppose the Russian invasion.

“He believes he has a chance now,” she said.