Tucker Carlson interviewed Putin, Kremlin says
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has interviewed President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the Kremlin said Wednesday, a sign that the Russian leader is trying to make a direct appeal to U.S. conservatives as U.S. aid to Ukraine comes to a head game is. .
Dmitry S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Mr. Carlson conducted the interview on Tuesday. He did not say when it would be released.
Mr. Carlson has been in Moscow for several days, according to Russian state media, which provided a detailed account of his visit, raising expectations for a possible interview by Mr. Carlson with Mr. Putin. On Tuesday evening he announced that he was interviewing the Russian leader.
“We are here to interview the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin,” Mr. Carlson said in an interview video apparently filmed from a high-rise building in central Moscow and posted on the social media network X. “We will do that soon.”
Mr. Carlson, whose show appears on X, did not specify the timing of an upcoming interview. It would be Putin's first formal interview with a Western media figure since the start of his large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and his first with an American outlet since he spoke with CNBC in 2021.
Putin's government has drastically reduced the ability of Western journalists to report on Russia and has jailed a Wall Street Journal correspondent, Evan Gershkovich, for more than 10 months on espionage charges leveled against him, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny it. The Kremlin has referred to Western countries as “numbed” by anti-Russian propaganda.
The interview comes at a crucial time for the war in Ukraine, as US aid to Kiev is stalled in Congress. A Senate vote on a relief package Wednesday will almost certainly fail after a growing number of Republicans said they would not support it.
By speaking to Mr. Carlson, Mr. Putin would most likely be trying to seize a unique opportunity: a chance to reach a potentially sympathetic audience in the United States.
Mr. Carlson, like Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, is skeptical of further U.S. support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion, and has embraced Mr. Putin's efforts to position himself as a global standard-bearer for “traditional values,” such as opposition to LGBT rights.
Putin's calculation seems to be largely related to the war in Ukraine. The interview could fuel political divisions over Ukraine within the United States, especially if Putin signals openness to a negotiated end to the war.
In promoting the anticipated interview, Mr. Carlson falsely claimed that he was the only one among Western media figures to attempt to interview Mr. Putin. Several Western news organizations, including TV networks and The New York Times, have requested interviews.
“Does Tucker really think that we journalists haven't tried to interview President Putin every day since his massive invasion of Ukraine?” Christiane Amanpour, the CNN and PBS journalist, wrote on Xadding that Mr. Carlson's claim was “absurd.”
Mr. Peskov discussed that point on Wednesday, saying, “Mr. Carlson isn't right, but he couldn't have known that. We get a lot of requests for interviews with the president.”
Mr. Peskov said that Western newspapers and television networks “cannot boast of attempts to appear even impartial when it comes to reporting on what is happening” and that “there is no desire to communicate with such media.” Mr. Carlson, he said, is taking a position that “contrasts with the position of the traditional Anglo-Saxon media.”
An interview in the Kremlin could be mutually beneficial for Mr. Carlson and Mr. Putin. Mr. Carlson lost the most prominent platform in conservative media when he was kicked out of Fox's lineup last year, while Mr. Putin lost the most prominent promoter of his anti-Ukrainian talking points in the United States.
Mr. Carlson's arrival in Moscow and speculation that he was there to interview Mr. Putin drew a mix of condemnation and praise from prominent X users.
“He is a traitor,” former Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican of Illinois, wrote in a message, referring to Mr. Carlson. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman from Georgia who is joining Trump, praised the news: proverb: “Democrats and their propagandists are reeling from the prospect of Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin.”
Mr. Carlson said in his video that the interview would be posted on
However, that may not be the case for the Russian government, which has restricted access to Twitter as of March 2022, claiming the platform is hosting false information about the war in Ukraine.
While Carlson continues to supply the Kremlin media with pro-Putin commentary for consumption in Russia, he has become an inferior figure in the United States since leaving Fox News, where he averaged more than 3 million viewers a night.
Western officials and Russians close to the Kremlin have said in recent months that as Russia resumes the initiative on the battlefield and further U.S. aid to Ukraine stalls in Congress, Mr. Putin appears to see an opening for negotiations that could put him in the could play cards. But many of Ukraine's supporters say seeking a deal with Putin now would amount to a capitulation because it would almost certainly require Ukraine to give up roughly a fifth of Ukraine that Russia now controls.
In breathless coverage of Carlson's movements in Moscow in recent days, Russia's pro-Kremlin media appeared to be building rumors about a possible Putin interview. On television and online, Russian state media have treated Mr. Carlson like a visiting celebrity, offering a stream of photos and videos of his various stops — arriving at the airport, dining at a restaurant and enjoying the “Spartacus” ballet in the Bolshoi. Theater.