Decoding Putin’s ‘obsessive ideas’ in the Tucker Carlson interview
Al Jazeera
In a two-hour talk, the pair covered history, politics and war. Ukrainians and Russia watchers say it was simply propaganda.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told conservative US journalist Tucker Carlson that ending Moscow’s almost two-year-old invasion of Ukraine is “simple”.
In his first interview with a Western reporter since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began two years ago, the Kremlin handpicked Carlson, a former Fox News superstar-turned-online commentator.
The reason is obvious – Carlson has characterised the Russia-Ukraine war as a “border dispute”, called on Americans to cut off multibillion aid packages to Kyiv, and compared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to a “rat” and a “pimp”.
During the two-hour interview recorded in a Kremlin audience hall with gilded furniture, Carlson did not pressure Putin the way he used to sandbag the pro-Democrat guests on the Fox News show he was fired from last year.
Putin’s goal appears obvious – he wanted Carlson to urge Republicans to stop supporting Ukraine and concentrate on domestic problems.
