Published 2024-02-14 23.02
unsaveSave
expand-left
full screen The right-wing radical journalist Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladimir Putin in Moscow on February 6. Photo: Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik Kremlin/AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expressing gratitude to former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson for an interview last week that he says had a “mediating role” to the West.
– Since we cannot have a direct dialogue with the West today, we need to be grateful to Mr. Carlson for his role as an intermediary, Putin told journalists in a statement distributed by the Kremlin.
The interview with American far-right journalist Tucker Carlson is the first the Russian president has done with a Western journalist since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In it, the Russian president said, among other things, that the West must realize that Russia cannot possibly be defeated in Ukraine.
Putin still says he is not completely satisfied with the interview, which has been viewed more than 200 million times on X. However, the disappointment is due to the fact that he expected more “tough questions” and that Carlson would be more “aggressive”.
– I was not only ready for it, but I hoped for it because it would have enabled me to respond in the same way, Putin said.
The interview has been criticized in the Western media for precisely the lack of critical questions and has been described more as a lecture in which Putin gave his view of Russian history and portrayed the country as a victim of Western betrayal.
Putin admits that Carlson tried to interrupt him several times, but praises the conservative journalist, who is close to former US President Donald Trump, for “his patience”.
However, the Russian leader lamented that his quote was “deformed” in the Western media.