unsaveSave
expand-left
full screen Russian President Vladimir Putin was interviewed by the American right-wing radical journalist Tucker Carlson. Archive image. Photo: Alexander Kazakov/AP/TT
Defeating Russia in Ukraine is “impossible”, claims Russian President Vladimir Putin in a two-hour interview with American right-wing journalist Tucker Carlson.
For nearly half an hour, President Vladimir Putin was allowed to publish his own fabricated historiography about Russia and Ukraine. With references as far back as the 13th century, he finally arrived at his own conclusion that Ukraine is an “artificial state”.
The opening of the roughly two-hour long interview is similar to previous speeches by Putin in which the Russian leader tried to justify his war of aggression against Ukraine.
Putin blames the war on the fact that Ukraine wanted to get closer to the US and NATO.
“Impossible”
Putin, who shocked the world with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago and has since threatened the West with nuclear weapons on several occasions, claimed that it is out of the question for Russia to invade Poland or Latvia.
A war with Poland, he said, would only come into question if Poland attacked Russia.
Defeating Russia in Ukraine is “impossible”, Putin claims in the interview, among other things.
– There has been uproar and clamor to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield, Putin said, then continued:
– In my opinion, it is impossible by definition. It will never happen.
First interview
Carlson is the first Western journalist approved by Moscow for an interview with Putin since the Ukraine war began.
He was previously a well-known profile at American Fox News, but was fired last April. He is close to former President Donald Trump and strongly opposes US military aid to Ukraine.
Tucker was admitted to Putin in the Kremlin at a time when the next US aid package for Ukraine, worth $60 billion, has been blocked by Republican members of Congress.
– I will tell you what we say on this point and what we convey to the US leadership. If you really want to stop fighting, you have to stop supplying weapons. It will be over in a few weeks, Putin said.
The interview with Putin was published late Thursday evening.