In a more than two-hour interview that was made public online, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson about a range of subjects, including the Russian economy and Ukraine on February 8, 2024.
This caused debate among Americans of the fact that Carlson provided a platform to the one who instigated a vicious and catastrophic conflict in Ukraine leading to push back in the West. However, state-run media in Russia greeted Carlson as one of the most well-known and powerful journalists in the United States. An honor Carlson happily accepted.
“Putin is not someone who does a lot of interviews. He is not good at explaining himself… But he’s clearly spending a lot of time in a world where he doesn’t have to explain himself,” journalist Tucker Carlson said.
Throughout the interview the Russian president viewed the United States as its own worst enemy as a system destined for disintegration. He feels that a second Trump presidency would undermine the West and deny Ukraine the backing it needs. He sees Trump as a man who is likely to cause catastrophe. However, the head of Russia freely admits that his true desire is for the US to change into a completely different kind of nation. The actual person occupying the White House does not matter as much.
Putin also had several other objectives in this interview for the Russian and American people. The most crucial thing was to demonstrate to Washington that Russia is still committed to getting Ukraine to submit. In order to ensure a government that is unwaveringly devoted to Moscow, Putin compared the Ukrainian resistance fighters to neo-Nazi movements in Ukraine.
“We haven’t achieved our aims yet, because one of them is denazification. This means the prohibition of all kinds of neo-Nazi movements,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Putin is using this kind of rhetoric to convey that Ukraine is the enemy and his movement should succeed. Putin wants to ensure that Kyiv will never see the ascent of a pro-Western leader. This is basically the cornerstone for democracy for Ukraine. Russia doesn't want a democratic leader in Ukraine to prevent democracy from continuing to expand across Eastern Europe.
Another topic discussed during the interview was about what Putin appears to believe that 2024 will present Russia with the continued opportunity to take control of Ukraine. It is true that there won't be any major Western weaponry deliveries to Ukraine this year, which elections are the US government's primary concern and that political unrest is currently occurring in Kyiv. Putin tried to use the interview to start a debate in the US over whether or not to give Ukraine more assistance.
“Tucker Carlson is a friend of Putin. The only reason he’s doing this is to help Putin convince Americans to let him do whatever he wants, including subjugating Ukraine,” NHS junior Theo Anderson said.
It also appeared during the interview that Carlson was giving Putin “softball” questions that didn’t really focus on the real issues going on. Carlson let Putin rant on about the history of Russia and Ukraine taking away from an aggressive debate that Putin was expecting.
“To be honest, I thought that he would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions… I was not just prepared for this, I wanted it, because it would give me the opportunity to respond in the same way,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
As a result of the interview Putin was able to come out with very few scratches and Carlson actually took most of the heat from the American public. This was something that most people weren’t expecting when watching this interview.
“We all knew he never had America’s best interest at heart when interviewing Putin. This interview gave even more reason to be concerned about this war in Ukraine,” NHS junior Connor Child said.