Carlson interviewed Putin ‘from position of ignorance’
American political commentator and writer Tucker Carlson has told The National that he interviewed President Vladimir Putin of Russia because he wanted to find out what motivates the leader.
The former Fox News host, speaking in Dubai on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit, described Mr Putin as “intense”.
Carlson said he was at a huge disadvantage as he does not speak Russian and is not an expert on internal Russian affairs, so much that he “didn’t even broach it with him”.
“I was really coming at it from a position of ignorance, honestly,” he said.
“I felt my job was to listen and to get his voice and perspectives on tape for as long as I could, so that more knowledgeable people could assess; could know more.”
Earlier, Carlson told an audience at the Dubai summit that he “didn’t go to Russia to promote Vladimir Putin”.
“If that were my purpose I would say so because I’m not embarrassed,” he said.
Carlson said instead that he went there because he wanted to enable people to receive indepth information about what is happening in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“I went because most Americans don’t know really know what’s happening and they don’t know anything about this guy they are supposedly at war with, unofficially.”
He was referring to continued support from the US for Ukraine, following Russia’s invasion almost two years ago.
Speaking to The National,
Carlson rejected criticism from some journalists about doing the interview and said he did not consider them journalists.
“If you are a ‘journalist’, who is instructing other journalists not to talk to somebody because your government and its [intelligence] agencies don’t like him, listen to yourself. Is that journalism?” he said.
“Of course not. You are acting as a propagandist on behalf of a government.
“I’m hardly endorsing Putin. I don’t speak Russian.
“You can’t understand a country if you don’t speak its language, can you?”
He said in the English-speaking world “we live in a news vacuum, which is by design”.
“And we just don’t know what’s happening in huge parts of the world,” he said.
“I spend my life talking to people who I know, from a country I’ve lived in my whole life, in a language I speak natively so it is a very different experience.”
Back in Dubai, Carlson said there was a “huge collection of genuinely interesting people” at the summit.
He said he was attending to find out what was happening in a world that seems to be “resetting in a lot of ways that are not obvious if you live in the US”.