Tucker Carlson says he soon will interview Putin
Anton Troianovski and Jim Rutenberg
President Vladimir Put n of Russia will “soon” sit for an interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host said Tuesday, a sign that the Russian leader is seeking to make a direct appeal to American conservatives as U.S. aid to Ukraine hangs in the balance.
“We’re here to interview the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin,” Carlson said in a video apparently shot from a high-rise in central Moscow and posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “We’ll be doing that soon.”
The Kreml n did not immediately confirm that the interview would take place, and has declined to comment on the possibility when asked by journalists in recent days. Carlson has been in Moscow
r several days, according to Russian state media, which has delivered a blow-by-blow account of his visit, raising anticipation of a potential interview by Carlson of Put n.
Carlson, whose show appears on X, did not specify the timing of any upcoming interview. It would be Putin’s first formal interview with a Western media figure since the start of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and his first with a U.S. outlet since he spoke with CNBC in 2021.
Putin’s government has drastically reduced the ability of Western journalists to cover Russia, and has imprisoned a Wall Street Journal correspondent, Evan Gershkovich, for more than 10 months on espionage charges that he, his employer and the United States government vehemently deny. The Kremlin has referred to Western countries as having been “stupefied” by anti-Russian propaganda.
The interview would come at a critical time for the war in Ukraine, with U.S. aid to the country stalled in Congress. A vote in the Senate on an aid package on Wednesday is almost certain to fail after an increasing number of Republicans said they would not support it.
In speaking with Carlson, Putin would likely be seeking to seize a unique opportunity: a chance to reach a potentially sympathetic audience in the United States.
Carlson, like Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, is skeptical of further U.S. support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, and has embraced Putin’s efforts to position himself as a global standard-bearer for “traditional values,” including opposing LGBT rights.
Putin’s calculus, in good part, appears tied to the war in Ukraine. The interview could inflame political divisions over Ukraine inside the United States, especially if Putin signals that he is open to a negot ated end to the war.
An interview at the Kremlin could be mutually beneficial for Carlson and Putin. Carlson lost the most prominent platform in conservative media when he was pushed from Fox’s lineup last year, while Putin lost the most prominent promoter of his anti-Ukraine talking points in the United States.
Carlson’s arrival in Moscow, and speculation that he was there to interview Putin, drew a mix of condemnation and praise from prominent X users.
“He is a traitor,” former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., wrote in a message, referring to Carlson. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trumpal gned Republican from Geor
a, lauded the news, saying: “Democrats and their propagandists are spasming at the prospect of Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin.”
Carlson said in his video that the interview would be posted on X and that the social network’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, had promised “not to suppress or block this interview.”
That may not be the case, however, for the Russian government, which restricted access to Twitter starting in March 2022, claiming the platform was hosting false information about the war in Ukraine.
In promoting the expected interview, Carlson falsely asserted that he was alone among Western media figures in trying to interview Putin. Various Western news organizations, including TV networks as well as The New York Times, have asked for interviews.
“Does Tucker really think we journalists haven’t been trying to interview President Putin every day since his full scale invasion of Ukraine?” wrote CNN and PBS journalist Christiane Amanpour on X, adding that Carlson’s claim was “absurd.”