Conservative media personality Tucker Carlson has returned to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
The former Fox News primetime host and Donald Trump ally made waves nine months ago when he unexpectedly appeared in Moscow to interview Putin himself, only to be widely derided for his credulous coverage of the country and failure to confront the Kremlin leader over his actions in Ukraine.
Even the Russian president mocked Carlson, pointing out his lack of “sharp” questions and teasing him about his failed attempt to join the CIA earlier in his career.
On Tuesday, Carlson posted a video on X from Red Square, where he explained his latest visit.
In the video, Carlson attacked President Joe Biden’s administration, saying it had “driven the US ever-closer to a nuclear conflict with Russia” by permitting Kyiv to use American-made missiles to strike deep into enemy territory for the first time last month.
“We are, unbeknownst to most Americans, in a hot war with Russia,” Carlson continued. “An undeclared war, a war you did not vote for and that most Americans don’t want but that is ongoing.
“And because of that war, because of the fact that the US military is killing Russians in Russia right now, we are closer to nuclear war than at any time in history. Far closer than we were during the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
While Carlson’s wording implies the American armed forces are directly involved in the Ukraine war, that is not the case.
Warning of the possible “elimination” of the US, Russia “and most of the rest of the world”, the pundit called Washington’s current lack of communication with Moscow “shocking” and condemned the failure of the American media to offer “the Russian perspective” on the war.
He also claimed that the State Department had blocked a proposed interview between him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trailing his sit down with Lavrov – which Carlson promised would be “absolutely fascinating” and would air on X “very soon” – the host said he had asked the veteran minister whether a “nuclear holocaust” could be averted, whether Russia’s eastward-looking alliance with China was set in stone and whether Trump’s return to the White House meant an end to the war in Europe could finally be in sight.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has since said that the interview between Carlson and Lavrov lasted around an hour and a half and would be released within days once it is edited and translated.
“The emphasis was placed on the modern, current history of our difficult relations with the United States, the impact of all this on world geopolitics, the possibilities of the future state of affairs,” she said, according to the Tass news agency.
“Ukraine and other issues were raised.”
Carlson played an increasingly active role campaigning on President-elect Trump’s behalf in the final stages of this year’s election, speaking at the Republican National Convention in July and at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in October.
He turned stomachs at one Turning Point event in Georgia when he compared America to “a bad little girl” in need of a “vigorous spanking” from “daddy.”
