Tucker Carlson, former host on Fox News Channel, sat with Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, and the two-hour interview posted February 8. The interview was first released on TuckerCarlson.com, then went live on X.
Carlson and Putin spoke at the Kremlin February 6. Carlson asked his questions in English and Putin responded in Russian. A translation is dubbed into the program.
In the intro, Carlson mentioned Putin’s half-hour diatribe on the history of Russia, which he thought might be a “filibustering technique” to eat up time and prevent tough questions. He said Putin then grew more sincere.
“Vladimir Putin believes that Russia has a historical claim to parts of Western Ukraine,” Carlson said.
The interview was Putin’s first with a Western media outlet since the war began nearly two years ago. Some media outlets said Carlson did not push back against Putin's more dubious statements. The BBC said, "Putin was fully in charge of this encounter and for large parts of it his interviewer barely got a word in...Instead of pushing the Russian leader -- indicted as a suspected war criminal -- on his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and challenging his false assertions, Carlson swerved off-piste to talk God and the Russian soul."
The Washington Post said, "On Fox News, Carlson was a master of combative interviews, carefully controlling their flow with interjections and even undermining his subjects by flashing a blank look on his face or a mischievous smile. But in Moscow, Carlson was a bystander for much of his own interview, interjecting only briefly."
In the interview, Putin called on the U.S. to “make an agreement” to end the war, with Russia picking up Ukrainian territory.
Putin wondered if America has “anything better to do” than immerse itself in the war in Ukraine. “You have issues on the border, issues with migration, issues with the national debt,” he said.
Among other things, Carlson asked about Evan Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia last year on espionage charges that the U.S. government denies. Putin said “the dialogue continues” on Gershkovich.
Carlson, who hosted Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, departed in April 2023. His departure came after Fox News settled a hefty defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems, where text messages and emails from Fox News journalists, including Carlson, were revealed. He also faced a lawsuit from a former producer based on how she said she was treated in the workplace.
Fox News did not give a reason for Carlson's ouster.
Putin said Russia and Ukraine would eventually come to terms and end the war. “This endless mobilization in Ukraine, the hysteria, the domestic problems–sooner or later, it will result in agreement,” he said.
Stressing that he deems Ukraine to be part of Russia, the president referred to the battle as “a civil war.”
He concluded, “They will be reunited.”
