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Tucker Carlson: Putin takes charge as TV
host gives free rein to Kremlin
• Published

2 hours ago

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Media caption,
Watch: The moment Carlson asks Putin if he would release detained US reporter
By Sarah Rainsford
Eastern Europe correspondent
Vladimir Putin lectured, joked and occasionally snarled - but not at his
host.
Tucker Carlson laughed, listened - and then listened some more.
During the American's much-hyped encounter with the Russian president, his fixed,
fascinated expression slipped a few times.
Especially when Putin's promise of a 30-second history lesson became a 30-something
minute rant.
But for the most part, Carlson seemed to lap up what Russia's president was telling
him.
Putin was fully in charge of this encounter and for large parts of it his interviewer
barely got a word in.
• Putin says deal can be reached to free US reporter
• What does Putin gain from Tucker Carlson interview?
• The former Fox star interviewing Vladimir Putin

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.
Journalist hostage
The American had touted his sit-down with Putin as a triumph for free speech,
asserting that he was heading where no Western news outlets dared to tread.
That's untrue. The Kremlin is simply highly selective about who Putin speaks to. It
will almost always choose someone who knows neither the country nor the language
and so struggles ever to challenge him.
Carlson's claim also ignored the fact that Russia's president has spent the past two
decades in power systematically stamping out free speech at home.
Most recently, he made it a crime to tell the truth about Russia's full-scale invasion of
Ukraine.
Multiple critics - Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin and many more - are in prison
right now for doing just that.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
Evan Gershkovich has been held in Russia since last year
It was a full two hours into his interview before the former Fox News anchor asked
about the US journalist Evan Gershkovich. He was arrested last year in Russia while
doing his job and accused of espionage.
Carlson suggested Vladimir Putin might release the reporter into his custody,
providing a trophy to return with from his trip.
What Putin gave was the strongest hint yet of what he wants in return.
He talked about a Russian "patriot" who had "eliminated a bandit" in a European
capital, seeming to confirm previous reports that Russia is demanding a prisoner swap
with Vadim Krasikov.
The assassin, a suspected Russian intelligence agent, killed a Chechen separatist in a
Berlin park in 2019.
Putin claimed negotiations were under way and "an agreement could be reached".
We already know those complicated talks are not new, involve three countries and
likely at least two American prisoners.
Lectures
The whole encounter in the Kremlin opened with a history lecture.
Putin wrote a long essay before the war that denied Ukraine's existence as a sovereign
state. He now appears to have learned it by heart.
He delivered his thesis, eyes burning with conviction, as Carlson's own burned with
boredom and disbelief.
For fans who managed to stay tuned any longer, the reward was a re-run of Putin's
top, twisted arguments.
He aired his regular grievance about Nato expanding east into what Russia sees as its
area of influence. "We never agreed Ukraine could join Nato," as Putin put it.
But it's having an aggressive, unpredictable neighbour like Russia that's led Ukraine to
seek extra security.
Putin has always characterised the mass public protests in Kyiv a decade ago as
part of a Western-backed "coup", which they were not.
He also called the fighting in the eastern Donbas that Moscow provoked a civil war.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
Putin agreed to this chat from a position of relative strength
It's all part of how Putin justified his full-scale invasion, almost two years ago - along
with "de-Nazifying" Ukraine, which he claimed is still a work in progress.
Kyiv fiercely disputes every word of it.
At one point Putin insisted "relations between the two peoples will be rebuilt. They
will heal."
But I've met many Ukrainians who spoke Russian before the invasion and often
travelled there.
After two years of unprovoked fighting and missile attacks, they've switched language
in droves and tell me they feel nothing but hatred.
It's just one example of how far Vladimir Putin is from actual facts and reality. Just
like in February 2022, when he sent Russian troops rolling on Kyiv thinking they'd be
greeted as liberators.
Peace chances
It seems Putin agreed to this chat from a position of relative strength.
The fighting in Ukraine has stalled. Kyiv's allies in the West have been dithering over
continued military aid, especially the US.
President Zelensky just sacked his commander-in-chief, talking of the need for a
reset and renewal in the war effort.
The situation is precarious.
So there was plenty of swagger from Putin about how Russia is "ready for dialogue"
and "willing to negotiate".
He wants to capitalise on any hesitancy among Ukraine's supporters and any doubts
among Ukrainians themselves about going on fighting.
"Sooner or later this will end in agreement," was Putin's message, arguing that Nato
was coming to realise that defeating Russia on the battlefield would be impossible.
It's all classic Putin and Tucker Carlson let him roll with it.
Not all interviews need to be combative. There is merit in letting people speak and
reveal themselves. But this one took that concept to the extreme.
None of Putin's statements were challenged in essence.
None of the actual facts of his all-out invasion were presented to him, including
allegations of war crimes in Bucha, Irpin and far beyond.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,
Evidence of apparent war crimes was discovered following the withdrawal of Russian
troops from some areas of Ukraine, including Bucha
Nor did he have to answer for the "high precision missiles" that slam into homes in
Ukraine, killing civilians.
The American did not push Putin at all on political repression at home, which
includes locking up vocal opponents of the war in jail.
Excitement
The way Carlson was feted in Moscow was extraordinary. There was breathless
coverage of his every move from the same TV hosts who usually rail against the West
as a mortal enemy.
Like a spurned lover, suddenly given attention, Russia was excited.
And it seems Carlson was moved by his experience, too.
His interview, which included a question about the supernatural, ended with Putin
talking about souls.
Both men fell silent for several seconds, before Russia's leader broke the spell.
"Shall we end here?"
Carlson blinked. "Thank you, Mr President."
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