Tucker Carlson said his long-awaited interview with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin will air Thursday night even as a bill to send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine remains pending in Congress. he said late Wednesday.
Carlson, a former Fox News host, made the announcement in an Instagram post, saying the interview will air at 6 p.m. ET on tuckercarlson.com. Despite multiple requests from various media outlets, this will be Putin’s first formal interview with a Western media member since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The interview took place on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov said.
According to Russian state media, Karlsson has been in Moscow for several days and has been reporting on his visit, raising hopes for a possible interview. He acknowledged Tuesday night that it was a possibility.
“I’m here to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Carlson said. video The photo appears to have been taken from a skyscraper in central Moscow and posted on social media platform X. “I’ll do it right away.”
Putin’s government has drastically curtailed the ability of Western journalists to report on Russia, jailing Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovitch for more than 10 months on charges of espionage, charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. ing. The Kremlin said Western countries were “stunned” by anti-Russian propaganda.
The interview took place at a critical time in the Ukraine war, with U.S. aid to Kiev stalled in Congress. On Wednesday, the Senate adjourned without moving forward on the aid package for Ukraine and Israel after Republicans blocked a compromise proposal that would have combined aid with tougher border security measures.
By talking to Mr. Karlsson, Mr. Putin is likely seizing a unique opportunity: a chance to reach a potentially sympathetic audience in the United States.
Carlson, like Republican presidential front-runner Donald J. Trump, is skeptical of further U.S. support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and wants to position himself as a “standard-bearer for the world.” We accept Mr. Putin’s efforts to do so. traditional values, such as opposing LGBT rights.”
Mr. Putin’s calculations appear to be largely tied to the Ukraine war. The interview could intensify political divisions in the United States over Ukraine, especially if Mr. Putin shows a positive attitude toward a negotiated end to the war.
In promoting the interview, Mr. Carlson falsely claimed that he was the only person in the Western media who had attempted to interview Mr. Putin. Various Western news organizations have requested interviews with him, including television networks and the New York Times.
“Does Tucker really think that we journalists haven’t tried to interview President Putin every day since he invaded Ukraine in earnest?” CNN and PBS journalist Christiane Ammann Mr. Poole is I wrote to Xadded that Carlson’s claims are “ridiculous.”
Peskov commented on this point on Wednesday: Carlson wasn’t right, but he couldn’t know it. We have received many requests for interviews with the president. ”
Peskov said that Western newspapers and television networks “cannot even boast of an attempt to appear impartial in reporting what is happening” and that “there is no desire to communicate with such media.” he said. He said Carlson’s position was “in contrast to that of traditional Anglo-Saxon media.”
The Kremlin meeting could be mutually beneficial for Karlsson and Putin. Mr. Carlson lost his most prominent position in conservative media last year when he was removed from the Fox lineup, while Mr. Putin lost his most prominent promoter of anti-Ukraine causes in the United States.
Mr. Carlson’s arrival in Moscow, and speculation that he may have come to Japan to interview Mr. Putin, drew a mix of criticism and praise from prominent X users.
Former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger referred to Carlson in a message, saying, “He is a traitor.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a pro-Trump Republican from Georgia, praised the news, saying: saying: “Democrats and their propagandists shudder at the prospect of Tucker Carlson interviewing President Putin.”
Carlson said in a video Tuesday that the interview would be published on X, and promised that the social network’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, “will not suppress or interfere with this interview.” He said he did.
But the Russian government may not. The Russian government has restricted access to the platform formerly known as Twitter since March 2022, claiming it hosts misinformation about the Ukraine war.
Mr. Carlson continues to provide Kremlin media with pro-Putin commentary for consumers in Russia, but since leaving Fox News, where he averaged more than 3 million viewers a night, he has become less popular in the United States. Its presence is fading.
Western officials and Russians close to the Kremlin have said in recent months that as Russia regains the lead on the battlefield and further U.S. aid to Ukraine stalls in Congress, Mr. Putin sees a deal within his reach. He said that it seems that But many Ukraine supporters say seeking a deal with Mr. Putin now would be tantamount to surrender. This is because Ukraine would almost certainly have to relinquish about one-fifth of the country currently controlled by Russia.
With breathless coverage of Karlsson’s movements around Moscow, Russia’s pro-Kremlin media appeared to be trying to drum up conversation about a possible interview with Putin. On TV and online, Russian state media treated Mr. Karlsson as a visiting celebrity, showing him off for various purposes, including arriving at the airport, eating at a restaurant and watching the ballet “Spartacus” at the Bolshoi Theater. Photos and videos of the moment they landed on the ground were shown one after another. theater.