former fox news Host Tucker Carlson is in Moscow to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said in a clip posted on social media platform X.
Mr. Carlson was fired. fox news Last year, he said he gave the interview because “Americans have a right to know everything they can about the war they’re involved in.”
The former host has consistently criticized U.S. aid to Ukraine and previously expressed strong anti-immigration positions on his Fox News show and defended authoritarian leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Ta.
In Tuesday’s video, he did not say when the interview would air, only saying “soon.”
He said the war in Ukraine was a “man-made disaster” that had changed long-standing political and trade realities around the world, a view expressed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that had become widely known.
“Most Americans have no idea why President Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now,” he said. “We’re not here because we love Vladimir Putin… We’re not recommending that you agree with anything Putin says in this interview, but we encourage you to watch it. You can. You should know as much as possible.”
He said he was conducting the interviews because it was his “job” as a journalist.
Christiane Amanpour, veteran journalist and CNN anchor I wrote this on X: “Does Tucker really think that we journalists haven’t tried to interview President Putin every day since he invaded Ukraine in earnest? That’s ridiculous. Same as before. We will continue to seek interviews.”
Steve Rosenberg, the BBC’s Russia editor, also tweeted: “Interesting @TuckerCarlson’s claim that ‘not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview’ Putin since the invasion of Ukraine.” We have submitted several requests to the Kremlin over the past 18 months. For us, the answer is always “no”. ”
According to Reuters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday declined to comment on whether there would be any future meetings or whether Karlsson had visited the Russian presidential palace.
Carlson said he also requested an interview with Zelensky.
“I hope he accepts it,” Carlson said.
“But the interviews he has already given in the United States are not traditional interviews. They were specifically designed to amplify President Zelenskiy’s demands that the United States intervene deeper in the war in Eastern Europe and pay for it. “It’s not journalism. It’s government propaganda, the ugliest kind, the murderous kind,” he claimed.