It is generally legal for journalists to interview murderous dictators. The uproar over Tucker Carlson’s announcement that he would interview Vladimir Putin was that the session would be pure Kremlin propaganda. After all, Carlson is an admirer of President Vladimir Putin and, during his time as a Fox News host, vocally hoped that Russia would win the war against Ukraine. There were also concerns that Mr. Karlsson, who is not a real journalist, much less a historian, would be unable to resist Putin’s litany of lies.
In this sense, the two-hour interview aired on X and Carlson’s website on Thursday night exceeded all expectations. This reflects the egregiousness of Putin’s lies, the depth of Carlson’s complicity, and the potential implications of this at a time when many in Congress are looking for an excuse to cut off further aid to Ukraine’s beleaguered military. It’s a show that thoroughly rebels against certain influences.
The bit of good news is that Putin kicked off the big event with a 30-minute monologue about Russian history, claiming Yaroslav the Wise, the Rurik dynasty, and the baptism of Rus (and this was all it was). is. 1000 AD), many viewers may have stopped watching and turned it off.
It quickly became clear that the outcome of Putin’s speech was that Ukraine never existed as a nation, culture, or people independent of Russia. There was no mention of such a place until 1919, when the Bolsheviks established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Therefore, the claim for independence of Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union was absurd and an expression of ingratitude.
President Putin said in 2021 “ About the historical unification of Russians and Ukrainians. Carlson sat and listened with the expression of a lethargic undergraduate who wondered if he had stumbled into the wrong seminar, but he didn’t object to any of it.
When the discussion turned to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the true depth of Putin’s prank and Karlsson’s cooperation became clear. According to President Putin, the war was started by the United States and Ukraine. In 2008, President George W. Bush opened the door to Ukraine’s membership in NATO, which had already taken over many of Russia’s former allies in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2014, the CIA staged a coup in Kiev, bringing “neo-Nazis” to power and sending soldiers to the Donbass region, where many Russian-speakers live, forcing Moscow to come to their aid.
This explanation had the virtue of being half true, but importantly it was half false. At the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, President Bush declared that Ukraine and Georgia would join (and pressured Western allies to agree) but did not provide a timetable, and the Ukrainian people and It is true that this fueled President Putin’s false hopes. Paranoia – the worst of both worlds.
Putin omitted or distorted much of the context. First, NATO’s expansion, which began under Bush’s father, President Bill Clinton, was driven primarily by small states in Central and Eastern Europe, primarily Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary, who did not want to be left unprotected. encouraged. About what they saw as Russia’s inevitable revivalism. (Putin reiterated to Carlson his own claim that Clinton had promised not to expand NATO “an inch eastward.” Historian ME Sarot attests in his book like, Not even 1 inch, this is a myth. )
Second, the events of 2014 began with President Vladimir Putin backtracking on his promise to seek full membership in the European Union, after which Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych offered Ukraine $17 billion if he would do so. This backpedaling sparked a massive uprising in Kiev’s Maidan public square. Yanukovych tried to put down the protests with gunfire, but he eventually fled to Russia as pro-EU leaders took power.
Putin shrugged and said he was not concerned about Yanukovych’s proclivity for the EU, but the reality is that Ukraine, Russia’s largest and closest former ally, has turned to the West and is hoping to reap the benefits of leaving the EU. He said he was very concerned about what he might be exposed to. That might give democracy protesters in other former republics and Russia an idea. President Putin has called Maidan a “coup” staged by the CIA. (I recommend watching winter on fire, the Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary for Evgeny Afinevsky’s vivid rebuttal. If CIA personnel were able to mount such a large and successful protest, he wonders why American ideas and policies have not spread around the world like wildfire. )
Finally, President Putin claimed that Ukraine had sent troops to occupy the eastern Donbass region, which in fact was the case. Russia Special forces cross the border to fight alongside separatist militias.
Putin also insisted that he was always ready to make peace. He said he withdrew his troops from Kiev as a gesture of goodwill, but in reality his troops were forcibly repulsed by Ukrainian soldiers. He also said Russian and Ukrainian diplomats will meet in Istanbul in spring 2022 until British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, egged on by President Joe Biden, encourages Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to continue the fight. said he was ready to sign a peace treaty (to weaken Russia and increase the interests of the US military-industrial complex).
Indeed, President Putin’s negotiating position in Istanbul was completely unacceptable. He called on Ukraine to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the declaration of two eastern Ukrainian regions as independent states. He also called for Ukraine’s demilitarization (without any withdrawal of Russian troops) and “denazification” (meaning the resignation of the Kiev government in favor of a pro-Kremlin regime). In other words, President Putin was demanding Ukraine’s surrender.
Again, Carlson said nothing. In fact, he repeated his claims about Johnson as if they were true and wondered aloud why Johnson would do such a thing. Putin also neglected to point out (and Karlsson did not have the resources to remind him) that Zelenskiy had dropped his push for NATO membership two weeks into the war. If, as he continues to claim, the West’s militarization of Ukraine was indeed the cause of Russia’s invasion, Putin could have stopped the war on the spot.
Karlsson asked President Putin what he meant by “denazification.” Putin cited ultranationalist and even World War II fascist figures who are still considered heroes by Ukrainians, and claimed that Zelenskyy was one of them.There is something But it is nonsense to tag Zelenskiy, who is Jewish and whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust. Although Putin did not do so, it is also worth noting that Ukraine’s coalition of four far-right parties won just 2% of the vote in the 2019 parliamentary elections. This is far short of the 5% threshold needed to win one seat. less than far-right parties in other European countries.
Finally, President Putin claimed that President Zelenskiy had issued a decree banning peace negotiations with Russia. In fact, President Zelensky’s decree prohibited peace negotiations with Russia, not peace negotiations with Russia. president putin–For the very rational reason that President Putin cannot be trusted with anything.
Karlsson did not dispute this claim, so Putin continued. He said it was not the first time that Ukraine was just a puppet of the United States. Biden should lift this decree, and Putin will be happy to negotiate. Why, he asked quietly, does America continue to send billions of dollars to Ukraine when it has so many other problems, such as its southern border and national debt?
This is the point that President Putin came to make, a point that no true Western journalist knew could go unchallenged, until the trusted Tucker came calling. This is why he declined many other interview invitations. Putin knew that many viewers who knew little about or cared about Russia or Ukraine would nod their heads and agree that it was time to give up and give in — and so did Karlsson. .
Mr. Karlsson clashed with Mr. Putin on one point. He asked about Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been in a Russian prison for nearly a year on trumped-up spying charges. He’s obviously not a spy, Carlson argued, so why not let him go and come home with me? It would have been a real coup – a feather in the cap for Putin’s favorite American scribe. Putin acknowledged that a deal would be reached at some point, but continued to insist that Gershkovych was “working for US special forces.” Again, Carlson said nothing.
Otherwise, Carlson asked no questions about the many other journalists and commentators Putin has shut down, arrested or killed. He asked no questions about Putin’s constant bombing of purely civilian structures across Ukraine. He did not ask any questions about Russian cyber operations against Western countries. He did not ask any questions about cooperation with North Korea or Iran. When Putin said he had no territorial ambitions in the Baltic states, Poland or elsewhere, he said the same thing about Ukraine before the invasion, and has since made wild statements about the restoration of the Great Russian Empire. I didn’t pay attention to it being there.
All in all, this interview was, by Putin’s standards, about the same as what we’ve been hearing for some time, and by Carlson’s standards, it was even worse than anyone thought. That’s horrible.