What Putin Saw When He Was Interviewed by Tucker Carlson This is what a tyrant looks like: small, and full of tedious resentments. “Not analogous in any way!” In fact, Putin had clearly, and more explicitly than ever before, channelled Hitler during the interview. are trying to convince you that this guy is Hitler, that he is trying to take the Sudetenland, or something,” Carlson continued. “The professional liars in Washington . . . That would include not only former Soviet republics but also Finland and Poland. During the interview, Putin gave every indication that he thinks of former imperial possessions as still rightfully Russia’s. “You’d have to be an idiot to think that.” Actually, you might look at the evidence-the invasion and de-facto control over about a fifth of Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the continued occupation of about a fifth of Ukraine and the ongoing offensive there-to conclude that Russia is an expansionist power. “Russia is not an expansionist power,” he said. That Carlson was surprised suggests that he either didn’t watch Putin’s earlier appearances in preparation for the interview, or that, despite copious evidence to the contrary, he imagined that Putin the man would match Putin the role: a dictator whose opponents get killed and jailed and who invades neighboring countries ought to be larger than life, terrifying in person, and certainly not boring.Ĭarlson emerged from the interview shaking his head. Putin’s obsession with history is genuine, as is his belief in a narrative that justifies, indeed makes inevitable, Russia’s war against Ukraine. The content of Putin’s conversation with Carlson was barely distinguishable from the content of Putin’s rare speeches and so-called press conferences and hotlines-annual hours-long, highly orchestrated television productions. “But I concluded after watching all this, no, that was the predicate to his answer: the history of the area and the formation of this country and the connection to Ukraine is part of the basis for his Ukraine policy.” “I thought he was filibustering,” he said, still apparently reeling from the history lesson. After the interview, an incredulous Carlson held up a gray cardboard folder with a little rope tie: Putin had given him copies of documents to back up his historical claims. When he was done with the lecture, he segued into a litany of grievances against the West, where several generations of Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Secretaries of State have, according to Putin, let him down or ghosted him. Putin used the interview to deliver a lengthy lecture on the history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and its aftermath, meant to convince viewers that Ukraine never had a right to exist. More than anything else, Carlson seemed surprised: by the fact that he got to interview Putin in the Kremlin and even film himself sharing some post-interview impressions in a room full of lacquer and gold leaf by what Putin said during the interview and by the man himself. What Tucker Carlson Saw When He Interviewed Vladimir Putin The interview later aired, in a version dubbed by what would appear to be Kremlin-provided translators, on Carlson’s Web site, one of Russia’s main state television channels, and the Kremlin Web site. On February 6th, Tucker Carlson spent more than two hours interviewing Vladimir Putin.
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