Russian President Vladimir Putin has been interviewed by former Fox Information host Tucker Carlson, the Kremlin confirmed Wednesday. It’s Putin’s first interview to a Western media determine since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years in the past.
Carlson had launched a video from Moscow on Tuesday through which he mentioned he could be interviewing Putin. Carlson claimed that Western journalists had interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a number of instances however couldn’t be “bothered” to interview the Russian president.
The interview might be posted Thursday, in accordance with Justin Wells, head of programming at Carlson’s streaming community. It’s not recognized what was mentioned within the interview.
Putin has closely restricted his contact with worldwide media since he launched the struggle in Ukraine in February 2022. Russian authorities have cracked down on media, forcing some unbiased Russian shops to shut, blocking others and ordering a lot of overseas reporters to depart the nation. Two journalists working for U.S. information organizations — The Wall Avenue Journal’s Evan Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Alsu Kurmasheva — are in jail on prices they reject.
Western journalists had been invited to Putin’s annual press convention in December — the primary because the struggle started — however solely two got the prospect to ask a query.WHY TUCKER CARLSON?
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, instructed reporters that Carlson was chosen for the interview as a result of “he has a position which differs” from different English-language media.
Earlier than his exit from Fox, Carlson repeatedly questioned the validity of U.S. assist for Ukraine following the Russian invasion, and he’s questioned why Individuals are instructed to hate Putin a lot. His commentaries had been incessantly circulated on Russian state-run media.
In his video this week, Carlson denounced “corrupt” American media shops for “fawning pep sessions” with Zelenskyy that he mentioned had been designed to get America right into a struggle with jap Europe and pay for it.
Peskov additionally rejected Carlson’s suggestion that no Western journalists had submitted requests to interview Putin. He mentioned the Kremlin has obtained many requests from massive Western tv channels and newspapers which, he asserted, “take a one-sided position.” Carlson’s place, Peskov mentioned, “is in no way pro-Russian, nor pro-Ukrainian, but rather pro-American.”
The Related Press is among the many shops that has requested an interview with Putin.
“Does Tucker really think we journalists haven’t been trying to interview President Putin every day since his full scale invasion of Ukraine?” CNN’s Christiane Amanpour mentioned on X. “It’s absurd — we’ll continue to ask for an interview, just as we have for years now.”HOW THE INTERVIEW WILL BE DISTRIBUTED
The interview with Putin, Carlson mentioned in his video, might be distributed totally free on his web site and on X, previously referred to as Twitter. Carlson, who was fired by Fox News in April, introduced he was beginning his personal streaming service in December.
Fox has supplied no rationalization for firing Carlson, who was its top-rated persona on the time. Like many individuals who go away the community that’s conservative America’s hottest information outlet, he has struggled to stay within the public eye.
Carlson labored at Fox Information for greater than a decade and hosted a present the place he mentioned conspiracy theories about Russia and the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Russian state media on Wednesday extensively lined Carlson’s go to.
Vladimir Solovyev, considered one of Russia’s most well-known tv hosts, mentioned the interview would “break through the blockade and the narrative that exists” in Western media which, he mentioned, focuses on “Putin’s unprovoked, brutal invasion of Ukraine.”
Solovyev, whose present is commonly important of Western media, mentioned Carlson is “feared” as a result of he doesn’t align with that narrative.
