I hesitated to post about Carlson’s ‘big get’, because there was a chance it would end up dismissed as just another Wingnut Wurlitzer nothingburger. But even in the rush of recent news, seems like there were points to discuss:
My hands-down favorite write-up of the Tucker Carlson-Putin interview was by the amazing @FrancescaEbel. Not even close. https://t.co/7q0yus8f47
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) February 9, 2024
From the Washington Post — “Putin, in rambling interview, barely lets Tucker Carlson get a word in” [gift link]:
Russian President Vladimir Putin spent the first 30 minutes of his two-hour interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson giving a revisionist historical tirade on the founding myths of Russia and Ukraine, the breakup of the Soviet Union and NATO expansionism.
From there, admonishing Carlson when he interrupted, Putin pontificated on matters ranging from the war in Ukraine and relations with the United States to the case of imprisoned American reporter Evan Gershkovich, and even to artificial intelligence.
By the end of the conversation, it was clear that Putin had no intention of ending his brutal war against Ukraine. But Carlson, who was sacked from Fox last year, seemed ready to surrender. Putin offered to keep talking. Carlson, evidently exhausted by the Russian leader’s long-winded conspiracy theories and grievances against the West, thanked him and called it quits — far short of the media coup that he had been touting.
Analysts said Putin’s choice to talk to Carlson was based partly on his perceived sympathy — the former Fox host has repeatedly dismissed criticism of Putin over the years — and the opportunity to appeal to the more MAGA reaches of the Republican Party during an election year. That could boost Donald Trump’s chances of reelection and persuade Republicans to continue to block U.S. military aid to Ukraine…
[Carlson] did not ask a single question about Russia’s attacks on civilian areas or critical infrastructure in Ukraine, which have killed thousands. There was no mention of the war crime allegations facing the Russian leader or the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. Absent, too, were questions on Russia’s sweeping political crackdowns on Putin’s critics or the long jail sentences meted out to ordinary Russians staging antiwar protests…
Russian Telegram channels reported that the interview with Carlson and Carlson himself was not to Putin's liking, and the interview itself was considered a failure:
"The Kovalchuk clan sharply criticizes the idea of an interview with the American journalist Carlson. They say… https://t.co/sCql6QuhkW pic.twitter.com/iyPZDTP2JW
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) February 9, 2024
“The Kovalchuk clan sharply criticizes the idea of an interview with the American journalist Carlson. They say that the problem is the unpreparedness of the interview arrangement – it was Gromov’s and Peskov’s mistake. Putin should have talked about conservative values, the creation of a conservative alliance, and moving on – but he went into history and platitudes about Ukraine. Naryshkin, who allegedly planted ideas with documents of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi and nonsense with Poland, also played a negative role here. He set Putin up to the fullest. Medinsky would not allow such a thing.”
According to reports, Putin didn’t like Tucker Carlson – “a snob and a useful idiot who got a meaningful fee, but was lazy and lacked creativity.”
Kovalchuk family believes they could have done better with Tucker Carlson, but “everything was wasted.” There’s a wave of complaints in the Kremlin.
Also: Tucker Carlson got paid to interview Putin.
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) February 10, 2024
Late Night Open Thread: Tucker Carlson in MoscowPost + Comments (42)