Tucker Carlson’s interview last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin was so soft that even Putin thought it was a letdown.
“To be honest, I thought that he would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions,” he said told interviewer Pavel Zarubin, according to a Reuters translation. “I was not just prepared for this, I wanted it, because it would give me the opportunity to respond in the same way.”
Carlson, who was let go from Fox News last year, released a two-hour interview with Putin last week in which he barely spoke at times as the Russian leader delivered lengthy monologues. When Carlson did get a word in, Putin frequently dismissed him and continued with his lecture.
Putin noticed that, too.
“He tried to interrupt me several times, but still, surprisingly for a Western journalist, he turned out to be patient and listened to my long dialogues, especially those related to history,” Putin said, per a Google translation of a transcript posted on the Kremlin website.
That was a big disappointment for the strongman leader.
“Honestly speaking, I did not fully enjoy that interview,” he said with a laugh, according to a translated clip posted online on an X feed that monitors Putin’s comments:
Carlson, who has admitted to lying on his show, has frequently praised Putin and attacked US support for Ukraine, which Russia invaded nearly two years ago.
When he was still on Fox News last year, Carlson often repeated Russian talking points. He was cited approvingly by Russian state television, which even seemed to offer him a job.
After last week’s interview, Carlson continued his love affair with the Kremlin, praising Moscow as “so much nicer” than any US city.
“It is so much cleaner and safer and prettier aesthetically, its architecture, its food, its service, than any city in the United States,” he said.
Human Rights Watch notes that Putin is in the midst of an “all-out drive to eradicate public dissent in Russia” via laws attacking free speech, activism, independent journalism and political dissent. The resulting crackdown has led to jail for opposition leaders and critics of the ongoing war in Ukraine.