Vladimir Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson landed on social media last night – and it was a real journey from start to finish.
The Russian president chose to speak to the right-wing commentator for his first interview with a Western journalist since invading Ukraine reportedly because he is different from “traditional Anglo-Saxon media”.
Carlson, since being fired from Fox News last year, has championed conspiracy theories and expressed his own sympathies for Putin publicly.
The two-hour interview, which Carlson said was filmed on February 6 in the Kremlin, covered a whole range of subjects. Here’s a look at just the key moments, according to a translation from the broadcaster’s video.
1. ‘Are we having a talk show or a serious conversation?’
Putin started the interview off by slapping down Carlson’s suggestion the invasion of Ukraine was triggered by Moscow’s worries about the US.
“Are we having a talk show or a serious conversation?,” Putin said. Carlson laughed in response.
2. Putin’s obscure, historical rant
Despite promising he would only provide historical context for the war for only around 30 seconds to a minute, Putin went on about Russia’s history for approximately half an hour. It dated back to the 8th Century.
At one point, Carlson said he was “losing track” of where they were in this history, and asked Putin how “relevant” this was to to the invasion. The Russian president repeated his comment about a “talk show or a serious conversation”.
3. Putin tries to give Carlson documents to prove his point
Mid-way through his rant, Putin started to gesture to someone behind the camera. He said to Carlson: “So that you don’t think I’m inventing things I’ll give you these documents.”
“It doesn’t sound you’re inventing things, but I’m not sure why it’s relevant to what happened two years ago,” the commentator replied, looking confused.
Putin just insisted on giving him documents from his historical archives.
4. Putin discusses other countries taking parts of Ukraine
The Russian president alleged Austria created the idea of Ukraine to weaken Russia before World War 1.
Putin argued Romania and Hungary’s also had land taken away “and they still remain part of Ukraine”.
But, when pressed by Carlson, Putin said he had “never” told Hungarian PM Victor Orban he could take parts of Ukraine back himself.
4. West ‘fears China more than Russia’
Putin said: “The West is afraid of strong China more than it fears a strong Russia, because Russia has won 150 million people and China has 1.5 billion population.”
5. Nato ‘tricked’ Russia – but Putin is not ‘bitter’
After the Cold War ended, Russia expected “it would be welcomed into the brotherly family of civilised nations” but “nothing like this happened”, according to Putin.
Addressing Carlson, he said: “You tricked us. I don’t mean you personally when I say you. Of course, I’m talking about the United States. The promise was that Nato would not expand eastward. But it happened five times. There were five waves of expansion.”
Putin claimed Russia could have joined Nato in the early 2000s but the entry was supposedly blocked by then-US president Bill Clinton and his team.
“If [Clinton] had said yes, the process of rapprochement would have commenced, and eventually it might have happened,” the president claimed.
Putin denied that he is “bitter” about this Nato rejection, and tried to build relationships with the US in another way – only for the States to later say it was working with his political opposition.
6. Putin talks about Trump and Bush
He said “tough politician” George W Bush “opened door to Ukraine joining Nato”, and oversaw five waves of expansions for the alliance.
However, he later said they had a “very good relationship” and Bush was “no worse” than any other politician.
In a rant against the “elites”, Putin said: “I had such personal relationship with Trump as well. It is not about the personality of the leader.”
7. Putin ‘thanks God’ Carlson didn’t get into CIA
In another rant, the Russia president started to talk about a 2014 coup in Ukraine – alleging it had “the backing of the CIA”.
Gesturing to Carlson, he said: “The organisation you wanted to join back in the day, I understand. We should thank God they didn’t let you in. Although, it is a serious organisation, I understand.”
Carlson did not respond.
8. Putin dodged responsibility for invading Ukraine
He said that he did not start the war in 2022, but that “this is an attempt to stop it.”
This may have been a reference to the tensions which started to brew in Ukraine since 2013.
“Do you think you’ve stopped it now?” Carlson asked.
“No, we haven’t achieved our aims yet, because of them is de-nazification,” Putin replied.
9. Putin recalls his last conversation with Biden
Putin said he cannot remember the last time he spoke to Biden, saying: “Do I have to remember everything? I have my own things to do.”
But, he said the last time they spoke was before the war.
Putin reportedly told the US president: “I believe that you are making a huge mistake of historic proportions by supporting everything that is happening there, in Ukraine, by pushing Russia away.”
Pressed over Biden’s response, Putin just said: “Ask him, please.”
10. War will be ‘over within a few weeks’ if US stop intervening
Putin said if the US stopped offering funding and military support for Ukraine, the war would be over in a “few weeks”.
But, he said Russia will fight for its interests “until the end”.
11. Russia has no interest in expansion
Putin said Nato was using an “imaginary Russian threat” to try “to intimidate their own population”.
Russia has no interest in “Poland, Latvia or anywhere else”, and “it goes against common sense to get involved in a global war”, according to the president.
He added that worries about Moscow using a nuclear tactical weapons were just meant to “weaken Russia as much as possible”.
12. What happened to the Nord Stream pipelines?
The two exchanged a laugh when Putin joked Carlson himself blew up Nord Stream, the natural gas pipelines stretching from Russia to Western Europe.
The pipeline was blown up in 2022, but investigators have still not found which party was responsible.
“You personally may have an alibi,” Putin said, “but the CIA has no such alibi.”
He refused to get into “details” about whether or not he had any evidence to back up that claim.
14. World going through a ‘period of severe disease’
Putin went on a tangent and suggested the world should be a “single whole”, to make sure it would be “stable, sustainable and predictable”.
He said current divisions mean the world is in a “period of severe disease” now.
“But thanks to honest journalism, this work is akin to the work of the doctors,” and “it could be remedied”, the president claimed.
15. Comments about Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s father
Putin said he spoke to the Ukrainian president once and said: ”“Volodymyr, what are you doing? Why are you supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine today while your father fought against fascism? He was a frontline soldier.”
Zelenskyy’s father was born in 1947, two years after World War 2 ended.
“I will not tell you what he answered. This is a separate topic,” Putin added.
16. Putin takes aim at Boris Johnson
Putin said Johnson discouraged Ukraine from signing a peace deal with Russia.
He said the ex-PM has a “pure heart” but “not a great mind”, and thought Moscow could be defeated on the battlefield”.
“The fact that [Ukraine] obey the demand or persuasion of Mr Johnson, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, seems ridiculous,” the Russian leader continues.
“And it’s very sad to me because... we could have stopped those hostilities with war a year and a half ago already. “
He added: “But the British persuaded us and we refused this. Where is Mr Johnson now? And the war continues.”
17. ‘There’s no stopping Elon Musk’
In a bizarre change of topic, Putin moved onto Elon Musk. He is the CEO of X (formerly Twitter), a platform banned in Russia.
Putin said: “I think there’s no stopping Elon Musk. He will do as he sees fit.
“Nevertheless, you’ll need to find some common ground with him. Search for ways to persuade him [when it comes to AI].”
18. Evan Gershkovich could be released
The Wall Street Journal reporter has been held in Russia prison for close to a year on espionage charges.
While Putin said he thinks Russia has “run out” of “gestures of goodwill” – because no one reciprocates them, apparently – he said we “do not rule out” his release.
19. Putin believes Russia-Ukraine relations could ‘heal’
Putin said: “This endless mobilisation in Ukraine, the hysteria, the domestic problems, sooner or later it will result in an agreement.
“You know, this probably sounds strange given the current situation.
“But the relations between the two peoples will be rebuilt anyway. It will take a lot of time, but they will heal.”
Putin claimed they were “willing to negotiate” even though Ukraine is “obviously a satellite state of the US”.
He said it was in some aspects a “civil war”, adding: “No one will be able to separate the soul.”