Looks like Tucker Carlson’s ploy to boost his and/or Putin’s ratings for an American audience may have backfired on *both* participants… and it could not happen to a more deserving duo.
Do you know who loves Russia? Russians who were willing to be murdered or imprisoned to speak the truth about Putin. https://t.co/as7TVlAlZe
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) February 11, 2024
“Russia is not an expansionist power,” Tucker Carlson said after his interview with Vladimir Putin. But the Russian President had clearly, and more explicitly than ever before, channelled Hitler during the interview, @mashagessen writes. https://t.co/ozXMWxaVQA
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) February 13, 2024
… What Tucker Carlson Saw When He Interviewed Vladimir Putin
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. 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. 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. 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. Carlson hadn’t opened it yet. “I thought he was filibustering,” he said, still apparently reeling from the history lesson. “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.”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. Putin’s obsession with history is genuine, as is his belief in a narrative that justifies, indeed makes inevitable, Russia’s war against Ukraine. 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…
Late Night Open Thread: Tucker Carlson in MoscowPost + Comments (48)
