He then said "professional liars in Washington" want to convince the public that Putin is a modern-day Adolf Hitler, and called State Department officials idiots for thinking Russia has expansionist ambitions into Poland or other countries. Please," Carlson said in the post-interview video. She was detained and charged last year with failing to register as a foreign agent.Īnd Carlson notably did not press Putin on the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for him and his child welfare commissioner on accusations of war crimes. And everyone knows it's true."Ĭarlson did not raise the fate of Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen who is a reporter for the U.S.-funded network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. And he's being held hostage in exchange, which is true. "And maybe he was breaking your law in some way, but he's not a super spy and everybody knows that. "The guy's obviously not a spy, he's a kid," Carlson said of Gershkovich. He suggested Putin should not hold Gershkovich as a pawn to trade for, say, the release of a Russian spy. He needled Carlson at separate moments about having been a history major and having applied (unsuccessfully) for a position at the Central Intelligence Agency.Īt the tail end of the interview, Carlson pressed Putin to release Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned by Russian authorities nearly a year ago on charges of espionage - charges the newspaper stoutly rejects. Putin appeared to have done opposition research worthy of the KGB agent he once was. "We were protecting our people, ourselves, our homeland and our future," Putin told Carlson, according to the interpreter of the exchange. Nor did he use the word "invasion" to describe the deployment of Russian troops and missiles into Ukraine that kicked off the war. Carlson did not question Putin's framing. The Russian leader blamed the Ukrainians for the 2022 invasion. (Ukrainian leaders and many historians dispute his rendering of the history of the region.) Putin dominated the conversation – which exceeded two hours – with long, discursive asides relying on propagandistic talking points to argue that Russia's right to eastern Ukraine spans centuries. So was it a hard-hitting interview holding a wartime leader to account? A retelling of history Even the Kremlin contradicted Carlson's claims, saying it had received and rejected requests from "exceptionally one-sided" U.S. This was clearly false Reporters at CNN and the BBC and executives at NPR and Fox were among those who said their networks would be eager to interview Putin without conditions. In that promotional video, Carlson had said he wanted to interview Putin about the war in Ukraine to learn the truth – and because other American journalists were too biased against Russia to want to do so. "No one of us, and no one other foreign journalist, except for Oliver Stone, had that luxury of reporting from the roof top."įew have done more than Carlson to lift up the Russian leader as a figure of admiration in Republican circles, just as he has propelled the otherwise relatively obscure Viktor Orban, Hungary's autocratic leader, to star status. "Its roof is controlled by one of the KGB's successors, the Federal Security Service," she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. media's coverage of Taylor Swift.Ĭarlson filmed a video to promote the interview on the rooftop of the Ritz Carlton Hotel near the Red Square, a location that, according to Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats, spoke volumes of the regard the Kremlin held for Carlson. Russian media has fawned over Carlson this week, giving his comings and goings in Moscow a treatment akin to U.S. Carlson has routinely been lionized by Kremlin propaganda outlets his clips attacking the Biden administration's support for Ukraine have been routinely rebroadcast, for example. The pairing should not come as a surprise. It is the first interview Putin has granted to an American since the Russian invasion two years ago.
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