Vladimir Putin is ready to make a deal on Ukraine, Tucker Carlson said, saying he had an “off the record” conversation with the Russian president in Moscow.
The American talk show host questioned the Russian leader last week in a hit interview in which Putin controlled the narrative and made a series of extraordinary claims about Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Carlson told the World Government Summit in Dubai in a speech on Monday that, based on the discussion between the two, he believes Putin is now prepared to reach a compromise with Ukraine, two years after he launched his brutal invasion.
‘Of course, the very job of the leaders of any country on this planet, except perhaps the United States during a unipolar world, forces them to reach a compromise. “This is what is called diplomacy,” Carlson said, according to the Russian News Agency. TAS.
“And he (Putin) is among them (leaders who are willing to seek a compromise).”
Vladimir Putin is willing to reach an agreement on Ukraine, Tucker Carlson said, days after conducting an interview with the Russian president in Moscow
The controversial American also suggested that Putin “will not be more open to negotiations” as his invasion of Ukraine drags on.
Carlson said Russia will only get stronger and the West must consider this.
“In recent years, we have discovered that Russian industrial capabilities are much more fundamental than we thought,” he said, according to TASS.
‘It easily produces missiles and artillery shells, while NATO does not (…). I myself have heard American officials say that they will return Crimea to Ukraine.
“There is no need to lecture Russia (…) This is crazy.”
Carlson also reportedly said at the summit that he had an “off-the-record” conversation with the Russian despot, but did not specify its content.
The interview, held on Tuesday in Moscow and broadcast on Thursday, was the first with a Western media figure since the February 2022 invasion.
Putin took the opportunity to push his narrative about the war in Ukraine, urge Washington to recognize Moscow’s interests and pressure Kiev to sit down for talks.
For more than two hours, a virtually unchallenged Putin showered Carlson with Russian history, propaganda and Kremlin talking points.
Putin reiterated his claim that the large-scale invasion – which kyiv and its allies describe as an act of unprovoked aggression – was aimed at protecting Russian interests and preventing Ukraine from posing a threat to Russia by joining NATO.
Ukraine has repeatedly said it would not make a compromise with Russia that would involve giving up its land, and has said it is determined to liberate all of its lands occupied by Moscow’s forces – including the Donbas region and Crimea – that have been annexed by Russia but are still widely recognized as Ukrainian territory.
Putin, who seemed confident and calm, made occasional friendly comments to Carlson, who seemed bewildered by the history lecture and tried to interject questions.
However, the 71-year-old Russian leader stayed on topic for more than 20 minutes, going back more than 800 years to lecture his American guest about Russia’s past.
Carlson did not ask Putin about the war crimes Russian troops have been accused of in Ukraine, or his relentless crackdown on dissent in his country.
Putin said it was up to Washington to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, which he called a US “satellite”, and persuade Kiev to negotiate, saying a deal was the way to end the war.
“We have never refused to negotiate,” Putin said. “They should tell the current Ukrainian leaders to stop and sit down at the negotiating table.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) attends an interview with American talk show host Tucker Carlson at the Moscow Kremlin on February 9, 2024.
Putin said the West would fail to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in Ukraine and rejected accusations that Moscow harbors plans to attack Poland or other NATO countries.
Russian media on Friday gave blanket coverage to the interview, with major broadcasters showing excerpts and a state news agency describing it as “a dagger through the propaganda curtain of the dishonest media of the civilized world.”
Before leaving Fox, Carlson repeatedly questioned the validity of US support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion and asked why Americans are told to hate Putin so much. His comments were frequently circulated in Russian state media.
Asked why the Kremlin granted Carlson’s interview request among many Western media outlets, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the former Fox host’s position is different from a “unilateral” stance by other media outlets.