by Ben Whedon
Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on Thursday released his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he addressed his rationale behind the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and his view of diplomacy with the west.
Carlson attracted considerable scrutiny from western media for conducting the interview, which he defended as a part of his duty as a journalism.
“Two years into a war that’s reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed,” he said.
The interview itself, which Carlson posted in full on his website, began with Putin giving a thorough history lesson on the origins of the Russian state and the Ukrainian relationship with the Rus people.
Carlson prefaced the segment by indicating he found the diatribe “annoying” but ultimately concluded the narrative was not a stalling tactic, but something Putin considered relevant to the conflict.
He started by recounting the founding of Russia with the arrival of Rurik in Novgorod and the southward expansion of that state to Kyiv. He then moved on to the Mongol conquests of the regions and the subsequent Polish incursions on western Rus territories.
Carlson repeatedly interjected in that narrative, though Putin insisted that the history was relevant. He went on to highlight the past partitions of Ukraine between Russia and Poland and Catherine the Great’s later acquisition of other territories. Putin further attributed much of Ukraine’s nation identity to a propaganda campaign from the Austrian General Staff during World War I. Putin further recounted the myriad territorial changes of eastern Europe during the 20th Century.
Most notably, Putin seemed to blame Vladimir Lenin for the creation of a Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
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Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.
Photo “Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin” by Tucker Carlson.
