Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host, says he will soon have an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
In a video on X, also known as Twitter, Carlson said he wanted to do the interview because he believes that Americans should know all they can about a war that they are involved in.
Mr Putin hasn’t talked to a Western reporter one-on-one since he invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin has not said anything yet.
Several hours later, Russian reports said that the interview had lasted for about two hours and would be released “soon”.
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar said: “The only safe interview in this situation is the questioning in The Hague. ”
She said that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. They are accusing him of war crimes and illegally sending children from Ukraine to Russia.
Russian state media has been talking a lot about Tucker Carlson’s visit to Moscow, and they have been covering everything he does.
“Interviews like this can have risks, so we have been thinking about it carefully for many months,” Carlson said in his announcement video.
Carlson said he paid for the trip to Russia and did the interview because most Americans don’t know about the conflict that is changing the world, and he blames the mainstream media for it.
Ever since the war in Ukraine started, he said that reporters from Western countries have talked to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky several times, even though he had called Zelensky a “dictator” before.
But they are “excited meetings” that are meant to make Mr. Zelensky’s request for more US involvement in the war sound even stronger, Carlson said.
“That’s not real news – it’s just the government trying to control what people think. ”
At the same time, Tucker Carlson said that no Western journalist has taken the effort to interview Vladimir Putin.
Steve Rosenberg, who reports on Russia for the BBC, said that the BBC has asked the Kremlin for information multiple times in the past 18 months. “We never say ‘yes’. ”
The head of the FT’s office in Moscow, Max Seddon, said it was surprising to say there aren’t enough American reporters covering the Russian side of the invasion when two American journalists are currently in jail for doing just that. Evan Gershkovich from The Wall Street Journal and Alsu Kurmasheva from Radio Free Europe have been in jail since last year before their trials.
Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats said that she and many other reporters had to leave their country to keep working, while Carlson was staying in an expensive hotel room in Moscow.
Russian reporters have been told not to call the situation a “war” and to use the term “special military operation” instead.
Russia attacking Ukraine has caused a lot of damage and suffering to the country and its people.
The United Nations said that Russian soldiers have been causing a lot of harm in Ukraine, including raping people, torturing them, and killing them.
Russia took over four more areas of Ukraine, in addition to Crimea, in 2014.
Tucker Carlson has been a vocal supporter of Mr Putin since the war started. Shortly before Russia attacked, he said that “the main goal of America’s foreign policy is to hate Putin,” but he wanted his viewers to think about why that is.
“Did Putin ever call me a racist. Has he said he’ll get me fired for disagreeing with him. ” Carlson asked as Russian troops gathered on Ukraine’s border. “These are good questions, and the answer to all of them is: No. Vladimir Putin didn’t do any of that.
After Russia attacked, he spoke a little differently in another show and said “Vladimir Putin began this war. ” “He is the reason for what we are seeing tonight in Ukraine. ”
It’s not clear when the interview will happen, but Carlson said it will be posted live and unedited on his X account. Elon Musk, the owner of the platform, said he won’t stop or block the interview.
Tucker Carlson used to be a popular TV host on Fox News, but he suddenly left the channel last year.
While working at the US network, his shows often influenced the ideas and goals of conservatives and the Republican party.
He was really important as the main host of a popular political talk show from 2016 to 2023, and now he has his own show on X.