Putin to Tucker Carlson: “Ukraine is an artificial state”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has become an increasingly isolated figure in the international landscape. Now, for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he has sat down to talk with Western media.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has become the first Western journalist to interview Vladimir Putin since the start of the war.

This doesn’t come as a surprise. In the past, Carlson expressed sympathy towards Putin on his former Fox News show 'Tucker Carlson Tonight', particularly in contrast to US “woke” liberals.

Meanwhile, high-ranking Kremlin officials, such as Foreign Minister Segey Lavrov, have talked about the former Fox News host in good light.

The interview lasted about two hours and was carried out by Tucker Carlson in the Kremlin and exclusively released on X (formerly Twitter). The former Fox News host first addressed the public, commenting that he first asked Vladimir Putin the most obvious question: “Why did you do it?”.

Image: Tuckercarlson / Twitter

The former Fox News host admitted he was shocked by the answer. For over half an hour and giving historical reasons that go all the way back to the 8th century, Putin made his case for Russia’s claim on eastern Ukraine.

Image: Tuckercarlson / Twitter

“Are we having a talk show or a serious conversation?”  Vladimir Putin asked, causing Carlson to laugh. Putin went on to essentially give a history lesson on the relationship between Kyiv and Novgorod, forerunners to Ukraine and Russia, during the Middle Ages.

Image: Tuckercarlson / Twitter

To make his case, Vladimir Putin gave Tucker Carlson an envelope filled with 13th-century documents where inhabitants of what today is Ukraine asked their then-Polish rulers for Slavic-speaking, Orthodox administrators. When this failed, they asked to be taken under the wing of the tsar.

Image: Tuckercarlson / Twitter

According to Putin, the idea of Ukraine as an entity separate from Russia was promoted by the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to undermine the Russian Empire in the 19th century.

Image: freewalkingtoursalzburg / Unsplash

Before the interview, Tucker Carlson wondered if this historical tirade was a filibustering technique on Vladimir Putin’s part. Ultimately, Carlson’s team felt Putin was sincere in his belief that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was meant to fix a historical mistake.

“Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped by Stalin’s will”, argued Putin, making the case that the first time Ukraine was established as an autonomous republic was during the formation of the Soviet Union.

Carlson then asked if Hungary, for example, has the right to claim back territory they have lost to Ukraine, using the same arguments. “I know for sure that Hungarians who live there want to get back their historical land”, commented Putin, remembering a road trip he made across the region back in the early 1980s.

Carlson tried to veer into the present and asked why the West fears a strong Russia but not a strong China. “The West fears more a strong China than a strong Russia”, retorts Putin. “China’s potential is enormous. It’s the biggest economy, and it has overtaken the United States quite a long time ago.”

Putin then went back to talk about the collapse of the Soviet Union and how NATO allegedly promised the nascent Russian Federation that it would not expand closer to Russia, only to add several former Soviet republics and satellite nations as members.

“There was a moment where a certain rift started to grow between us”, highlighted the Russian leader, recalling when his predecessor Boris Yeltsin tried to reach out to the West, only to allegedly be rebuked for not falling into the Western liberal consensus.

According to Putin, he asked Bill Clinton if it was possible for Russia to join NATO in the future, and the former US President, after consulting his team, said that it wasn’t possible.

“If he had said yes, would you have joined NATO?” asked Carlson. After some hesitation, Putin affirms that Russia would have started the process, but only if there was openness and sincerity coming from the Western bloc.

However, the Russian President remains skeptical about the North Atlantic military alliance. “The US leadership exhorts pressure, and all NATO members obediently vote, even if they don’t like something.”

“I proposed to that the United States, Russia, and Europe jointly created a missile defense system”, claimed Putin and, despite positive reception by George W. Bush, the idea was shot down by the US Secretaries of State and Defense.

Putin also accused the CIA of ousting the Pro-Russian former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 to install a Western-friendly government. This was one of the reasons that led Russia to invade Crimea in 2014 and, for Putin, the driving force to send troops to the Donbass region in 2022.

“They’ve always been our opponents”, remarked Putin, a former KGB agent, about the CIA. “But a job is a job”. The Russian leader also pinned the Nord Stream pipeline explosion on Western intelligence despite not having evidence.

Tucker Carlson also asked about Evan Gershkovich, a US journalist arrested by Russian authorities in March 2023, under charges of espionage. “I believe an agreement could be reached”, Putin affirmed.

Putin also explained what he means with “denazifying” Ukraine: “After gaining independence, Ukraine went on to search, what Western analysts would say, its ‘identity’. And it came up with nothing better than some false heroes who collaborated with Hitler”.

“I say Ukrainians are part of one Russian people”, Putin stated to Carlson. “They say they are a separate people. If they want to consider themselves a separate people, they have the right to do so, but not on the basis of the Nazi ideology”.

Putin also accused Ukraine of foul play, arguing that Moscow and Kyiv also reached a peace agreement in Istanbul but that Ukraine backed out “on Western’s orders” after Russia ordered its troops to retreat that were surrounding Kyiv.

Image: yapici / Unsplash

Carlson asked the Russian President why he didn’t just call the US President to work out the issues. “What’s there to work out?” Putin claimed that, although he hasn’t spoken to Joe Biden since the start of the special military operation, they are keeping in touch through other means.

“If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons”, declares Putin. “It will be over in a few weeks, that’s it. And then we can agree on some terms. Before you do that, stop”.

“A global war would put humanity on the brink of destruction”, commented Putting, arguing there’s a campaign of fear mongering against Russia that, ultimately, puts pressure on American and European taxpayers to fund the Ukrainian war machine. “The goal is to weaken Russia as much as possible”.

“Russia will fight for its interests til the end”, stated Putin, undeterred.