Russian television's love affair with Tucker Carlson

There was a time when Tucker Carlson Tonight was the most watched news program on US cable television. However, clashes with the heads of Fox News, meant that the TV host had to find a new home at X.

Although Tucker Carlson may no longer be on Fox News, he’s still seen on television somewhere else: in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Russia-24, the state-owned news channel of the Russian Federation, has launched the program ‘Tucker’, made up of content made from Tucker Carlson on X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube, put together with a Russian voiceover.

Political news website The Hill reports that Russia-24 is using old clips from Carlson’s old shows without legal permission.

Newsweek originally reported that Carlson was launching an original show on Russian television but were forced to backtrack after the former Fox News host’s team spoke out.

Carlson spoke to news website Mediaite, claiming that him making a television show in Russia was “absurd” and that he had never heard of Russia-24 before.

However, as CNN points out, Russian media’s embrace of Tucker Carlson is anything but absurd. The former Fox News host has been more than cozy with the Kremlin in the past.

Back in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin granted an exclusive two-hour interview to Carlson, explaining his motivations for ordering a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Image: TuckerCarlson/ X

The interview marked the first time Putin sat down with a member of the press from the West since the start of the Russian invasion to Ukraine, in February 2022.

Carlson also released videos of himself in Russia, going to the supermarket and being surprised by state-of-the-art technology, such as putting a coin to grab a shopping cart. Also going to the Moscow Metro and being shocked about it being nice and clean.

When Carlson abruptly left Fox News in April, Russia Today posted on social media that he could always ask for a job over there. The former host of Tucker Carlson Tonight eventually found a new home in X.

Someone who came out in defend of Tucker Carlson? Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who, according to CNN, said that the media landscape in the United States suffered by his demise.

A popular term coined in Russia during the Soviet years was “useful idiot”. This defined an unwitting tool that could be easily managed to further push political goals without their grasp. Could Carlson be considered one?

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