This is Putin’s first interview to a Western media figure in two years (Picture: Reuters/AP)
Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin will air on X at 11pm GMT time today after the former Fox News host travelled to Russia.
It is the Russian president’s first interview to a Western media figure since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
In a post on Instagram, Carlson – who Hillary Clinton referred to as a ‘useful idiot’ – said it would air on his website, tuckercarlson.com.
He had initially promised to upload it live and unedited to his X account, and Elon Musk, who owns the social media platform, ‘promised not to suppress or block it.’
A key ally of 2024 election candidate Donald Trump and a vocal opponent of US military aid for Ukraine, Carlson has been spewing all types of disinformation in the run up to his meeting with Putin
So much so that even the Kremlin – referred to as ‘the firehose of falsehood’ for its willingness to share partial truths or outright lies – had to step in and correct some of his claims.
Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the meeting had been recorded on Tuesday.
Carlson said he wanted to do the interview as ‘Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they are implicated in’, adding that journalists from the West could not be ‘bothered’ to interview him.
‘Americans have no real idea what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine,’ he urged.
Putin has heavily limited his contact with international media since launching the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian authorities cracked down on media, forcing some independent Russian outlets to close, blocking others and ordering a number of foreign reporters to leave the country.
Two journalists working for US news organizations – The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Alsu Kurmasheva – are in jail on charges they reject.
Western journalists were invited to Putin’s annual press conference in December – the first since the war began – but only two were given the chance to ask a question.
Carlson’s trip to Russia comes just over a month before the presidential elections.
His access to Putin is in major contrast with what other journalists, many from the UK, have.
Steve Rosenberg, Russia editor for the BBC, reacted to his claims: ‘Interesting to hear Tucker Carlson claim that “no western journalist has bothered to interview” Putin since the invasion of Ukraine.
‘We’ve lodged several requests with the Kremlin in the last 18 months. Always a “no” for us.’
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