“Ukraine started the war in 2014. Russia didn't start it in 2022. Ours is an attempt to stop the war”. Vladimir Putin expresses himself thus in the river interview with Tucker Carlson. The president of Russia welcomes the American journalist to the Kremlin and speaks for 2 hours in a chat which, for the most part, is a monologue in which Carlson is unable to intervene. The departure is entirely a plan. Putin immediately puts the interlocutor in line: “Is this a talk show or a serious conversation?”
The first half hour of the interview is a long historical premise with which Putin highlights the ties between Ukraine and Russia and, basically, the artificial nature of the Ukrainian state. “We have every reason to say that Ukraine is an artificial state,” Putin says in the in-depth excursus that takes Carlson by surprise, unable to stop the history lesson. “I have never told the Hungarian prime minister that he can take a piece of Ukraine. We have never talked about the topic, but I know that Hungarians would like to return to the lands that historically belong to them”, says Putin answering one of the few questions.
“The collapse of the Soviet Union was brought about by the Russian leadership. Ties with Ukraine were believed to be strong in language, religion, family ties and economic relations. Russia expected to be welcomed with open arms by the international community, Including the United States”, adds the president, describing the scenario that gradually led to the current panorama.
“Here in the Kremlin in a meeting with President Bill Clinton I asked him 'Bill, do you think that if Russia asked to join NATO, it would happen?'. In the moment, he replied 'You know, I think so.' Later, when we met again for dinner, she told me 'I spoke to my team, now it's not possible'. Ask him…”, says Putin. “I asked if it was possible, the answer was 'no'. If he said yes, the process of getting closer would begin. But no means no,” he adds, closing the chapter.
“Ukraine was born as a neutral country according to its declaration of independence, but in 2008 the doors of NATO were opened…”, says Putin, proposing his own reconstruction of relations between Moscow and Kiev, in parallel with the internal evolution of the situation in Ukraine. “In 2014 there was a coup, they brought a threat to Crimea and started a war in Donbass. It all started from there, with one military operation after another. How could we not show concern for what was happening happening?”, he says, accusing “the current Ukrainian leadership” of failing to implement the Minsk agreements.
“We told the US and European countries” to implement the agreements, which “were complicated for Ukraine. I believed that if we convinced the people of Donbass to return to Ukraine – we would have to work hard – the wounds they would begin to heal. But everyone wanted to resolve matters with military force and we couldn't allow that. Ukraine began to prepare military actions, Ukraine started the war in 2014. Our goal is to stop this war that we did not start in 2022: ours is an attempt to stop it”, says Putin. Has Russia achieved its goals? “Not yet, because one of them is the denazification” of Ukraine. “Hitler has been dead for 80 years, but his example still exists. The current president of Ukraine applauded a Nazi in the Canadian parliament”, says Putin recalling an episode involving Volodymyr Zelensky on a trip to Canada, with the presence of a Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran in Parliament.
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