In the first interview given to a Western journalist since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine two years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin told American Tucker Carlson that the neighboring country is an “artificial state” and blamed the West for the continued war.
The recorded interview was broadcast on Thursday night (8) on X and on the official website of Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who has almost 12 million followers on Elon Musk's social network.
Putin opened the interview by repeating the argument he had presented in February 2022, when the war began: Russia and large parts of Ukraine have a historical and ethnic connection and the second country never had its own identity and territorial cohesion in fact, that would have been created by the Bolsheviks.
“We have every reason to assert that Ukraine is an artificial state, established by Stalin’s will,” he said.
Putin told Carlson that two facts led him to invade Ukraine: what he called a “coup,” in reference to the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014; and Ukraine's alleged refusal to implement the Minsk Agreements, established to stop the war between pro-Kremlin separatists and Ukrainians in the Donbass region.
The Russian president also said that, in a conversation with former American president Bill Clinton (1993-2001), he asked if it would be possible for Russia to join NATO, the Western military alliance, but that, after the Democrat consulted advisors, he received an “no” as an answer.
“We realized that we were not welcome there,” said Putin, who claimed that, despite “promises”, NATO continued to expand towards Eastern Europe and that Moscow “never agreed” to Ukraine’s entry into the military alliance.
He also said he had archived a statement in which the CIA admits that it is allied with the opposition in Russia to overthrow him.
Regarding the relationship with the Americans, the Russian said nothing when asked if a change of president in the United States could change the course of the war in Ukraine.
“You just asked me if another leader could come in and change something. It’s not about the leader,” Putin said.
“It’s not about a particular person’s personality. I had a very good relationship with, let's say, [George W.] Bush [2001-2009]. I know that in the United States he was portrayed as a kind of country boy, who doesn't understand much about things. I assure you that this is not the case,” said Putin, who stated that he also had a good relationship with another Republican president, Donald Trump (2017-2021).
“It's not a question of the leader's personality, it's about the mentality of the elites. If the idea of domination at any cost, also based on energetic actions, dominates American society, nothing will change. It’s only going to get worse,” he said.
Regarding the current American president, Joe Biden, Putin said that he did not remember the last time he had spoken to him, but that before the war he told the Democrat that he considered him to be making “a big mistake, of historic proportions, by supporting everything that's happening there
[Ucrânia]”.
Putin made accusations about the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022. When Carlson asked who was responsible for the explosions, the Russian president replied: “You, of course,” referring to the United States. “Maybe you [Carlson] personally have an alibi, but the CIA doesn’t,” he joked.
Putin also accused the West of fomenting the continuation of the war against Ukraine. “We are willing to negotiate,” he said. “[A culpa] it’s on the western side, and Ukraine is obviously a satellite state of the United States,” he claimed.
However, he said that Russia has not yet achieved its objectives in Ukraine, such as the “denazification” of the neighboring country. On the other hand, he denied having any intention of invading other countries in the region, such as Poland and Latvia.
Asked about American journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia last year on espionage charges and whose freedom Carlson called for, Putin said negotiations for an exchange for a Russian prisoner were underway.
Controversy
The interview, recorded on Tuesday (6) in Moscow, caused controversy even before it was aired, because Carlson said that “no Western journalist had bothered” to interview Putin since the start of the war in Ukraine.
However, the Kremlin reported that it received “numerous requests” for interviews with the Russian president from Western journalists, which were denied because Moscow considers the press organizations that made the requests to be biased.
In the video announcing the interview, Carlson said that most Americans “are not well informed about the war,” but “they should be, because they are paying for much of it in ways they haven’t fully realized yet.”
“We are not here because we love Putin, we are here because we love the United States, and we want it to remain prosperous and free,” he said.
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