HS reviewed the key statements of Russian President Vladimir Putin from the interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said the former Fox News anchor by Tucker Carlson in the interview through a wide spectrum of his views on the war in Ukraine, the military alliance NATO and especially the United States, where Carlson is from.
The Russian president did not speak concisely, but began the interview by giving a half-hour lecture to the American journalist, in which he presented his own views on the common history of Russia and Ukraine. The message was Putin's oft-repeated claim that Ukraine is an inseparable part of the Russian world.
Helsingin Sanomat broke down Putin's key statements, which you can also see in the video excerpts provided by the Reuters news agency below. The video excerpts come from the full, more than two-hour interview that Carlson released on their website.
What did Putin say about NATO?
It has been feared that Russia will test the validity of NATO's security guarantees in the Baltics, for example, if the country wins the war in Ukraine. Putin knocked this out.
According to Putin, Russia could send its troops to NATO country Poland only if Poland had attacked Russia first, Putin told Carlson.
“We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We are not interested in that. Such talk is pure intimidation”.
Putin claimed that Western governments are intimidating their own people with the “imaginary” threat of Russia.
Before their large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials repeated several times in public falsely that they are not invading Ukraine.
What did Putin say about the United States?
According to Putin, relations with the United States can only be warmed when the United States stops supplying Ukraine and Russia has won in Ukraine.
“We are connected (to the United States) through our various agencies. I'll tell you (Tucker) what we're telling them about this: if you want the fighting to stop, you have to stop supplying the weapons. Then it will end in a few weeks.”
According to Putin, the war in Ukraine could turn into a global conflict in a situation where the United States would send its own troops to Ukraine.
“Does America need this? Why? Thousands of kilometers away from their own territory. Don't you have better things to do?”
Putin referred to, among other things, the situation on the southern border of the United States and indebtedness.
“Wouldn't it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement that understands the developing situation and the fact that Russia will fight for its own interests until the end? Understanding this, we can return to common sense and once again respect each other's countries and interests and look for solutions.”
What did Putin say about Ukraine?
In the interview, Putin showed no signs that Russia would be ready to give up the territories it occupied in Ukraine.
“Do you think it is too humiliating for NATO at this point to accept that Russia controls territories that two years ago belonged to Ukraine?” Carlson asks.
According to Putin, until now, in the West, “there has been an uproar about the fact that Russia must be inflicted with a strategic defeat on the battlefield.”
“Now they have apparently begun to understand that it is difficult to achieve, if it is possible at all. I think it's impossible by definition. That will never happen.”
Putin says that Russia is ready for dialogue when Western power-makers accept this.
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