OAN’s Brooke Mallory
1:55 PM – Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Tucker Carlson, the popular former Fox News host, announced on Tuesday that he would be speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview.
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He will be the first journalist from the West to do so since almost two years ago, when Moscow began its invasion of Ukraine.
Carlson said on social media that he will speak with Putin “because it’s our job. We’re in journalism. Our duty is to inform people.”
“Western governments will certainly do their best to censor this video… Because that’s what they do,” Carlson says in the video.
Carlson had been seen traveling in Moscow, Russia, and during a conversation with a Russian reporter from state channel Izvestia, he hinted at the possibility of an interview with Putin, stating, “We’ll see.”
“I wanted to talk to people and look around,” he said to a Russian reporter.
The Russian Telegram channel Mash also released a picture of him at the renowned Bolshoi Theater, where he was seeing the ballet “Spartacus.” The broadcaster reported that Carlson has been in Russia since February 1st and that this was his first visit to the country.
Nevertheless, Dmitry Peskov, a press spokesman for the Kremlin, declined to comment on rumors that Carlson would be speaking with Putin.
“Many foreign journalists come to Russia every day, many continue to work here, and we welcome this,” Peskov told the press on Monday. “We have nothing to announce in terms of the president’s interviews to foreign media.”
However, since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, two American journalists have been detained by Moscow for their reporting from within the country: Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who is also a dual citizen of Russia.
“Their [Western] media outlets are corrupt. They lie to their readers and viewers, and they do that mostly by omission,” said Carlson, referencing his belief that Western outlets on both sides mislead citizens about the Russia-Ukraine war.
In September, Carlson also told the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche that he would be interested in speaking with Putin.
“I tried to interview Vladimir Putin, but the U.S. government stopped me,” said Carlson. “Think about that for a minute.”
“Well, you’re not allowed to hear Putin’s voice, ‘cuz why?” Carlson continued.
Additionally, Russian political scientist Sergey Mikheyev commented on the news of the upcoming interview.
“If Tucker dares to broadcast this interview in the United States, first and foremost, this will blow up their informational blockade from within.”
Mikheyev went on to assert that both the Republican and Democrat elites are “uninteresting and stupid,” and he confidently maintained that Putin’s interview will be more fascinating than anything discussed by American politicians.
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