The West will never succeed in inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia in Ukraine, believes the Russian president.
Vladimir Putin told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Washington should recognize Moscow’s interests and persuade Ukraine to come to the negotiating table.
The Russian president also said he believed an agreement could be reached to release American journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia last March.
This is the first time that Vladimir Putin has spoken to a Western journalist since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Russian leader repeated many contested and well-rehearsed justifications for the conflict, including that it was necessary to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine and prevent the country from posing a threat to Russia by joining NATO.
He also gave his version of Ukraine’s history and claimed that the government in Kyiv is full of neo-Nazis.
Tucker Carlson, a conservative American presenter close to Donald Trump, has regularly criticized the United States’ support for Ukraine and called Volodymyr Zelensky a “Ukrainian pimp” and of “rat”.
The decision to interview Vladimir Putin was widely criticized, with Tucker Carlson falsely claiming that no Western journalist had “bother” to speak directly to the Russian president.
Vladimir Putin himself stands to benefit from this exposure to a wider audience in the United States, where war fatigue is growing and efforts to secure more aid for Kyiv have stalled in Congress.
The Russian president spent more than half an hour recounting the history of Russia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, a monologue that spans from the reign of Oleg the Wise in the 9th century, to a critique of Lenin’s foreign policy.
However, most of the interview focused on Ukraine, where the Russian invasion began almost two years ago.
Vladimir Putin highlighted Volodymyr Zelensky’s refusal to discuss with the Kremlin. He said it was up to Washington to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and convince Kyiv, which he called “satellite” of the United States, to sit at the negotiating table.
“We have never refused negotiations”assured Vladimir Putin. “You should tell the current Ukrainian leadership to stop and sit down at the negotiating table”.
A majority of Ukrainians remain committed to the war and want Russian forces removed from their territory, according to a Gallup poll.
Vladimir Putin warned that the West would never succeed in inflicting “strategic defeat” to Russia in Ukraine and rejected allegations that Russia intended to attack Poland or other NATO countries.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby tried to downplay the impact of the Tucker Carlson interview before it aired: “Remember, you’re listening to Vladimir Putin. And you shouldn’t take everything he has to say at face value.”
The release of American journalists on the table
Since starting the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Vladimir Putin has severely limited his contacts with the international media.
At the same time, Russian authorities have taken harsh measures against independent media, forcing some Russian media outlets to close, blocking others and ordering a number of foreign reporters to leave the country.
Two journalists working for American news outlets – Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal and Alsu Kurmasheva of Radio Free Europe – are in prison.
Asked by Tucker Carlson about the possibility for Russia to release Evan Gershkovich, Vladimir Putin assured that Moscow was open to discussions, but repeated that the journalist was accused of espionage, an accusation that Evan Gershkovich denied.
“He was caught red-handed while secretly obtaining classified information”argued Vladimir Putin, adding that he did not exclude that the journalist could return home.
“There is no taboo on resolving this issue”he said. “We are ready to resolve it, but some conditions are being discussed between the special services. I think an agreement can be reached.”
He cited the case of a man imprisoned in a “country ally of the United States” to get “liquidated a bandit” who had killed Russian soldiers during the fighting in the Caucasus: “He took our soldiers prisoner on a road and drove a car over their heads. A patriot liquidated him in one of the European capitals”.
Vladimir Putin did not name names, but he appeared to be referring to Vadim Krasikov, a Russian who is serving a life sentence in Germany after being convicted of the brazen 2019 broad daylight killing of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen origin.
German judges who convicted Vadim Krasikov said he acted on orders from Russian federal authorities, who provided him with a false identity, passport and resources to carry out the hit.