Tucker Carlson' Interview With Vladimir Putin: Key Points
00:27 09.02.2024 (Updated: 10:16 09.02.2024)
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The American political commentator earlier said he wanted to do the interview because "most Americans are not informed" about the conflict in Ukraine.
On Thursday, American journalist Tucker Carlson released his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is the first Western journalist to do so since the special military operation in Ukraine began in February of 2022.
During the 2-hour interview, Putin opened by explaining the centuries-long history of "Ukraine", which he says was a name invented by the Poles, who considered the southern Russian lands, which were part of the Polish-Lithuanian state, a suburb.
"It didn't define it as belonging to any ethnic group," Putin told Carlson.
"What matters is that the war begun and Poland fell prey to the policies it had pursued against Czechoslovakia. This under the well known Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, a part of the territory including western Ukraine was to be given to Russia, thus Russia, which was then named the USSR regained its historical lands," said Putin.
"So this was how this situation developed. In 1922 when the USSR was being established, the Bolsheviks started building the USSR and established the Soviet Ukraine, which had never existed before," he added.
"Romania and Hungary had some of their lands taken away and given to the Soviet Ukraine, and they still remain part of Ukraine. So in this sense, we have every reason to affirm that Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped at Stalin's will," Putin explained.
Carlson then asked Putin if he had told Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban that he can "have part of Ukraine", to which Putin said, "never". But during the interview, Putin explained what had led to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
"In 2008, the doors of NATO were opened for Ukraine. In 2014, there was a coup. They started persecuting those who did not accept the coup. And it was indeed a coup. They created the threat to Crimea, which we had to take under our protection. They launched the war in Donbas in 2014 with the use of aircraft and artillery against civilians. This is when it all started," said Putin.
"Initially, it was the coup in Ukraine that provoked the conflict," Putin stated. "CIA did its job to complete the coup."
Putin added that he had spoken to the US multiple times about the West militarizing Ukraine, adding that Ukraine had started preparing for military action. The Russian president also explained that he had wanted to negotiate a settlement with the conflict in Ukraine as well.
"We prepared the huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He had fixed his signature to some of the provisions, not to all of it. He put his signature and then he himself said, we were ready to sign it, and the war would have been over long ago. 18 months ago. However, Prime Minister Johnson came, talked Ukraine out of it and we missed that chance," said Putin.
"We prepared the huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He had fixed his signature to some of the provisions, not to all of it. He put his signature and then he himself said, we were ready to sign it, and the war would have been over long ago. 18 months ago. However, Prime Minister Johnson came, talked us out of it and we missed that chance," said Putin.
When asked if Russia has achieved its aims, Putin said it hadn't yet because one of its goals is de-nazification, which is the prohibition of all neo-Nazi movements. He added that Ukraine had sought an identity after gaining independence, and based that identity off of those who had collaborated with Adolf Hitler.
The interview often turned to the topic of NATO, with Carlson asking the president if he had felt felt a physical threat form the West in NATO, including a potentially nuclear threat. Carlson also asked if this threat is what made Putin "move" towards Ukraine.
"The former Russian leadership assumed that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and therefore there were no longer any ideological dividing lines. Russia even agreed voluntarily and proactively to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and believed that this would be understood by the so-called civilized West as an invitation for cooperation and association. That is what Russia was expecting, both from the United States and this so-called collective West as a whole," said Putin.
Putin added that the West had promised Russia that NATO would not expand eastward, and yet it happened five times.
"The promise was that NATO would not expand eastward. But it happened five times. There were five waves of expansion. We tolerated all that. We were trying to persuade them. We were saying, please don't. We are as bourgeois now as you are. We are a market economy and there is no Communist Party power. Let's negotiate," the president explained.
The Russian president added that at the start of his presidency he had asked former President Bill Clinton if it would be possible for Russia to join NATO.
"Well, I became president in 2000. I thought, okay, the Yugoslav issue is over, but we should try to restore relations. Let’s re-open the door that Russia had tried to go through," he explained.
"At a meeting here in the Kremlin with the outgoing President Bill Clinton, right here in the next room, I said to him, I asked him: 'Bill, do you think if Russia asked to join NATO, do you think it would happen?' Suddenly he said, 'you know, it's interesting. I think so.' But in the evening, when we met for dinner, he said: 'You know, I've talked to my team, no, it's not possible now.'”
Carlson pressed Putin in asking him if he would have joined NATO had the former US president said, "yes" at the time. Putin answered that it "might have happened", but that he was not "bitter" or resentful that it did not happen.
On China, Putin said that the "West is afraid of strong China" more than it fears a strong Russia, due to the population size of China which is 1.5 billion. He added that China's economy is growing by "leaps and bounds". And when asked if BRICs is in danger of being dominated by the Chinese economy, Putin called them "boogeyman stories".
"It is a boogeyman story. We're neighbors with China. You cannot choose neighbors, just as you cannot choose close relatives. We share a border of 1000km with them. This is number one. Second, we have a centuries long history of coexistence. We're used to it. Third, China's foreign policy philosophy is not aggressive. Its idea is to always look for compromise. And we can see that."
When asked who was responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream, Putin simply said the US, "for sure."
"But in this case, we should not only look for someone who is interested, but also for someone who has capabilities, because there may be many people interested, but not all of them are capable of sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and carrying out this explosion. These two components should be connected. Who is interested and who is capable of doing it?"
At the end of the interview, Putin said that the operation in Ukraine will ultimately end in an agreement, and that with time, relations will heal.
"What is happening is, to a certain extent, an element of a civil war. Everyone in the West thinks that the Russian people have been split by hostilities forever, and now they will be reunited. The unity is still there. Why are the Ukrainian authorities dismantling the Ukrainian Orthodox Church? Because it brings together not only the territory. It brings together our souls. No one will be able to separate the soul."
"You know, this probably sounds strange given the current situation. But the relations between the two peoples will be rebuilt anyway. It will take a lot of time, but they will heal," said the Russian president.
