US journalist Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 6, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
"Yes, I can confirm this," Peskov told reporters when asked if Putin was interviewed on Tuesday.
Additionally, the official said that the Kremlin gets lots of requests for interview with Putin, including from Western media, but many of them lack impartiality.
At the same time, commenting on the alleged transcript of Putin's interview with Carlson published online, the official called it an absolute fake.
Speaking about the idea of US journalist Tucker Carlson to interview Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Peskov said is a matter of the authorities in Kiev as they "give out a lot of interviews."
"I cannot speak for him [Carlson]. This is a matter for the Kiev regime, they give out a lot of interviews," Peskov said, commenting on Carlson's statement that he wants to interview Zelensky.
Over the weekend, reports emerged saying that Carlson arrived in Moscow on Thursday and was spotted attending a ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre on Saturday. The journalist said in an interview with the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche in September 2023 that he planned to do an interview with the Russian leader, but was stopped by the US authorities.
Carlson gained his fame as a host of the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, broadcast from 2016 to 2023. After his contract with the channel was terminated, he began running Tucker on Twitter show, among other things. During his career, he has done interviews with former US President Donald Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Argentine President Javier Milei and other politicians, as well as with world-renowned celebrities.