President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will sit down “soon” for an interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News anchor said Tuesday, a sign that the Russian leader is seeking to appeal directly to American conservatives as American aid to Ukraine it hangs. ambivalent.
“We are here to interview the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin,” Mr. Carlson said in a video apparently filmed from a high-rise in the center of Moscow and posted on social network X. “We will do this soon.”
The Kremlin did not immediately confirm that the interview would take place and declined to comment on the possibility when asked by reporters in recent days. Mr. Carlson has been in Moscow for several days, according to Russian state media, which issued a surprise announcement of his visit, raising anticipation of a possible interview by Mr. Putin with Mr. Carlson.
Mr. Carlson did not specify the timing of any upcoming interview. It would be Mr Putin’s first official interview with a Western media figure since launching his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and his first with a US outlet since he spoke to CNBC in 2021.
Mr. Putin’s government has sharply curtailed the ability of Western journalists to cover Russia and jailed Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges that he, his employer and the United States government strongly deny. The Kremlin has told Western countries that they have been “dazed” by anti-Russian propaganda.
The interview will come at a critical time for the war in Ukraine, with US aid to Kiev stalled in Congress. A Senate vote on an aid package on Wednesday is almost certain to fail after a growing number of Republicans said they would not support it.
An interview in the Kremlin could be mutually beneficial for Mr. Carlson and Mr. Putin. Mr. Carlson lost the most important platform in the conservative media when he was ousted from the Fox lineup last year, while Mr. Putin lost his most prominent anti-Ukraine propagandist in the United States.
In speaking with Mr. Carlson, Mr. Putin would likely seek to reinforce that point and seize an opportunity: a chance to reach a potentially sympathetic audience in the United States.
Mr. Carlson, like Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Mr Trump is skeptical of further US support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and has embraced Mr Putin’s efforts to position himself as a global standard-bearer for “traditional values”, such as opposition to LGBT rights.
Mr. Putin’s calculus, to a large extent, appears to be tied to the war in Ukraine. The interview could inflame political divisions over Ukraine within the United States, especially if Mr. Putin signals that he is open to a negotiated end to the war. Mr Carlson’s arrival in Moscow, and speculation that he was there to interview Mr Putin, drew a mixture of condemnation and praise from prominent X users.
“He is a traitor,” former representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, tweeted, referring to Mr. Carlson. Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, the Trump-aligned Georgia lawmaker, praised the news, saying: “Democrats and their propagandists fret over prospect of Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin”.
