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By Tiffany WertheimerBBC News, London
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Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson says he will “soon” interview Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, Carlson said he wanted to do the interview because “Americans have the right to know everything they can about a war they are involved in.”
It would be Putin’s first one-on-one interview with a Western journalist since he launched his large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin has not yet commented.
The 54-year-old’s visit to Moscow has been the subject of voracious coverage in Russian state media, with almost constant coverage of his every move.
“Obviously, there are risks in doing an interview like this, so we’ve thought about it for many months,” Carlson said. in your announcement video.
Carlson added that he paid for the trip to Russia himself and wanted to do the interview because “most Americans are not informed” about the conflict that is “reshaping the world,” blaming the mainstream media.
Since the war in Ukraine began, he said, Western journalists have interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he had previously called a “dictator,” many times.
But they are “fawning pep sessions” meant to amplify Zelensky’s demand to increasingly involve the United States in the war, Carlson insisted.
“That’s not journalism, it’s government propaganda.”
Meanwhile, “not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview” Vladimir Putin, Carlson claimed.
Steve Rosenberg, BBC Russia editor, posted that the BBC “has made several requests to the Kremlin in the last 18 months. Always a ‘no’ for us.”
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has devastated the country and its people.
The United Nations has said Russian forces are responsible for rape, “widespread” torture and murder in Ukraine.
Russia has also annexed four more regions of Ukraine, following its illegal seizure of Crimea in 2014.
And the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putinaccusing him of war crimes and illegal deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
In Russia, journalists are under extreme reporting restrictions – the media is prohibited from calling it “war”: it should be called “special military operation.”
Tucker Carlson has been an outspoken supporter of Putin since the war began. Just before the Russian invasion, he claimed that “hating Putin has become the central goal of American foreign policy,” but urged his viewers to ask why.
“Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to fire me for disagreeing with him?” Carlson said as Russian troops began massing on the Ukrainian border. “These are fair questions, and the answer to all of them is: No. Vladimir Putin did none of that.”
After the Russian invasion, he changed his tone slightly during a different program, saying: “Vladimir Putin started this war… He is to blame for what we are seeing tonight in Ukraine.”
It’s unclear exactly when the interview will take place, but Carlson said it would be uploaded live and unedited to his X account. Elon Musk, owner of the platform, “promised not to suppress or block the interview.”
Tucker Carlson was one of the highest-rated cable television hosts in the United States, but he abruptly left Fox News last year.
While on the American network, his programs frequently set the agenda of conservatives and, by extension, the Republican Party.
He was highly influential as the host of a late-night political talk show between 2016 and 2023 and has since launched a show on X.
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