One Thing We Learned From Tucker Carlson’s Servile Interview With Vladimir Putin

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson stayed docile throughout his two-hour interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin, with one of the only substantive points of tension arising when he confronted Putin about Russia’s detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

In December, the State Department revealed that Russia had refused a proposal for the release of Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan, who has been held in the country since 2018. It is unclear what Russia would have received in return. But Putin, without delving into specifics, did inform Carlson of one bargaining chip the US could use in negotiating an exchange for Gershkovich: Vadim Krasikov, a Russian operative serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination of a Georgian national who fought Russian troops during the Second Chechen War. 

“[Russia is] ready to solve it, but there are certain conditions that are being discussed between…the intelligence services,” Putin said of Gershkovich, who was arrested on dubious espionage charges last spring. “I believe an agreement can be reached.” He went on to note that Russia will continue to negotiate with the US but in private, saying, “The more public we render these things of this nature, the more difficult it becomes to resolve them. Everything has to be done in a calm manner.”

Putin also repeated the unfounded claim that Gershkovich “was caught red-handed when he was secretly getting confidential information.” Gershkovich and the Journal have denied any wrongdoing, stating the reporter was merely doing his job. “We’re encouraged to see Russia’s desire for a deal that brings Evan home, and we hope this will lead to his rapid release and return to his family and our newsroom,” the Journal said in a statement Friday. “Evan is a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Any portrayal to the contrary is total fiction. Evan was unjustly arrested and has been wrongfully detained by Russia for nearly a year for doing his job, and we continue to demand his immediate release.”

Carlson’s interview, which was released Thursday on X, was the first Putin has granted to a Western media figure since the invasion of Ukraine two years ago. The Russian president repeated many of his often-stated talking points about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including meandering lessons on Slavic history to justify his war of conquest, but there was scant news value. The Kremlin likely agreed to the arrangement because Carlson is among the most vocal American proponents of Russia and opponents of Ukraine.

Speaking to Carlson, Putin recounted his pleasant, “personal relationship” with Donald Trump and repeated Republican criticisms of the Biden administration. “[Ukraine is] thousands of miles away from your national territory. Don’t you have anything better to do?” Putin said. “You have issues on the border. Issues with migration, issues with the national debt. More than $33 trillion…. Wouldn’t it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement?” Of course, in Putin’s mind, any supposed peace agreement would allow Russia to keep the portions of Ukraine it currently occupies, including the strategically vital Crimean Peninsula.

In a coda shared on his website after the interview had aired, Carlson appeared unsure of its quality. He even finally criticized his guest—a convenient and empty gesture, given the two were no longer in the same room. “Putin is not someone who does a lot of interviews. He is not good at explaining himself,” Carlson noted. “He’s clearly spending a lot of time in a world where he doesn’t have to explain himself.”