09 February 2024 , 00:56
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The controversial interview between right-wing TV host Tucker Carlson and Russian President Vladimir Putin got off to a bizarre start - with viewers taken on a 30-minute history lecture.
It WAS Putin’s first interview to a Western media figure since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago despite requests from a number of outlets. Anyone involved with the interview has been criticised by experts as an "enemy to the US". Carlson has repeatedly criticised US support of the beleaguered country.
The interview began with a lecture in Russian history from Putin, which began with a ramble about how the state was founded in year 862 when the townspeople of Novgorod invited a Virangian Prince Rurik from Scandinavia to reign.
READ MORE: Follow Tucker Carlson's controversial interview with Vladimir Putin - ALL KEY MOMENTS AT A GLANCE
As the conversation dragged on through centuries of Russian history, Carlson made feeble attempts to interrupt before being told by Putin: "This briefing is coming to an end. It might be boring, but it explains many things." Carlson shot back: "It's not boring. Just not sure how it's relevant."
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Opening the interview, which was broadcasted by Elon Musk's X, the 54-year-old news anchor referenced the upcoming history lecture: He told viewers: "The following is an interview with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Shot February 6th, 2024, at about 7 p.m in the building behind us, which is, of course, the Kremlin. The interview, as you will see if you watch it, is primarily about the war in progress, the war in Ukraine, how it started, what's happening, and most pressingly how it might end.
Putin dominated the airing with Carlson saying little to challenge him"One note before you watch. At the beginning of the interview, we asked the most obvious question, which is why did you do this? Did you feel a threat, an imminent physical threat, and that's your justification? And the answer we got shocked us. Putin went on for a very long time, probably half an hour, about the history of Russia going back to the eighth century.
"And honestly, we thought this was a filibustering technique and found it annoying and interrupted him several times, and he responded. He was annoyed by the interruption. But we concluded in the end, for what it's worth, that it was not a filibustering technique.
"There was no time limit on the interview. We ended it after more than two hours. Instead, what you're about to see seemed to us sincere whether you agree with it or not. Vladimir Putin believes that Russia has a historic claim to parts of western Ukraine. So our opinion would be to view it in that light as a sincere expression of what he thinks. And with that, here it is."
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Carlson and Putin's interview started with a bizarre 30-minute history lecturePreviously, Keir Giles, author and researcher studying Russia, told Mirror US: "Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin is good news for everybody involved. The only problem is, everybody involved is an enemy of the United States, of the West, of democracy and of genuine journalism."
Hillary Clinton also bashed the interview, saying: "If you actually read translations of what is being said on Russian media, they make fun of him ...he's like a puppy dog.
"He says things that are not true. He parrots Vladimir Putin's pack of lies about Ukraine, so I don't see why Putin wouldn't give him an interview." She also suggested that he might end up working for a Russian outlet, adding: "I would not be surprised if he emerges with a contract with a Russian outlet, because he is a useful idiot."