Putin's strangest claims to Tucker Carlson - from WW2 to root of Ukraine war

10 February 2024 , 19:44

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Vladimir Putin made several outlandish claims during his interview with Tucker Carlson this week (Image: TCN)

Russian President Vladimir Putin's interview with former Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson yielded lots of interesting and head-turning talking points, including several outlandish claims about world history and the state of current world affairs.

Carlson flew to Russia to interview the dictator just this week, an ironic move considering his staunch anti-Russian views. Some are calling him and anyone involved with the interview "an enemy of the US."

Kicking off the interview by giving a 30-minute-long speech about the history of Russia, Putin talked over Carlson at many points, even as the seasoned far-right political commentator attempted to interrupt him.

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: 'Everybody involved in Tucker Carlson's Putin interview is an enemy of the US and West'

Among the claims that Putin made were several false retellings of world history (TCN)

But then the topic shifted to what Carlson had wanted to interview the dictator about — the war in Ukraine, including why he invaded and some of the background surrounding it. In a preface to the video, Carlson stated that the interview occurred in the Kremlin at around 7pm local time on February 6, then gave a disclaimer about what he said his team initially thought was a "filibustering technique," which he said they decided to include uncut, as it seemed genuine.

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Here are some of the most bizarre, unverified claims Putin made during the two-hour-long interview with Carlson, from strange, aggressive claims about Ukraine to weird historical claims about who is to blame for certain world events.

Poland started World War 2

One of the most outlandish of Putin's claims is that Poland was responsible for World War II. At the beginning of the interview, Carlson had praised the leader for his "encyclopedic knowledge" of world affairs and the history of the region.

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Putin claimed that Poland was responsible for World War II (Getty Images)

But he wasn't exactly throwing praise the dictator's way after he claimed that Poland essentially let Adolf Hitler's Germany invade on Sept. 1, 1939. He said that the fact that Poland was invaded in the first place was proof of its culpability in the conflict, as the country had essentially collaborated with Hitler, he claimed.

The CIA blew up the Nord Stream pipeline

Constructed to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe, including Germany, the Nord Stream pipelines were an economic fixture of both regions and served to ease tensions in interstate relations between them, at least a little bit.

But in September 2022, one of the pipelines exploded, and tons of the highly sought-after fossil fuel bubbled up to the surface of the ocean — the result of sabotage, many countries investigating the incident reported at the time.

Putin also claimed that the CIA blew up the Nord Stream pipeline (SWEDISH COAST GUARD/AFP via Gett)

Putin told Carlson he believes the sabotage was the direct result of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which was trying to meddle in his war in Ukraine. It escalated tensions between Western powers, including the US, and Russia, which is what Putin believes the purpose of such a move was.

"You for sure," was the Russian president's response to Carlson's direct demand asking who was responsible for the explosion. "I was busy that day. I did not blow up Nord Stream. Thank you, though," Carlson jokingly retorted. "You personally may have an alibi, but the CIA has no such alibi," Putin responded.

Ukraine plagued by neo-Nazi movements, leaders

Russian forces may have invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but Putin claims the war began well before that in 2014, when the Maidan Revolution, also called the Revolution of Dignity or the Ukrainian Revolution, saw tyrant and former President Viktor Yanukovich ousted from office for refusing to sign a deal agreement that would offer free and open trade between Ukraine and the European Union.

The CIA and Russia have been locked in a bit of a Cold War stalemate for years as both continue to monitor each other (Getty Images)

Russia annexed Crimea that year, and fighting broke out. The February 2022 invasion was simply another step in that ongoing war, Putin claims, which he said was started entirely by Ukraine. He said the invasion was an attempt to stop the fighting.

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"We haven't achieved our aims yet. Because one of them is de-Nazification. This means the prohibition of all kinds of neo-Nazi movements," he said, shocking viewers. He has previously claimed that Nazis rule Ukraine, including current President Volodymyr Zelensky — who just so happens to be Jewish and has family who died in the Holocaust.

Russia 'owns' Ukraine

Putin has long justified his war in Ukraine by claiming that Russia owns the land anyway and that he's just taking back what is rightfully his country's. He claimed that Ukraine was only designated when the former Soviet Union was established and that it has always belonged to Russia.

Carlson tried to interrupt a couple of times during Putin's long history spiel, but the Russian president wouldn't have it (Getty Images)

He said World War II "enshrined" Russia's ownership of Ukraine and all the former USSR territories and that every one of them, not just Ukraine, belongs to Russia.

Ukraine is a satellite of America

While Putin seems to believe that he owns every country and region formerly held by the USSR, he also seems to think that Ukraine is a mere "satellite state" of the US, stating that the US provides enough financial support for the country that it essentially owns it. Which is ironic, considering that Putin also claims he owns it.

Christopher Bucktin