This is likely to be a very interesting interview for multiple reasons. The “Western world” has not heard much unfiltered or unscripted news about Russian President Vladimir Putin for several years, essentially since the sanctions were imposed in the aftermath of Russia’s entry into Ukraine and the subsequent war.
The backlash against Tucker Carlson has been extreme ever since his entry into Russia and visibility in Moscow was noticed. President Putin having the ability to speak directly to a Western audience is not something any of the Western government officials are comfortable with.
The following is an UPDATED version of the Carlson interview.
Tucker: 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.
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.
Tucker Carlson: Mr. President, thank you.
On February 24, 2022, you addressed your country in your nationwide address when the conflict in Ukraine started and you said that you were acting because you had come to the conclusion that the United States through NATO might initiate a quote, “surprise attack on our country.” And to American ears that sounds paranoid. Tell us why you believe the United States might strike Russia out of the blue. How did you conclude that?
Vladimir Putin: It’s not that the United States was going to launch a surprise strike on Russia, I didn’t say so. Are we having a talk show or serious conversation?
Tucker Carlson: That was a good quote. Thank you, it’s formidably serious!
Vladimir Putin: You were initially trained in history, as far as I know?
Tucker Carlson: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: So if you don’t mind I will take only 30 seconds or one minute of your time for giving you a little historical background.
Tucker Carlson: Please.
Vladimir Putin: Let’s look where our relationship with Ukraine started from. Where does Ukraine come from?
The Russian state started to exist as a centralized state in 862. This is considered to be the year of creation of the Russian state because this year the townspeople of Novgorod (a city in the North-West of the country) invited Rurik, a Varangian (Viking) prince from Scandinavia (now Denmark), to reign.
[In other words, the Russian state was first ruled by a Viking from Denmark!]
In 1862, Russia celebrated the 1000th anniversary of its statehood, and in Novgorod there is a memorial dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of the country.
In 882, Rurik’s successor Prince Oleg, who was, actually, playing the role of regent at Rurik’s young son because Rurik had died by that time, came to Kiev. He ousted two brothers who, apparently, had once been members of Rurik’s squad. So, Russia began to develop with two centers of power, Kiev and Novgorod.
[A regent is simply someone who rules a Kingdom when the Monarch is not able to.]
The next, very significant date in the history of Russia, was 988. This was the Baptism of Russia, when Prince Vladimir, the great-grandson of Rurik, baptized Russia and adopted Orthodoxy, or Eastern Christianity. From this time the centralized Russian state began to strengthen. Why? Because of a single territory, integrated economic ties, one and the same language and, after the Baptism of Russia, the same faith and rule of the Prince. The centralized Russian state began to take shape.
Back in the Middle Ages, Prince Yaroslav the Wise introduced the order of succession to the throne, but after he passed away, it became complicated for various reasons. The throne was passed not directly from father to eldest son, but from the prince who had passed away to his brother, then to his sons in different lines. All this led to the fragmentation and the end of Rus as a single state.
There was nothing special about it, the same was happening then in Europe. But the fragmented Russian state became an easy prey to Genghis Khan.
His successors, namely, Batu Khan, came to Rus, plundered and ruined nearly all the cities. The southern part, including Kiev, by the way, and some other cities, simply lost independence, while northern cities preserved some of their sovereignty. They had to pay tribute to the Horde, but they managed to preserve some part of their sovereignty.
And then a unified Russian state began to take shape with its centre in Moscow.
The southern part of the Russian lands, including Kiev, began to gradually gravitate towards another ”magnet“ – the centre that was emerging in Europe. This was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was even called the Lithuanian-Russian Duchy, because Russians were a significant part of its population. They spoke the Old Russian language and were Orthodox.
But then there was a unification, the union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. A few years later, another union was signed, but this time already in the religious sphere. Some of the Orthodox priests became subordinate to the Pope. Thus, these lands became part of the Polish-Lithuanian state.
For decades, the Poles were engaged in the ”Polonization“ of this part of the population: they introduced their language there, tried to entrench the idea that this population was not exactly Russians, that because they lived on the fringe (u kraya) they were “Ukrainians”.
Originally, the word ‘Ukrainian’ meant that a person was living on the outskirts of the state, near the fringe, or was engaged in border service. It didn’t mean any particular ethnic group.
So, the Poles were trying in every possible way to polonize this part of the Russian lands and actually treated it rather harshly, not to say cruelly. All that led to the fact that this part of the Russian lands began to struggle for their rights. They wrote letters to Warsaw demanding that their rights be observed and that people be commissioned here, including to Kiev…
Tucker Carlson: I beg your pardon, can you tell us what period… I am losing track of where in history we are?
Vladimir Putin: It was in the 13th century.
Now I will tell what happened later and give the dates so that there is no confusion. In 1654, even a bit earlier, the people who were in control of the authority over that part of the Russian lands, addressed Warsaw (Poland) demanding their rights be observed and that they send to them rulers of Russian origin and Orthodox faith. When Warsaw did not answer them and in fact rejected their demands, they turned to Moscow so that Moscow took them away.
So that you don’t think that I am inventing things… I’ll give you these documents…
Tucker Carlson: It doesn’t sound like you are inventing it, but I am not sure why it’s relevant to what’s happened two years ago.
Vladimir Putin: But still, these are documents from the archives, copies. Here are letters from Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the man who then controlled the power in this part of the Russian lands that is now called Ukraine. He wrote to Warsaw demanding that their rights be upheld, and after being refused, he began to write letters to Moscow asking to take them under the strong hand of the Moscow Tsar. There are copies of these documents. I will leave them for your good memory. There is a translation into Russian, you can translate it into English later.
Russia would not agree to admit them straight away, assuming this would trigger a war with Poland. Nevertheless, in 1654, the Zemsky Sobor, which was a representative body of power of the Old Russian state, made the decision: those Old Russian lands became part of the Tsardom of Muscovy.
As expected, the war with Poland began. It lasted 13 years, and then a truce was concluded. In all, after that act of 1654, 32 years later, I think, a peace treaty with Poland was concluded, “the eternal peace,” as it said. And those lands, the whole left bank of the Dnieper, including Kiev, reverted to Russia, while the entire right bank of the Dnieper remained in possession of Poland.
Under the rule of Catherine the Great, Russia reclaimed all of its historical lands, including in the south and west. This all lasted until the Revolution.
Before World War I, Austrian General Staff relied on the ideas of Ukrainianization and started actively promoting the ideas of Ukraine and the Ukrainianization. Their motive was obvious. Just before World War I they wanted to weaken the potential enemy and secure themselves favourable conditions in the border area. So the idea which had emerged in Poland that people residing in that territory were allegedly not really Russians, but rather belonged to a special ethnic group, Ukrainians, started being propagated by the Austrian General Staff.
As far back as the 19th century, theorists calling for Ukrainian independence appeared. All those, however, claimed that Ukraine should have a very good relationship with Russia. They insisted on that.
After the 1917 Revolution, the Bolsheviks sought to restore the statehood, and the Civil War began, including the hostilities with Poland. In 1921, peace with Poland was proclaimed, and under that treaty, the right bank of the Dnieper River once again was given back to Poland.
[Who were the Bolsheviks? The Bolsheviks or Reds, came to power in Russia around 1917. Vladimir Lenin founded the Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviks) which later became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party International. Lenin was born in Russia and basically became a Communist when he was 17 years old after he brother was hanged for trying to assassinate the Russian Tsar. Lenin overthrew the Russian empire, aligned with Marx & formed the Communist Soviet Union. Lenin and the Bolsheviks recognized Ukraine as a distinct nation with its own language, culture, and history, and granted it autonomy within the Soviet Union. Why?]
In 1939, after Poland cooperated with Hitler — it did collaborate with Hitler, you know —Hitler offered Poland peace and a treaty of friendship and alliance (we have all the relevant documents in the archives), demanding in return that Poland give back to Germany the so-called Danzig Corridor, which connected the bulk of Germany with East Prussia and Konigsberg. After World War I this territory was transferred to Poland, and instead of Danzig, a city of Gdansk emerged. Hitler asked them to give it amicably, but they refused. Still they collaborated with Hitler and engaged together in the partitioning of Czechoslovakia.
Tucker Carlson: May I ask… You are making the case that Ukraine, certain parts of Ukraine, Eastern Ukraine, in fact, has been Russia for hundreds of years, why wouldn’t you just take it when you became President 24 years ago? Your have nuclear weapons, they don’t. It’s actually your land. Why did you wait so long?
Vladimir Putin: I’ll tell you. I’m coming to that. This briefing is coming to an end. It might be boring, but it explains many things.
Tucker Carlson: It’s not boring.
Vladimir Putin: Good. Good. I am so gratified that you appreciate that. Thank you.
So before World War II, Poland collaborated with Hitler and although it did not yield to Hitler’s demands, it still participated in the partitioning of Czechoslovakia together with Hitler. As the Poles had not given the Danzig Corridor to Germany, and went too far, pushing Hitler to start World War II by attacking them. Why was it Poland against whom the war started on 1 September 1939? Poland turned out to be uncompromising, and Hitler had nothing to do but start implementing his plans with Poland.
By the way, the USSR — I have read some archive documents — behaved very honestly. It asked Poland’s permission to transit its troops through the Polish territory to help Czechoslovakia. But the then Polish foreign minister said that if the Soviet planes flew over Poland, they would be downed over the territory of Poland. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the war began, and Poland fell prey to the policies it had pursued against Czechoslovakia, as under the well-known Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, part of that territory, including western Ukraine, was to be given to Russia. Thus Russia, which was then named the USSR, regained its historical lands.
After the victory in the Great Patriotic War, as we call World War II, all those territories were ultimately enshrined as belonging to Russia, to the USSR.
As for Poland, it received, apparently in compensation, the lands which had originally being German: the eastern parts of Germany (these are now western lands of Poland). Of course, Poland regained access to the Baltic sea, and Danzig, which was once again given its Polish name. So this was how this situation developed.
In 1922, when the USSR was being established, the Bolsheviks started building the USSR and established the Soviet Ukraine, which had never existed before.
Tucker Carlson: Right.
Vladimir Putin: Stalin insisted that those republics be included in the USSR as autonomous entities. For some inexplicable reason, Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, insisted that they be entitled to withdraw from the USSR. And, again for some unknown reasons, he transferred to that newly established Soviet Republic of Ukraine some of the lands together with people living there, even though those lands had never been called Ukraine; and yet they were made part of that Soviet Republic of Ukraine.
Those lands included the Black Sea region, which was received under Catherine the Great and which had no historical connection with Ukraine whatsoever.
Even if we go as far back as 1654, when these lands returned to the Russian Empire, that territory was the size of three to four regions of modern Ukraine, with no Black Sea region. That was completely out of the question.
Tucker Carlson: In 1654?
Vladimir Putin: Exactly.
Tucker Carlson: You have, I see, encyclopedic knowledge of this region. But why didn’t you make this case for the first 22 years as president, that Ukraine wasn’t a real country?
Vladimir Putin: The Soviet Ukraine was given a great deal of territory that had never belonged to it, including the Black Sea region. At some point, when Russia received them as an outcome of the Russo-Turkish wars, they were called “New Russia” or Novorossiya.
But that does not matter. What matters is that Lenin, the founder of the Soviet State, established Ukraine that way. For decades, the Ukrainian Soviet Republic developed as part of the USSR, and for unknown reasons again, the Bolsheviks were engaged in Ukrainianization. [Why?]
It was not merely because the Soviet leadership was composed to a great extent of those originating from Ukraine.
Rather, it was explained by the general policy of indigenization pursued by the Soviet Union. Same things were done in other Soviet republics. This involved promoting national languages and national cultures, which is not bad in principle. That is how the Soviet Ukraine was created.
After World War II, Ukraine received, in addition to the lands that had belonged to Poland before the war, part of the lands that had previously belonged to Hungary and Romania (today known as Western Ukraine). So Romania and Hungary had some of their lands taken away and given to the Ukraine and they still remain part of Ukraine. So in this sense, we have every reason to affirm that Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped at Stalin’s will.
Tucker Carlson: Do you believe Hungary has a right to take back its land from Ukraine? And that other nations have a right to go back to their 1654 borders?
Vladimir Putin: I am not sure whether they should go back to the 1654 borders, but given Stalin’s time, so-called Stalin’s regime — which as many claim saw numerous violations of human rights and violations of the rights of other states – one may say that they could claim back those lands of theirs, while having no right to do that, it is at least understandable…
Tucker Carlson: Have you told Viktor Orbán (the President of Hungary) that he can have a part of Ukraine?
Vladimir Putin: Never. I have never told him. Not a single time. We have not even had any conversation on that, but I actually know for sure that Hungarians who live there wanted to get back to their historical land.
Moreover, I would like to share a very interesting story with you, I’ll digress, it’s a personal one. Somewhere in the early 80’s, I went on a road trip on a car from then-Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) across the Soviet Union through Kiev, made a stop in Kiev, and then went to Western Ukraine. I went to the town of Beregovoye, and all the names of towns and villages there were in Russian and in a language I didn’t understand – in Hungarian – in Russian and in Hungarian. Not in Ukrainian – in Russian and in Hungarian.
I was driving through some kind of a village and there were men sitting next to the houses and they were wearing black three-piece suits and black cylinder hats.
I asked, ”Are they some kind of entertainers?“ I was told, ”No, they’re not entertainers. They’re Hungarians. ‘I said, ‘What are they doing here?’ — ‘What do you mean? This is their land, they live here.’ This was during the Soviet time, in the 1980’s. They preserve the Hungarian language, Hungarian names, and all their national costumes. They are Hungarians and they feel themselves to be Hungarians. And of course, when now there is an infringement….
Tucker Carlson: And there’s a lot of that though, I think. Many nations feel upset about — there are Transylvanians as well as you, others, you know — but many nations feel frustrated by their re-drawn borders after the wars of the 20th century, and wars going back a thousand years, the ones that you mention, but the fact is that you didn’t make this case in public until two years ago in February, and in the case that you made, which I read today, you explain a great length that you thought a physical threat from the West and NATO, including potentially a nuclear threat, and that’s what got you to move. Is that a fair characterization of what you said?
Vladimir Putin: I understand that my long speeches probably fall outside of the genre of an interview. That is why I asked you at the beginning: ”Are we going to have a serious talk or a show?“ You said — a serious talk. So bear with me please.
We are coming to the point where the Soviet Ukraine was established. Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. And everything that Russia had generously bestowed on Ukraine was ”dragged away“ by the latter.
I’m coming to a very important point of today’s agenda. After all, the collapse of the Soviet Union was effectively initiated by the Russian leadership. I do not understand what the Russian leadership was guided by at the time, but I suspect there were several reasons to think everything would be fine.
First, I think that the then Russian leadership believed that the fundamentals of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine were: in fact, a common language — more than 90 percent of the population there spoke Russian; family ties — every third person there had some kind of family or friendship ties; common culture; common history; finally, common faith; co-existence within a single state for centuries; and deeply interconnected economies. All of these were so fundamental. All these elements together make our good relations inevitable.
The second point is a very important one. I want you as an American citizen and your viewers to hear about this as well.
The former Russian leadership assumed that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and therefore there were no longer any ideological dividing lines. Russia even agreed, voluntarily and proactively, to the collapse of the Soviet Union and believed that this would be understood by the so-called (now in scare quotes) ”civilized West“ as an invitation for cooperation and associateship. That is what Russia was expecting both from the United States and the so-called collective West as a whole.
There were smart people, including in Germany. Egon Bahr, a major politician of the Social Democratic Party, who insisted in his personal conversations with the Soviet leadership on the brink of the collapse of the Soviet Union that a new security system should be established in Europe. Help should be given to unify Germany, but a new system should also be established to include the United States, Canada, Russia, and other Central European countries. But NATO needs not to expand.
That’s what he said: if NATO expands, everything would be just the same as during the Cold War, only closer to Russia’s borders. That’s all. He was a wise old man, but no one listened to him. In fact, he got angry once (we have a record of this conversation in our archives): ”If, he said, you don’t listen to me, I’m never setting my foot in Moscow once again.“ He was frustrated with the Soviet leadership. He was right, everything happened just as he had said.
Tucker Carlson: Well, of course, it did come true, and you’ve mentioned it many times. I think, it’s a fair point. And many in America thought that relations between Russia and United States would be fine after the collapse of the Soviet Union, at the core. But the opposite happened. But have never explained why you think that happened, except to say that the West fears a strong Russia. But we have a strong China that the West doesn’t seem to be very afraid of. What about Russia, what do you think convinced the policymakers to take it down?
Vladimir Putin: The West is afraid of a strong China more than it fears a strong Russia because Russia has 150 million people, and China has a 1.5 billion population, and its economy is growing by leaps and bounds — over five percent a year, it used to be even more. But that’s enough for China. As Bismark once put it, potentials are most important. China’s potential is enormous — it is the biggest economy in the world today in terms of purchasing power parity and the size of the economy. It has already overtaken the United States, quite a long time ago, and it is growing at a rapid clip.
Let’s not talk about who is afraid of whom, let’s not reason in such terms. And let’s get into the fact that after 1991, when Russia expected that it would be welcomed into the brotherly family of ”civilized nations,“ nothing like this happened.
You tricked us (I don’t mean you personally when I say ”you“, of course, I’m talking about the United States), the promise was that NATO would not expand eastward, but it happened five times, there were five waves of expansion.
We tolerated all that, we were trying to persuade them, we were saying: ”Please don’t, we are as bourgeois now as you are, we are a market economy, and there is no Communist Party power. Let’s negotiate.“ Moreover, I have also said this publicly before (let’s look at Yeltsin’s times now), there was a moment when a certain rift started growing between us. Before that, Yeltsin came to the United States, remember, he spoke in Congress and said the good words: ”God bless America“. Everything he said were signals — let us in.
Remember the developments in Yugoslavia, before that Yeltsin was lavished with praise, as soon as the developments in Yugoslavia started, he raised his voice in support of Serbs, and we couldn’t but raise our voices for Serbs in their defense. I understand that there were complex processes underway there, I do. But Russia could not help raising its voice in support of Serbs, because Serbs are also a special and close to us nation, with Orthodox culture and so on. It’s a nation that has suffered so much for generations.
Well, regardless, what is important is that Yeltsin expressed his support. What did the United States do? In violation of international law and the UN Charter it started bombing Belgrade.
It was the United States that let the genie out of the bottle. Moreover, when Russia protested and expressed its resentment, what was said? The UN Charter and international law have become obsolete. Now everyone invokes international law, but at that time they started saying that everything was outdated, everything had to be changed.
Indeed, some things need to be changed as the balance of power has changed, it’s true, but not in this manner. Yeltsin was immediately dragged through the mud, accused of alcoholism, of understanding nothing, of knowing nothing. He understood everything, I assure you.
Well, I became President in 2000. I thought: okay, the Yugoslav issue is over, but we should try to restore relations. Let’s reopen the door that Russia had tried to go through. And moreover, I’ve said it publicly, I can reiterate. At a meeting here in the Kremlin with the outgoing President Bill Clinton, right here in the next room, I said to him, I asked him, ” Bill, do you think if Russia asked to join NATO, do you think it would happen?“ Suddenly he said: ”You know, it’s interesting, I think so.“ But in the evening, when we had dinner, he said, ”You know, I’ve talked to my team, no-no, it’s not possible now.“ You can ask him, I think he will watch our interview, he’ll confirm it. I wouldn’t have said anything like that if it hadn’t happened. Okay, well, it’s impossible now.
Tucker Carlson: Were you sincere? Would you have joined NATO?
Vladimir Putin: Look, I asked the question, ”Is it possible or not?“ And the answer I got was no. If I was insincere in my desire to find out what the leadership’s position was…
Tucker Carlson: But if he would say yes, would you have joined NATO?
Vladimir Putin: If he had said yes, the process of rapprochement would have commenced, and eventually it might have happened if we had seen some sincere wish on the side of our partners. But it didn’t happen. Well, no means no, okay, fine.
Tucker Carlson: Why do you think that is? Just to get to motive. I know, you’re clearly bitter about it. I understand. But why do you think the West rebuffed you then? Why the hostility? Why did the end of the Cold War not fix the relationship? What motivates this from your point of view?
Vladimir Putin: You said I was bitter about the answer. No, it’s not bitterness, it’s just a statement of fact. We’re not the bride and groom, bitterness, resentment, it’s not about those kinds of matters in such circumstances. We just realised we weren’t welcome there, that’s all. Okay, fine. But let’s build relations in another manner, let’s look for common ground elsewhere. Why we received such a negative response, you should ask your leader. I can only guess why: too big a country, with its own opinion and so on. And the United States – I have seen how issues are being resolved in NATO.
I will give you another example now, concerning Ukraine. The US leadership exerts pressure, and all NATO members obediently vote, even if they do not like something. Now, I’ll tell you what happened in this regard with Ukraine in 2008, although it’s being discussed, I’m not going to open a secret to you, say anything new. Nevertheless, after that, we tried to build relations in different ways. For example, the events in the Middle East, in Iraq, we were building relations with the United States in a very soft, prudent, cautious manner.
I repeatedly raised the issue that the United States should not support separatism or terrorism in the North Caucasus. But they continued to do it anyway. And political support, information support, financial support, even military support came from the United States and its satellites for terrorist groups in the Caucasus.
I once raised this issue with my colleague, also the President of the United States. He says, ”It’s impossible! Do you have proof?“ I said, ”Yes.“ I was prepared for this conversation and I gave him that proof. He looked at it and, you know what he said? I apologise, but that’s what happened, I’ll quote. He says, ”Well, I’m gonna kick their ass“. We waited and waited for some response – there was no reply.
I said to the FSB Director: ”Write to the CIA. What is the result of the conversation with the President?“ He wrote once, twice, and then we got a reply. We have the answer in the archive. The CIA replied: ”We have been working with the opposition in Russia. We believe that this is the right thing to do and we will keep on doing it.“ Just ridiculous. Well, okay. We realised that it was out of the question.
Tucker Carlson: Forces in opposition to you? Do you think the CIA is trying to overthrow your government?
Vladimir Putin: Of course, they meant in that particular case the separatists, the terrorists who fought with us in the Caucasus. That’s who they called the opposition. This is the second point.
The third moment, a very important one, is the moment when the US missile defense (ABM) system was created. The beginning. We persuaded for a long time not to do it in the United States. Moreover, after I was invited by Bush Jr.’s father, Bush Sr. to visit his place on the ocean, I had a very serious conversation with President Bush and his team. I proposed that the United States, Russia and Europe jointly create a missile defense system that, we believe, if created unilaterally, threatens our security, despite the fact that the United States officially said that it was being created against missile threats from Iran. That was the justification for the deployment of the missile defense system. I suggested working together – Russia, the United States, and Europe. They said it was very interesting. They asked me, ”Are you serious?“ I said, “Absolutely”.
Tucker Carlson: May I ask what year was this?
Vladimir Putin: I don’t remember. It is easy to find out on the Internet, when I was in the USA at the invitation of Bush Sr. It is even easier to learn from someone, I’m going to tell you about.
I was told it was very interesting. I said, ”Just imagine if we could tackle such a global, strategic security challenge together. The world would change. We’ll probably have disputes, probably economic and even political ones, but we could drastically change the situation in the world.“ He says, ”Yes.“ And asks: ”Are you serious?“. I said, ”Of course.“ ”We need to think about it,“ I’m told. I said, ”Go ahead, please.“
Then Secretary of Defense R. Gates, former Director of the CIA, and Secretary of State C. Rice came here, in this cabinet. Right here, at this table, they sat on this side. Me, the Foreign Minister, the Russian Defense Minister – on that side. They said to me, ”Yes, we have thought about it, we agree.“ I said, ”Thank God, great.“ – ”But with some exceptions.“
Tucker Carlson: So, twice you’ve described US presidents making decisions and then being undercut by their agency heads. So, it sounds like you’re describing a system that is not run by the people who are elected, in your telling.
Vladimir Putin: That’s right, that’s right. In the end they just told us to get lost. I am not going to tell you the details, because I think it is incorrect, after all, it was a confidential conversation. But our proposal was declined, that’s a fact.
It was right then when I said: ”Look, but then we will be forced to take counter measures. We will create such strike systems that will certainly overcome missile defense systems.“ The answer was: ”We are not doing this against you, and you do what you want, assuming that it is not against us, not against the United States“. I said, ”Okay.“
Very well, that’s the way it went. And we created hypersonic systems, with intercontinental range, and we continue to develop them. We are now ahead of everyone – the United States and other countries – in terms of the development of hypersonic strike systems, and we are improving them every day.
But it wasn’t us, we proposed to go the other way, and we were pushed back.
Now, about NATO’s expansion to the East. Well, we were promised, no NATO to the East, not an inch to the East, as we were told. And then what? They said, ”Well, it’s not enshrined on paper, so we’ll expand.“ So there were five waves of expansion, the Baltic States, the whole of Eastern Europe, and so on.
[Putin is correct. Over the last 32 years, Germany has reunified and all the former Warsaw Pact countries have joined NATO. Three countries that were once part of the Soviet Union — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — have joined NATO as well.]
Vladimir Putin: And now I come to the main thing: they have come to Ukraine ultimately. In 2008 at the summit in Bucharest they declared that the doors for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO were open.
Now about how decisions are made there. Germany, France seemed to be against it as well as some other European countries. But then, as it turned out later, President Bush, and he is such a tough guy, a tough politician, as I was told later, ”He exerted pressure on us and we had to agree.“ It’s ridiculous, it’s like kindergarten. Where are the guarantees? What kindergarten is this, what kind of people are these, who are they? You see, they were pressed, they agreed. And then they say, ”Ukraine won’t be in NATO, you know.“ I say, ”I don’t know, I know you agreed in 2008, why won’t you agree in the future?“ ”Well, they pressed us then.“ I say, ”Why won’t they press you tomorrow? And you’ll agree again.“
Well, it’s nonsensical. Who’s there to talk to, I just don’t understand. We’re ready to talk. But with whom? Where are the guarantees? None.
So, they started to develop the territory of Ukraine. Whatever is there, I have told you the background, how this territory developed, what kind of relations there were with Russia. Every second or third person there has always had some ties with Russia. And during the elections in already independent, sovereign Ukraine, which gained its independence as a result of the Declaration of Independence, and, by the way, it says that Ukraine is a neutral state, and in 2008 suddenly the doors or gates to NATO were open to it.
Oh, come on! This is not how we agreed. Now, all the presidents that have come to power in Ukraine, they’ve relied on an electorate with a good attitude to Russia in one way or another. This is the south-east of Ukraine, this is a large number of people. And it was very difficult to dissuade this electorate, which had a positive attitude towards Russia.
Viktor Yanukovych came to power, and how: the first time he won after President Kuchma – they organized a third round, which is not provided for in the Constitution of Ukraine. This is a coup d’état. Just imagine, someone in the United States wouldn’t like the outcome…
Tucker Carlson: In 2014?
Vladimir Putin: Before that. No, this was before that. After President Kuchma, Viktor Yanukovich won the elections. However, his opponents did not recognize that victory, the US supported the opposition and the third round was scheduled. What is this? This is a coup. The US supported it and the winner of the third round came to power.
Vladimir Putin: Imagine if in the US, something was not to someone’s liking and the third round of election, which the US Constitution does not provide for, was organized,
Nonetheless, it was done in Ukraine. Okay, Viktor Yushchenko who was considered a pro-Western politician, came to power. Fine, we have built relations with him as well. He came to Moscow with visits, we visited Kiev. I visited it too. We met in an informal setting. If he is pro-Western, so be it. It’s fine, let people do their job. The situation should develop inside the independent Ukraine itself. As a result of Kuchma’s leadership, things got worse and Viktor Yanukovich came to power after all.
Maybe he wasn’t the best President and politician. I don’t know, I don’t want to give assessments. However, the issue of the association with the EU came up. We have always been lenient to this: suit yourself. But when we read through that treaty of association it turned out to be a problem for us, since we had a free-trade zone and open customs borders with Ukraine which, under this association, had to open its borders for Europe, which could have led to flooding of our market.
We said, “No, this is not going to work. We shall close our borders with Ukraine then”. The customs borders, that is.
Yanukovich started to calculate how much Ukraine was going to gain, how much to lose and said to his European partners: “I need more time to think before signing”. The moment he said that, the opposition began to take destructive steps which were supported by the West. It all came down to Maidan and a coup in Ukraine.
Tucker Carlson: So, he did more trade with Russia than with the EU? Ukraine did…
Vladimir Putin: Of course. It’s not even the matter of trade volume, although for the most part it is. It is the matter of cooperation ties which the entire Ukrainian economy was based on. The cooperation ties between the enterprises were very close since the times of the Soviet Union. One enterprise there used to produce components to be assembled both in Russia and Ukraine and vice versa. There used to be very close ties.
A coup d’etat was committed, although, I shall not delve into details now as I find doing it inappropriate, the US told us, “Calm Yanukovich down and we will calm the opposition. Let the situation unfold in the scenario of a political settlement”. We said, “Alright. Agreed. Let’s do it this way”. As the Americans requested us, Yanukovich did use neither the Armed Forces, nor the police, yet the armed opposition committed a coup in Kiev. What is that supposed to mean? “Who do you think you are?”, I wanted to ask the then US leadership.
Tucker Carlson: With the backing of whom?
Vladimir Putin: With the backing of CIA, of course. The organization you wanted to join back in the day, as I understand. Maybe we should thank God they didn’t let you in. Although, it is a serious organization. I understand. My former vis-à-vis, in the sense that I served in the First Main Directorate – Soviet Union’s intelligence service. They have always been our opponents. A job is a job.
Technically they did everything right, they achieved their goal of changing the government. However, from political standpoint, it was a colossal mistake. Surely, it was political leadership’s miscalculation. They should have seen what it would evolve into.
So, in 2008 the doors of NATO were opened for Ukraine. In 2014, there was a coup, they started persecuting those who did not accept the coup, and it was indeed a coup, they created a threat to Crimea which we had to take under our protection.
They launched a war in Donbass in 2014 with the use of aircraft and artillery against civilians. This is when it started. There is a video of aircraft attacking Donetsk from above. They launched a large-scale military operation, then another one. When they failed, they started to prepare the next one. All this against the background of military development of this territory and opening of NATO’s doors.
How could we not express concern over what was happening? From our side, this would have been a culpable negligence – that’s what it would have been. It’s just that the US political leadership pushed us to the line we could not cross because doing so could have ruined Russia itself. Besides, we could not leave our brothers in faith and, in fact, a part of Russian people, in the face of this “war machine”.
Tucker Carlson: So, that was eight years before the current conflict started. What was the trigger for you? What was the moment where you decided you had to do this?
Vladimir Putin: Initially, it was the coup in Ukraine that provoked the conflict.
By the way, back then the representatives of three European countries – Germany, Poland and France – arrived. They were the guarantors of the signed agreement between the Government of Yanukovich and the opposition. They signed it as guarantors. Despite that, the opposition committed a coup and all these countries pretended that they didn’t remember that they were guarantors of peaceful settlement. They just threw it in the stove right away and nobody recalls that.
I don’t know if the US knows anything about that agreement between the opposition and the authorities and its three guarantors who, instead of bringing this whole situation back in the political field, supported the coup.
Although, it was meaningless, believe me, because President Yanukovich agreed to all conditions, he was ready to hold early election which he had no chance to win, frankly speaking, Everyone knew that. Then why the coup, why the victims? Why threatening Crimea? Why launching an operation in Donbass? This I do not understand.
That is exactly what the miscalculation is. The CIA did its job to complete the coup.
I think one of the Deputy Secretaries of State said that it cost a large sum of money, almost 5 billion. But the political mistake was colossal! Why would they have to do that? All this could have been done legally, without victims, without military action, without losing Crimea. We would have never considered to even lift a finger, if it hadn’t been for the bloody developments on Maidan.
Because we agreed with the fact that after the collapse of the Soviet Union our borders should be along the borders of former Union’s republics. We agreed to that. But we never agreed to NATO’s expansion and moreover we never agreed that Ukraine would be in NATO. We did not agree to NATO bases there without any discussion with us. For decades we kept asking: don’t do this, don’t do that.
And what triggered the latest events? Firstly, the current Ukrainian leadership declared that it would not implement the Minsk Agreements, which had been signed, as you know, after the events of 2014, in Minsk, where the plan of peaceful settlement in Donbass was set forth. But no, the current Ukrainian leadership, Foreign Minister, all other officials and then President himself said that they don’t like anything about the Minsk Agreements. In other words, they were not going to implement it. A year or a year and a half ago, former leaders of Germany and France said openly to the whole world that they indeed signed the Minsk Agreements but they never intended to implement them. They simply led us by the nose.
Tucker Carlson: Was there anyone free to talk to? Did you call the US President, Secretary of State and say if you keep militarizing Ukraine with NATO forces, we are going to act?
Vladimir Putin: We talked about this all the time. We addressed the United States’ and European countries’ leadership to stop these developments immediately, to implement the Minsk Agreements. Frankly speaking, I didn’t know how we were going to do this but I was ready to implement them.
These Agreements were complicated for Ukraine; they included lots of elements of those Donbass territories’ independence. That’s true. However, I was absolutely confident, and I am saying this to you now: I honestly believed that if we managed to convince the residents of Donbass – and we had to work hard to convince them to return to the Ukrainian statehood – then gradually the wounds would start to heal. When this part of territory reintegrated itself into common social environment, when the pensions and social benefits were paid again, all the pieces would gradually fall into place.
No, nobody wanted that, everybody wanted to resolve the issue by military force only. But we could not let that happen. And the situation got to the point, when the Ukrainian side announced: ”No, we will not do anything“. They also started preparing for military action. It was they who started the war in 2014. Our goal is to stop this war. And we did not start this war in 2022. This is an attempt to stop it.
Tucker Carlson: Do you think you have stopped it now? I mean have you achieved your aims?
Vladimir Putin: No, we haven’t achieved our aims yet, because one of them is denazification. This means the prohibition of all kinds of neo-Nazi movements. This is one of the problems that we discussed during the negotiation process, which ended in Istanbul early last year, and it was not our initiative, because we were told (by the Europeans, in particular) that ”it was necessary to create conditions for the final signing of the documents“. My counterparts in France and Germany said, ”How can you imagine them signing a treaty with a gun to their heads? The troops should be pulled back from Kiev. ‘I said, ‘All right.’ We withdrew the troops from Kiev.
As soon as we pulled back our troops from Kiev, our Ukrainian negotiators immediately threw all our agreements reached in Istanbul into the bin and got prepared for a longstanding armed confrontation with the help of the United States and its satellites in Europe. That is how the situation has developed. And that is how it looks now.
Tucker Carlson: What is denazification? What would that mean?
Vladimir Putin: That is what I want to talk about right now. It is a very important issue.
Denazification. After gaining independence, Ukraine began to search, as some Western analysts say, its identity. And it came up with nothing better than to build this identity upon some false heroes who collaborated with Hitler.
I have already said that in the early 19th century, when the theorists of independence and sovereignty of Ukraine appeared, they assumed that an independent Ukraine should have very good relations with Russia. But due to the historical development, these territories were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – Poland, where Ukrainians were persecuted and treated quite brutally as well as were subject to cruel behavior. There were also attempts to destroy their identity. All this remained in the memory of the people.
When World War II broke out, part of this extremely nationalist elite collaborated with Hitler, believing that he would bring them freedom. The German troops, even the SS troops made Hitler’s collaborators do the dirtiest work of exterminating the Polish and Jewish population.
Hence this brutal massacre of the Polish and Jewish population as well as the Russian population too. This was led by the persons who are well known – Bandera, Shukhevich. It was these people who were made national heroes – that is the problem. And we are constantly told that nationalism and neo-Nazism exist in other countries as well.
Yes, there are seedlings, but we uproot them, and other countries fight against them. But Ukraine is not the case. These people have been made into national heroes in Ukraine. Monuments to these people have been erected, they are displayed on flags, their names are shouted by crowds that walk with torches, as it was in Nazi Germany. These were the people who exterminated Poles, Jews and Russians. It is necessary to stop this practice and prevent the dissemination of this concept.
I say that Ukrainians are part of the one Russian people. They say, ”No, we are a separate people.“ Okay, fine. If they consider themselves a separate people, they have the right to do so, but not on the basis of Nazism, the Nazi ideology.
Tucker Carlson: Would you be satisfied with the territory that you have now?
Vladimir Putin: I will finish answering the question. You just asked a question about neo-Nazism and denazification.
Look, the President of Ukraine visited Canada. This story is well known, but is silenced in the Western countries: The Canadian parliament introduced a man who, as the speaker of the parliament said, fought against the Russians during the World War II. Well, who fought against the Russians during World War II? Hitler and his accomplices. It turned out that this man served in the SS troops. He personally killed Russians, Poles, and Jews. The SS troops consisted of Ukrainian nationalists who did this dirty work. The President of Ukraine stood up with the entire Parliament of Canada and applauded this man. How can this be imagined? The President of Ukraine himself, by the way, is a Jew by nationality.
Tucker Carlson: Really, my question is: What do you do about it? I mean, Hitler has been dead for eighty years, Nazi Germany no longer exists, and it’s true. So, I think, what you are saying, you want to extinguish or at least control Ukrainian nationalism. But how do you do that?
Vladimir Putin: Listen to me. Your question is very subtle.
And can I tell you what I think? Do not take offense.
Tucker Carlson: Of course!
Vladimir Putin: This question appears to be subtle, it is quite pesky.
You say Hitler has been dead for so many years, 80 years. But his example lives on. People who exterminated Jews, Russians and Poles are alive. And the president, the current president of today’s Ukraine applauds him in the Canadian Parliament, gives a standing ovation! Can we say that we have completely uprooted this ideology if what we see is happening today? That is what denazification is in our understanding. We have to get rid of those people who maintain this concept and support this practice and try to preserve it – that is what denazification is. That is what we mean.
Tucker Carlson: Right. My question is almost specific, it was, of course, not a defense of Nazism. Otherwise, it was a practical question. You don’t control the entire country, you don’t seem like you want to. So, how do you eliminate that culture, or an ideology, or feelings, or a view of history, in a country that you don’t control? What do you do about that?
Vladimir Putin: You know, as strange as it may seem to you, during the negotiations in Istanbul we did agree that – we have it all in writing – neo-Nazism would not be cultivated in Ukraine, including that it would be prohibited at the legislative level.
Mr. Carlson, we agreed on that. This, it turns out, can be done during the negotiation process. And there is nothing humiliating for Ukraine as a modern civilized State. Is any state allowed to promote Nazism? It is not, is it? That is it.
Tucker Carlson: Will there be talks? And why haven’t there been talks about resolving the conflict in Ukraine? Peace talks.
Vladimir Putin: They have been. They reached a very high stage of coordination of positions in a complex process, but still they were almost finalized. But after we withdrew our troops from Kiev, as I have already said, the other side (Ukraine) threw away all these agreements and obeyed the instructions of Western countries, European countries and the United States to fight Russia to the bitter end.
Moreover, the President of Ukraine has legislated a ban on negotiating with Russia. He signed a decree forbidding everyone to negotiate with Russia. But how are we going to negotiate if he forbade himself and everyone to do this? We know that he is putting forward some ideas about this settlement. But in order to agree on something, we need to have a dialog. Is not that right?
Tucker Carlson: Well, but you would not be speaking to the Ukrainian president, you would be speaking to the American president. When was the last time you spoke to Joe Biden?
Vladimir Putin: I cannot remember when I talked to him. I do not remember, we can look it up.
Tucker Carlson: You do not remember?!
Vladimir Putin: No, why? Do I have to remember everything? I have my own things to do. We have domestic political affairs.
Tucker Carlson: But he is funding the war that you are fighting, so I think that would be memorable?
Vladimir Putin: Well, yes, he funds, but I talked to him before the Special Military Operation, of course. And I said to him then, by the way – I will not go into details, I never do – but I said to him then: “I believe that you are making a huge mistake of historic proportions by supporting everything that is happening there, in Ukraine, by pushing Russia away.“ I told him, told him repeatedly, by the way. I think that would be correct if I stop here.
Tucker Carlson: What did he say?
Vladimir Putin: Ask him, please. It is easier for you, you are a citizen of the United States, go and ask him. It is not appropriate for me to comment on our conversation.
Tucker Carlson: But you haven’t spoken to him since before February of 2022?
Vladimir Putin: No, we haven’t spoken. Certain contacts are been maintained though. Speaking of which, do you remember what I told you about my proposal to work together on a missile defense system?
Tucker Carlson: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: You can ask all of them. All of them are safe and sound, thank God. The former President, Condoleezza is safe and sound, and, I think, Mr. Gates, and the current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mr. Burns, the then Ambassador to Russia, in my opinion, a very successful Ambassador. They were all witnesses to these conversations. Ask them.
Same here, if you are interested in what Mr. President Biden responded to me, ask him. At any rate, I talked to him about it.
Tucker Carlson: I am definitely interested. But from the other side it seems like it could devolve, evolve into something that brings the entire world into conflict, and could initiate a nuclear launch, and so why don’t you just call Biden and say “let’s work this out”?
Vladimir Putin: What’s there to work out? It’s very simple. I repeat, we have contacts through various agencies. I will tell you what we are saying on this matter and what we are conveying to the US leadership: ”If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons. It will be over within a few weeks. That’s it. And then we can agree on some terms before you do that, stop.“
What’s easier? Why would I call him? What should I talk to him about? Or beg him for what? ”You’re going to deliver such and such weapons to Ukraine. Oh, I’m afraid, I’m afraid, please don’t.“ What is there to talk about?
Tucker Carlson: Do you think NATO was worried about this becoming a global war or nuclear conflict?
Vladimir Putin: At least that’s what they’re talking about. And they are trying to intimidate their own population with an imaginary Russian threat. This is an obvious fact. And thinking people, not philistines, but thinking people, analysts, those who are engaged in real politics, just smart people understand perfectly well that this is a fake. They are trying to fuel the Russian threat.
Tucker Carlson: The threat I think you were referring to is Russian invasion of Poland, Latvia – expansionist behavior. Can you imagine a scenario where you send Russian troops to Poland?
Vladimir Putin: Only in one case: if Poland attacks Russia. Why? Because we have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don’t have any interest. Its just threat mongering.
Tucker Carlson: Well, the argument, I know you know this, is that, well, he invaded Ukraine – he has territorial aims across the continent. And you are saying unequivocally, you don’t?
Vladimir Putin: It is absolutely out of the question. You just don’t have to be any kind of analyst, it goes against common sense to get involved in some kind of global war. And a global war will bring all of humanity to the brink of destruction. It’s obvious.
There are, certainly, means of deterrence. They have been scaring everyone with us all along: tomorrow Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons, tomorrow Russia will use that, no, the day after tomorrow. So what? These are just horror stories for people in the street in order to extort additional money from US taxpayers and European taxpayers in the confrontation with Russia in the Ukrainian theatre of war. The goal is to weaken Russia as much as possible.
Tucker Carlson: One of our senior United States senators from the State of New York, Chuck Schumer, said yesterday, I believe, that we have to continue to fund the Ukrainian effort or US soldiers, citizens could wind up fighting there. How do you assess that?
Vladimir Putin: This is a provocation, and a cheap provocation at that.
I do not understand why American soldiers should fight in Ukraine. There are mercenaries from the United States there. The biggest number of mercenaries comes from Poland, with mercenaries from the United States in second place, and mercenaries from Georgia in third place. Well, if somebody has the desire to send regular troops, that would certainly bring humanity on the brink of a very serious, global conflict. This is obvious.
Do the United States need this? What for? Thousands of miles away from your national territory! Don’t you have anything better to do?
You have issues on the border, issues with migration, issues with the national debt – more than 33 trillion dollars. You have nothing better to do, so you should fight in Ukraine? Wouldn’t it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement, already understanding the situation that is developing today, realizing that Russia will fight for its interests to the end. And, realizing this, actually return to common sense, start respecting our country and its interests and look for certain solutions. It seems to me that this is much smarter and more rational.
Tucker Carlson: Who blew up Nord Stream?
Vladimir Putin: You, for sure. (L a u g h i n g.)
Tucker Carlson: I was busy that day. I did not blow up Nord Stream.
Vladimir Putin: You personally may have an alibi, but the CIA has no such alibi.
Tucker Carlson: Do you have evidence that NATO or CIA did it?
Vladimir Putin: You know, I won’t get into details, but people always say in such cases: ”Look for someone who is interested“. But in this case we should not only look for someone who is interested, but also for someone who has capabilities. Because there may be many people interested, but not all of them are capable of sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and carrying out this explosion. These two components should be connected: who is interested and who is capable of doing it.
Tucker Carlson: But I am confused. I mean, that’s the biggest act of industrial terrorism ever and it’s the largest emission of CO₂ in history. Okay, so, if you had evidence and presumably, given your security services, your intel services, you would, that NATO, the US, CIA, the West did this, why wouldn’t you present it and win a propaganda victory?
Vladimir Putin: In the war of propaganda it is very difficult to defeat the United States because the United States controls all the world’s media and many European media. The ultimate beneficiary of the biggest European media are American financial institutions. Don’t you know that? So it is possible to get involved in this work, but it is cost prohibitive, so to speak. We can simply shine the spotlight on our sources of information, and we will not achieve results. It is clear to the whole world what happened, and even American analysts talk about it directly. It’s true.
Tucker Carlson: Yes. But here is a question you may be able to answer. You worked in Germany, famously. The Germans clearly know that their NATO partner did this, that they damaged their economy greatly – it may never recover. Why are they being silent about it? That is very confusing to me. Why wouldn’t the Germans say something about it?
Vladimir Putin: This also confuses me. But today’s German leadership is guided by the interests of the collective West rather than its national interests, otherwise it is difficult to explain the logic of their action or inaction. After all, it is not only about Nord Stream-1, which was blown up, and Nord Stream-2 was damaged, but one pipe is safe and sound, and gas can be supplied to Europe through it, but Germany does not open it. We are ready, please.
There is another route through Poland, called Yamal-Europe, which also allows for a large flow. Poland has closed it, but Poland pecks from the German hand, it receives money from pan-European funds, and Germany is the main donor to these pan-European funds. Germany feeds Poland to a certain extent. And they closed the route to Germany. Why? I don’t understand. Ukraine, to which the Germans supply weapons and give money.
Germany is the second sponsor after the United States in terms of financial aid to Ukraine. There are two gas routes through Ukraine. They simply closed one route, the Ukrainians. Open the second route and, please, get gas from Russia. They do not open it. Why don’t the Germans say: ”Look, guys, we give you money and weapons. Open up the valve, please, let the gas from Russia pass through for us.
We are buying liquefied gas at exorbitant prices in Europe, which brings the level of our competitiveness, and economy in general down to zero. Do you want us to give you money? Let us have a decent existence, make money for our economy, because this is where the money we give you comes from“. They refuse to do so. Why? Ask them. (Knocks on the table.) That is what it is like in their heads. Those are highly incompetent people.
Tucker Carlson: Well, maybe the world is breaking into two hemispheres. One with cheap energy, the other without it. And I want to ask you that, if we are now a multipolar world, obviously we are, can you describe the blocs of alliances? Who is in each side, do you think?
Vladimir Putin: Listen, you have said that the world is breaking into two hemispheres. A human brain is divided into two hemispheres: one is responsible for one type of activities, the other one is more about creativity and so on. But it is still one and the same head. The world should be a single whole, security should be shared, rather than meant for the ”golden billion“. That is the only scenario where the world could be stable, sustainable and predictable. Until then, while the head is split into two parts, it is an illness, a serious adverse condition. It is a period of a severe disease that the world is now going through.
But I think that, thanks to honest journalism — this work is akin to work of the doctors, this could somehow be remedied.
Tucker Carlson: Well, let’s just give one example — the US dollar, which has, kind of, united the world in a lot of ways, maybe not to your advantage, but certainly to ours. Is that going away as the reserve currency, the universally accepted currency? How have sanctions, do you think, changed the dollar’s place in the world?
Vladimir Putin: You know, to use the dollar as a tool of foreign policy struggle is one of the biggest strategic mistakes made by the US political leadership. The dollar is the cornerstone of the United States’ power. I think everyone understands very well that, no matter how many dollars are printed, they are quickly dispersed all over the world. Inflation in the United States is minimal. It is about 3 or 3.4 per cent, which is, I think, totally acceptable for the US. But they won’t stop printing. What does the debt of 33 trillion dollars tell us about? It is about the emission.
Nevertheless, it is the main weapon used by the United States to preserve its power across the world. As soon as the political leadership decided to use the US dollar as a tool of political struggle, a blow was dealt to this American power. I would not like to use any strong language, but it is a stupid thing to do, and a grave mistake.
Look at what is going on in the world. Even the United States’ allies are now downsizing their dollar reserves. Seeing this, everyone starts looking for ways to protect themselves. But the fact that the United States applies restrictive measures to certain countries, such as placing restrictions on transactions, freezing assets, etc., causes grave concern and sends a signal to the whole world.
What did we have here? Until 2022, about 80 per cent of Russia’s foreign trade transactions were made in US dollars and euros. US dollars accounted for approximately 50 per cent of our transactions with third countries, while currently it is down to 13 per cent. It was not us who banned the use of the US dollar, we had no such intention. It was the decision of the United States to restrict our transactions in US dollars. I think it is a complete foolishness from the point of view of the interests of the United States itself and its tax payers, as it damages the US economy, undermines the power of the United States across the world.
By the way, our transactions in Yuan accounted for about 3 per cent. Today, 34 per cent of our transactions are made in Rubles, and about as much, a little over 34 per cent, in Yuan.
Why did the United States do this? My only guess is self-conceit. They probably thought it would lead to a full collapse, but nothing collapsed. Moreover, other countries, including oil producers, are thinking of and already accepting payments for oil in yuan. Do you even realize what is going on or not? Does anyone in the United States realize this? What are you doing? You are cutting yourself off… all experts say this. Ask any intelligent and thinking person in the United States what the dollar means for the US? You are killing it with your own hands.
Tucker Carlson: I think that is a fair assessment. The question is what comes next? And maybe you trade one colonial power for another, much less sentimental and forgiving colonial power? Is the BRICS, for example, in danger of being completely dominated by the Chinese economy? In a way that is not good for their sovereignty. Do you worry about that?
Vladimir Putin: We have heard those boogeyman stories before. It is a boogeyman story. We are neighbors with China. You cannot choose neighbors, just as you cannot choose close relatives. We share a border of 1000 kilometers with them. This is number one.
Second, we have a centuries-long history of coexistence, we are used to it.
Third, China’s foreign policy philosophy is not aggressive, its idea is to always look for compromise, and we can see that.
The next point is as follows. We are always told the same boogeyman story, and here it goes again, though in a euphemistic form, but it is still the same bogeyman story: the cooperation with China keeps increasing. The pace at which China’s cooperation with Europe is growing is higher and greater than that of the growth of Chinese-Russian cooperation. Ask Europeans: aren’t they afraid? They might be, I do not know, but they are still trying to access China’s market at all costs, especially now that they are facing economic problems. Chinese businesses are also exploring the European market.
Do Chinese businesses have small presence in the United States? Yes, the political decisions are such that they are trying to limit their cooperation with China.
It is to your own detriment, Mr Tucker, that you are limiting cooperation with China, you are hurting yourself. It is a delicate matter, and there are no silver bullet solutions, just as it is with the dollar.
So, before introducing any illegitimate sanctions — illegitimate in terms of the Charter of the United Nations — one should think very carefully. For decision-makers, this appears to be a problem.
Tucker Carlson: So, you said a moment ago that the world would be a lot better if it were not broken into competing alliances, if there was cooperation globally. One of the reasons you don’t have that is because the current American administration is dead set against you. Do you think if there was a new administration after Joe Biden that you would be able to re-establish communication with the US government? Or does it not matter who the President is?
Vladimir Putin: I will tell you. But let me finish the previous thought. We, together with my colleague and friend President Xi Jinping, set a goal to reach 200 billion dollars of mutual trade with China this year. We have exceeded this level. According to our figures, our bilateral trade with China totals already 230 billion, and the Chinese statistics says it is 240 billion dollars.
One more important thing: our trade is well-balanced, mutually complementary in high-tech, energy, scientific research and development. It is very balanced.
As for BRICS, where Russia took over the presidency this year, the BRICS countries are, by and large, developing very rapidly.
Look, if memory serves me right, back in 1992, the share of the G7 countries in the world economy amounted to 47 per cent, whereas in 2022 it was down to, I think, a little over 30 per cent. The BRICS countries accounted for only 16 per cent in 1992, but now their share is greater than that of the G7. It has nothing to do with the events in Ukraine. This is due to the trends of global development and world economy that I mentioned just now, and this is inevitable. This will keep happening, it is like the rise of the sun — you cannot prevent the sun from rising, you have to adapt to it. How do the United States adapt? With the help of force: sanctions, pressure, bombings, and use of armed forces.
This is about self-conceit. Your political establishment does not understand that the world is changing (under objective circumstances), and in order to preserve your level — even if someone aspires, pardon me, to the level of dominance — you have to make the right decisions in a competent and timely manner.
Such brutal actions, including with regard to Russia and, say, other countries, are counterproductive. This is an obvious fact; it has already become evident.
You just asked me if another leader comes and changes something. It is not about the leader, it is not about the personality of a particular person. I had a very good relationship with, say, Bush. I know that in the United States he was portrayed as some kind of a country boy who does not understand much. I assure you that is not the case. I think he made a lot of mistakes with regard to Russia, too. I told you about 2008 and the decision in Bucharest to open the NATO’s doors to for Ukraine and so on. That happened during his presidency. He actually exercised pressure on the Europeans.
But in general, on a personal human level, I had a very good relationship with him. He was no worse than any other American, or Russian, or European politician. I assure you, he understood what he was doing as well as others. I had such personal relationships with Trump as well.
It is not about the personality of the leader, it is about the elites’ mindset. If the idea of domination at any cost, based also on forceful actions, dominates the American society, nothing will change, it will only get worse. But if, in the end, one comes to the awareness that the world has been changing due to objective circumstances, and that one should be able to adapt to them in time, using the advantages that the U.S. still has today, then, perhaps, something may change.
Look, China’s economy has become the first economy in the world in purchasing power parity; in terms of volume it overtook the US a long time ago. The USA comes second, then India (one and a half billion people), and then Japan, with Russia in the fifth place. Russia was the first economy in Europe last year, despite all the sanctions and restrictions. Is this normal, from your point of view: sanctions, restrictions, impossibility of payments in dollars, being cut off from SWIFT services, sanctions against our ships carrying oil, sanctions against airplanes, sanctions in everything, everywhere? The largest number of sanctions in the world which are applied – are applied against Russia. And we have become Europe’s first economy during this time.
The tools that the US uses don’t work. Well, one has to think about what to do. If this realization comes to the ruling elites, then yes, then the first person of the state will act in anticipation of what the voters and the people who make decisions at various levels expect from this person. Then maybe something will change.
Tucker Carlson: But you are describing two different systems. You say that the leader acts in the interests of the voters, but you also say that these decisions are not made by the leader – they are made by the ruling classes. You have run this country for so long, you have known all these American presidents. What are those power centers in the United States, do you think? And who actually makes the decisions?
Vladimir Putin: I don’t know. America is a complex country, conservative on the one hand, rapidly changing on the other. It’s not easy for us to sort it all out.
Who makes decisions in the elections – is it possible to understand this, when each state has its own legislation, each state regulates itself, someone can be excluded from the elections at the state level. It is a two-stage electoral system, it is very difficult for us to understand it.
Certainly there are two parties that are dominant, the Republicans and the Democrats, and within this party system, the centers that make decisions, that prepare decisions.
Then, look, why, in my opinion, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, such an erroneous, crude, completely unjustified policy of pressure was pursued against Russia? After all, this is a policy of pressure. NATO expansion, support for the separatists in the Caucasus, creation of a missile defense system – these are all elements of pressure. Pressure, pressure, pressure.
Then, dragging Ukraine into NATO is all about pressure, pressure, pressure. Why? I think, among other things, because excessive production capacities were created. During the confrontation with the Soviet Union, there were many centers created and specialists on the Soviet Union, who could not do anything else. It seemed to them, they convinced the political leadership: it is necessary to continue ”chiseling“ Russia, to try to break it up, to create on this territory several quasi-state entities and to subdue them in a divided form, to use their combined potential for the future struggle with China. This is a mistake, including the excessive potential of those who worked for the confrontation with the Soviet Union. It is necessary to get rid of this, there should be new, fresh forces, people who look into the future and understand what is happening in the world.
Look at how Indonesia is developing? 600 million people. Where can we get away from that? Nowhere, we just have to assume that Indonesia will enter (it is already in) the club of the world’s leading economies, no matter who likes or dislikes it.
Yes, we understand and are aware that in the United States, despite all the economic problems, the situation is still normal with the economy growing decently, the GDP is growing by 2.5 percent, if I am not mistaken.
But if we want to ensure the future, then we need to change our approach to what is changing. As I already said, the world would nevertheless change regardless of how the developments in Ukraine end. The world is changing. In the United States themselves, experts write that the United States are nonetheless gradually changing their position in the world, it is your experts who write that, I just read them. The only question is how this would happen – painfully and quickly or gently and gradually. And this is written by people who are not anti-American; they simply follow global development trends. That’s it.
And in order to assess them and change policies, we need people who think, look forward, can analyze and recommend certain decisions at the level of political leaders.
Tucker Carlson: I just have to ask. You have said clearly that NATO expansion eastward is a violation of the promise you were all made in the 1990s. It is a threat to your country. Right before you sent troops into Ukraine the Vice-President of the United States spoke at the Security Conference and encouraged the President of Ukraine to join NATO. Do you think that was an effort to provoke you into military action?
Vladimir Putin: I repeat once again, we have repeatedly, repeatedly proposed to seek a solution to the problems that arose in Ukraine after the 2014 coup d’etat through peaceful means. But no one listened to us. And moreover, the Ukrainian leaders who were under the complete US control, suddenly declared that they would not comply with the Minsk agreements, they disliked everything there, and continued military activity in that territory.
And in parallel, that territory was being exploited by NATO military structures under the guise of various personnel training and retraining centers. They essentially began to create bases there. That’s all.
Ukraine announced that the Russians were (a law was adopted) a non-titular nationality, while passing laws that limit the rights of non-titular nationalities in Ukraine. Ukraine, having received all these southeastern territories as a gift from the Russian people, suddenly announced that the Russians were a non-titular nationality in that territory. Is it normal? All this put together led to the decision to end the war that neo-Nazis started in Ukraine in 2014.
Tucker Carlson: Do you think Zelensky has the freedom to negotiate the settlement to this conflict?
Vladimir Putin: I don’t know the details, of course it’s difficult for me to judge, but I believe he has, in any case, he used to have. His father fought against the fascists, Nazis during World War II, I once talked to him about this. I said: “Volodya, what are you doing? Why are you supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine today, while your father fought against fascism? He was a front-line soldier.” I will not tell you what he answered, this is a separate topic, and I think it’s incorrect for me to do so.
But as to the freedom of choice – why not? He came to power on the expectations of Ukrainian people that he would lead Ukraine to peace. He talked about this, it was thanks to this that he won the election overwhelmingly. But then, when he came to power, in my opinion, he realized two things: firstly, it is better not to clash with neo-Nazis and nationalists, because they are aggressive and very active, you can expect anything from them, and secondly, the US-led West supports them and will always support those who antagonize with Russia – it is beneficial and safe. So he took the relevant position, despite promising his people to end the war in Ukraine. He deceived his voters.
Tucker Carlson: But do you think at this point – as of February 2024 – he has the latitude, the freedom to speak with you or government directly, which would clearly help his country or the world? Can he do that, do you think?
Vladimir Putin: Why not? He considers himself head of state, he won the elections. Although we believe in Russia that the coup d’etat is the primary source of power for everything that happened after 2014, and in this sense, even today’s government is flawed. But he considers himself the president, and he is recognized by the United States, all of Europe and practically the rest of the world in such a capacity – why not? He can.
We negotiated with Ukraine in Istanbul, we agreed, he was aware of this. Moreover, the negotiation group leader, Mr. Arakhamia is his last name, I believe, still heads the faction of the ruling party, the party of the President in the Rada. He still heads the Presidential faction in the Rada, the country’s parliament, he still sits there. He even put his preliminary signature on the document I am telling you about.
But then he publicly stated to the whole world: “We were ready to sign this document, but Mr. Johnson, then the Prime Minister of Great Britain, came and dissuaded us from doing this saying it was better to fight Russia. They would give everything needed for us to return what was lost during the clashes with Russia. And we agreed with this proposal.“ Look, his statement has been published. He said this publicly.
Can they return to this or not? The question is: do they want it or not?
Further on, President of Ukraine issued a decree prohibiting negotiations with us. Let him cancel that decree and that’s it. We have never refused negotiations indeed. We hear all the time: is Russia ready? Yes, we have not refused! It was them who publicly refused. Well, let him cancel his decree and enter into negotiations. We have never refused.
And the fact that they obeyed the demand or persuasion of Mr. Johnson, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, seems ridiculous and very sad to me. Because, as Mr. Arakhamia put it: “We could have stopped these hostilities, this war a year and a half ago already. But the British persuaded us, and we refused this.” Where is Mr. Johnson now? And the war continues.
Tucker Carlson: That is a good question. Why did he do that?
Vladimir Putin: Hell knows. I don’t understand it myself. There was a general starting point. For some reason, everyone had the illusion that Russia could be defeated on the battlefield. Because of arrogance, because of a pure heart, but not because of a great mind.
Tucker Carlson: You have described the connection between Russia and Ukraine; you have described Russia itself, a couple of times as Orthodox – that is central to your understanding of Russia. What does that mean for you? You are a Christian leader by your own description. So what effect does that have on you?
Vladimir Putin: You know, as I already mentioned, in 988 Prince Vladimir himself was baptized following the example of his grandmother, Princess Olga, and then he baptized his squad, and then gradually, over the course of several years, he baptized all the Rus. It was a lengthy process – from pagans to Christians, it took many years. But in the end, this Orthodoxy, Eastern Christianity, deeply rooted itself in the consciousness of the Russian people.
When Russia expanded and absorbed other nations who profess Islam, Buddhism and Judaism, Russia has always been very loyal to those people who profess other religions. This is her strength. This is absolutely clear.
And the fact is that the main postulates, main values are very similar, not to say the same, in all world religions I’ve just mentioned and which are the traditional religions of the Russian Federation, Russia. By the way, Russian authorities were always very careful about the culture and religion of those peoples who came into the Russian Empire. This, in my opinion, forms the basis of both security and stability of the Russian statehood – all the peoples inhabiting Russia basically consider it their Motherland.
If, say, people move over to you or to Europe from Latin America – an even clearer and more understandable example – people come, but yet they have come to you or to European countries from their historical homeland. And people who profess different religions in Russia consider Russia their Motherland, they have no other Motherland. We are together, this is one big family. And our traditional values are very similar. I’ve just mentioned one big family, but everyone has his/hers own family, and this is the basis of our society. And if we say that the Motherland and the family are specifically connected with each other, it is indeed the case, since it is impossible to ensure a normal future for our children and our families unless we ensure a normal, sustainable future for the entire country, for the Motherland. That is why patriotic sentiment is so strong in Russia.
Tucker Carlson: Can I say, the one way in which religions are different is that Christianity is specifically a non-violent religion. Jesus says “Turn the other cheek, don’t kill”. How can a leader who has to kill, of any country, how can a leader be a Christian? How do you reconcile that to yourself?
Vladimir Putin: It is very easy: when it comes to protecting oneself and one’s family, one’s homeland. We won’t attack anyone.
When did the developments in Ukraine start? Since the coup d’etat and the hostilities in Donbass began, that’s when they started. And we are protecting our people, ourselves, our homeland and our future.
As for religion in general.
You know, it’s not about external manifestations, it’s not about going to church every day or banging your head on the floor. It is in the heart. And our culture is so human-oriented. Dostoevsky, who is very well known in the West as the genius of Russian culture, Russian literature, spoke a lot about this, about the Russian soul.
After all, Western society is more pragmatic. Russian people think more about the eternal, about moral values. I don’t know, maybe you won’t agree with me, but Western culture is more pragmatic after all.
I’m not saying this is bad, it makes it possible for today’s “golden billion” to achieve good success in production, even in science, and so on. There’s nothing wrong with that, I’m just saying that we kind of look the same, but our minds are built a little differently.
Tucker Carlson: So do you see the supernatural at work? As you look out across what’s happening in the world now, do you see God at work? Do you ever think to yourself: these are forces that are not human?
Vladimir Putin: No, to be honest, I don’t think so. My opinion is that the development of the world community is in accordance with the inherent laws, and those laws are what they are. It’s always been this way in the history of mankind. Some nations and countries rose, became stronger and more numerous, and then left the international stage, losing the status they had accustomed to. There is probably no need for me to give examples, but we could start with Genghis Khan and the Horde conquerors, the Golden Horde, and then end with the Roman Empire.
It seems that there has never been anything like the Roman Empire in the history of mankind. Nevertheless, the potential of the barbarians gradually grew, as did their population. In general, the barbarians were getting stronger and began to develop economically, as we would say today. This eventually led to the collapse of the Roman Empire and the regime imposed by the Romans. However, it took five centuries for the Roman Empire to fall apart. The difference with what is happening now is that all the processes of change are happening at a much faster pace than in Roman times.
Tucker Carlson: So when does the AI empire start do you think?
Vladimir Putin: (Laughing) You are asking increasingly more complicated questions. To answer them, you need to be an expert in big numbers, big data and AI.
Mankind is currently facing many threats. Due to genetic researches, it is now possible to create a superhuman, a specialized human being – a genetically engineered athlete, scientist, military man.
There are reports that Elon Musk has already had a chip implanted in the human brain in the USA.
Tucker Carlson: What do you think of that?
Vladimir Putin: Well, I think there’s no stopping Elon Musk, he will do as he sees fit. Nevertheless, you need to find some common ground with him, search for ways to persuade him. I think he’s a smart person, I truly believe he is. So you need to reach an agreement with him because this process needs to be formalized and subjected to certain rules.
Humanity has to consider what is going to happen due to the newest developments in genetics or in AI. One can make an approximate prediction of what will happen. Once mankind felt an existential threat coming from nuclear weapons, all nuclear nations began to come to terms with one another since they realized that negligent use of nuclear weaponry could drive humanity to extinction.
It is impossible to stop research in genetics or AI today, just as it was impossible to stop the use of gunpowder back in the day. But as soon as we realize that the threat comes from unbridled and uncontrolled development of AI, or genetics, or any other fields, the time will come to reach an international agreement on how to regulate these things.
Tucker Carlson: I appreciate all the time you’ve given us. I just want to ask you one last question and it’s about someone who is very famous in the United States, probably not here. Evan Gershkovich who is the Wall Street Journal reporter, he is 32 and he’s been in prison for almost a year. This is a huge story in the United States and I just want to ask you directly without getting into details of your version of what happened, if as a sign of your decency you’ll be willing to release him to us and we’ll bring him back to the United States?
Vladimir Putin: We have done so many gestures of goodwill out of decency that I think we have run out of them. We have never seen anyone reciprocate to us in a similar manner. However, in theory, we can say that we do not rule out that we can do that if our partners take reciprocal steps.
When I talk about the “partners”, I, first of all, refer to special services. Special services are in contact with one another, they are talking about the matter in question. There is no taboo to settle the issue. We are willing to solve it, but there are certain terms being discussed via special services channels. I believe an agreement can be reached.
Tucker Carlson: So, typically, I mean, this stuff has happened for, obviously, centuries. One country catches other spy within its borders and trades it for one of its own intel guys in other country. I think what makes it, and it’s not my business, but what makes it different is that this guy is obviously not a spy, he is a kid and maybe he was breaking a law in some way but he is not a superspy and everybody knows that and he has been held hostage and exchange, which is true, with respect, it’s true and everyone knows it’s true. So maybe he is in a different category, maybe it’s not fair to ask for somebody else in exchange for letting him out. Maybe it degrades Russia to do that.
Vladimir Putin: You know, you can give different interpretations to what constitutes a “spy”, but there are certain things provided by law. If a person gets secret information, and does that in a conspiratorial manner, then this is qualified as espionage. And that is exactly what he was doing. He was receiving classified, confidential information, and he did it covertly. Maybe he had been implicated in that, someone could have dragged him into that, maybe he did that out of carelessness, or on his own initiative. Considering the sheer facts, this is qualified as espionage. The fact has been proven, as he was caught red-handed when he was receiving this information. If it had been some far-fetched excuse, some fabrication, something not proven, it would have been a different story then. But he was caught red-handed when he was secretly getting confidential information. What is it, then?
Tucker Carlson: But are you suggesting he was working for the US government or NATO? Or he was just a reporter who was given material he wasn’t supposed to have? Those seem like very different, very different things.
Vladimir Putin: I don’t know who he was working for. But I would like to reiterate that getting classified information in secret is called espionage, and he was working for the U.S. special services, some other agencies. I don’t think that he was working for Monaco, as Monaco is hardly interested in getting that information. It is up to the special services to come to an agreement. Some groundwork has been laid. There are people who, in our view, are not connected with special services.
Let me tell you a story about a person serving a sentence in an allied country of the U.S. That person, due to patriotic sentiments, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals. During the events in the Caucasus, do you know what he [bandit] was doing? I don’t want to say that, but I will do it anyway. He was laying our soldiers, taken prisoner, on the road and then he drove his car over their heads. What kind of a person is that? Can he be even called a human? But there was a patriot who eliminated him in one of the European capitals. Whether he did that of his own volition or not, that is a different question.
Tucker Carlson: Evan Gershkovich, that’s a completely different, I mean, this is a thirty-two year old newspaper reporter.
Vladimir Putin: He committed something different.
Tucker Carlson: He is just a journalist
Vladimir Putin: He is not just a journalist, I reiterate, he is a journalist who was secretly getting confidential information.
Yes, it is different, but still, I am talking about other people who are essentially controlled by the U.S. authorities wherever they are serving a sentence. There is an ongoing dialogue between the special services. This has to be resolved in a calm, responsible and professional manner. They are keeping in touch, so let them do their work.
I do not rule out that the person you referred to, Mister Gershkovich, may return to his motherland. By the end of the day, it does not make any sense to keep him in prison in Russia. We want the U.S. special services to think about how they can contribute to achieving the goals our special services are pursuing. We are ready to talk. Moreover, the talks are underway, and there have been many successful examples of these talks crowned with success. Probably this is going to be crowned with success as well, but we have to come to an agreement.
Tucker Carlson: I hope you’ll let him out. Mister President, thank you!
Vladimir Putin: I also want him to return to his homeland at last. I am absolutely sincere. But let me say once again, the dialogue continues. The more public we render things of this nature, the more difficult it becomes to resolve them. Everything has to be done in a calm manner.
Tucker Carlson: I wonder if that’s true with the war though also, I mean, I guess I want to ask one more question which is, and maybe you don’t want to say so for strategic reasons, but are you worried that what’s happening in Ukraine could lead to something much larger and much more horrible and how motivated are you just to call the US government and say “let’s come to terms”?
Vladimir Putin: I already said that we did not refuse to talk. We are willing to negotiate. It is the Western side, and Ukraine is obviously a satellite state of the U.S. It is evident. I do not want you to take it as if I am looking for a strong word or an insult, but we both understand what is happening.
The financial support, 72 billion U.S. dollars, was provided. Germany ranks second, then other European countries come. Dozens of billions of U.S. dollars are go to Ukraine. There is a huge influx of weapons.
In this case you should tell the current Ukrainian leadership to stop and come to the negotiating table, rescind this absurd decree. We did not refuse.
Tucker Carlson: Well, sure, you have already said it — I didn’t think you meant it as an insult — because you have already said, correctly, it’s been reported that Ukraine was prevented from negotiating peace settlement by the former British prime-minister acting on behalf of the Biden administration. Of course, it’s our satellite, big countries control small countries, that’s not new. And that is why I asked about dealing directly with the Biden administration, which is making these decisions, not president Zelensky of Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin: Well, if the Zelensky administration in Ukraine refused to negotiate, I assume that they did it under the instruction from Washington. If Washington believes it to be the wrong decision, let it abandon it, let it find a delicate excuse so that no one is insulted, let it come up with a way out. It was not us who made this decision, it was them, so let them go back on it. That is it.
However, they made the wrong decision and now we have to look for a way out of this situation, to correct their mistakes. They did it so let them correct it themselves. We support this.
Tucker Carlson: So, I just want to make sure I am not misunderstanding what you are saying — and I don’t think that I am — I think you are saying you want a negotiated settlement to what’s happening in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin: Right. And we made it, we prepared a huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He affixed his signature to some of the provisions, not to all of it. He put his signature and then he himself said: “We were ready to sign it and the war would have been over long ago, eighteen months ago. However, Prime Minister Johnson came, talked us out of it and we missed that chance.” Well, you missed it, you made a mistake, let them get back to that, that is all. Why do we have to bother ourselves and correct somebody else’s mistakes?
I know one can say it is our mistake, it was us who intensified the situation and decided to put an end to the war that started in 2014 in Donbas, as I have already said, by means of weapons. Let me get back to further in history, I already told you this, we were just discussing it. Let us go back to 1991 when we were promised that NATO would not be expanded, to 2008 when the doors to NATO opened, to the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine declaring Ukraine a neutral state. Let us go back to the fact that NATO and US military bases started to appear on the territory of Ukraine creating threats for us. Let us go back to coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014. It is pointless though, isn’t it? We may go back and forth endlessly. But they stopped negotiations. Is it a mistake? Yes. Correct it. We are ready. What else is needed?
Tucker Carlson: Do you think it is too humiliating at this point for NATO to accept Russian control of what was two years ago Ukrainian territory?
Vladimir Putin: I said let them think how to do it with dignity. There are options if there is a will.
Up until now there has been the uproar and screaming about inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield. Now they are apparently coming to realize that it is difficult to achieve, if possible at all. In my opinion, it is impossible by definition, it is never going to happen. It seems to me that now those who are in power in the West have come to realize this as well. If so, if the realization has set in, they have to think what to do next. We are ready for this dialogue.
Tucker Carlson: Would you be willing to say, ”Congratulations, NATO, you won?“ And just keep the situation where it is now?
Vladimir Putin: You know, it is a subject matter for the negotiations no one is willing to conduct or, to put it more accurately, they are willing but do not know how to do it. I know they want. It is not just I see it but I know they do want it but they are struggling to understand how to do it. They have driven the situation to the point where we are at. It is not us who have done that, it is our partners, opponents who have done that. Well, now let them think how to reverse the situation. We are not against it.
It would be funny if it were not so sad. This endless mobilization in Ukraine, the hysteria, the domestic problems – sooner or later it all will result in an agreement. You know, this will probably sound strange given the current situation but the relations between the two peoples will be rebuilt anyway. It will take a lot of time but they will heal.
I will give you very unusual examples. There is a combat encounter on the battlefield, here is a specific example: Ukrainian soldiers got encircled (this is an example from real life), our soldiers were shouting to them: “There is no chance! Surrender yourselves! Come out and you will be alive!” Suddenly the Ukrainian soldiers were screaming from there in Russian, perfect Russian, saying: “Russians do not surrender!” and all of them perished. They still identify themselves as Russian.
What is happening is, to a certain extent, an element of a civil war. Everyone in the West thinks that the Russian people have been split by hostilities forever. No. They will be reunited. The unity is still there.
Why are the Ukranian authorities dismantling the Ukranian Orthodox Church? Because it brings together not only the territory, it brings together our souls. No one will be able to separate the soul.
Shall we end here or there is anything else?
Tucker Carlson: Thank you, Mr. President.
{END TRANSCRIPT}
Again, I would review any pre-interview release transcript with a healthy dose of skepticism. There are multiple places where edits seem visible, and repeated patterns make the authenticity of the transcripts questionable. Let’s just wait and see what Carlson broadcasts.
In an ordinary and stable world, this interview would not be controversial. However, in these times where the modern information war is now the dominant battle in the USA, this interview is considered extreme and potentially a national security threat.
Why is that? What is it about information that suddenly Western governments view as inherently dangerous? Have you ever wondered what is happening behind what is visible. For the “Western alliance” to exhaust so much time and effort on controlling information, it really makes you wonder what the root of their anxiety is.
From my own research, the part that President Putin notes about the interests behind the financial sanctions is the most interesting path to follow.
whoops. put this comment in the wrong place:
Here’s the full interview.
The different sections are separated out.
ie. If you’re one of those people who wants to skip the full history part, you can do it easily.
https://tuckercarlson.com/the-vladimir-putin-interview/
I watched the whole thing. Well worth it.
I did too Ersatz Sobriquet. Angry I am, very. Putin is the sharpest knife in the drawer about the history of what is Russia in these times and how it came to be what it is today.
Am left wondering whether unelected deep state swamp creatures even know the half of what or how America became what it is today. Or why it was ever called the “melting pot” of many cultures? So embarrassed and ashamed that unelected power hungry war mongers have taken over what was once the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” Its all so complicated.
I think the above “leaked” transcript should be deleted. There is no sense in keeping false information public, to be spread by others who don’t do their homework.
Yes, SD should edit what’s up right now.
Yes where did that come from? – don’t like being punked like that- any explanation?
I saw a supposed transcript of this interview a couple days ago; it was in the comments on the Moon of Alabama site, which is:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/
I posted it but stated that I couldn’t verify if it was true or accurate. I also labeled where it came from. This was before Sundance posted about it; what Sundance found was on Twitter. It appears that there are a lot of short, fake transcripts out there. My best guess regarding this is that people will think they have already read the actual transcript of the interview & not watch the real one.
Lessoned learned that’s for sure – cheap trick only Works once …
Sundance did not say that he had proof it was accurate. He was sharing what he had seen.
FYI…Sundance is a lady.
Don’t even come on here talking stupid BS!
Ain’t gonna fly!
😄 you are mistaken.
Top kek comment, tho
Hmmm, are you a biologist?
Really? And just how can you possibly know that? And SERIOUSLY, what forking difference does that make in the grander scheme of things?
1000% phake news
Wrong answer princess.
That is a big no, dawg….
There is no gender fluidity on this forum…
Absolutely! Sundance is AWESOME; I was not being critical in ANY WAY!!! I come to the Tree House to read & learn every day; I LOVE this place & have GREAT respect for Sundance & his work!!!!!!! I’m also really appreciative of our admins & moderators & how hard they work–and all the hours.
I disagree , if doubts don’t post , not a buyer beware situation here – rely on credibility – but as I said lessoned learned – maybe by all concerned …
Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.
I agree completely! It does nothing for our credibility when we present unverified info and then don’t delete it when it is shown to be false.
I was very disappointed when I saw it first thing this morning. It never should have been posted to begin with. I chose to watch the interview first, and I’m glad I did.
So you want to “ cast the first stone.”
What a joke.
I guess the joke is on you, because I cast the first stone at 1:09 pm on page 4 of this thread. Go back and take a look at every single silly comment made today prior to this interview being released. Lots of mislead people from a fake transcript who were taking it as fact. Call it whatever you’d like! 👋
Indeed.
Sundance provided attribution and notation of uncertainty of its veracity.
Someone keeps telling us about information and how to process it without relying on external qualifiers . . .
He did indeed.
Always apply that Pound of Salt to everything…
So what was the point of posting it in the first place? Honestly , I think perhaps S wanted it to be true …
I think you’re trying too hard, it’s a non-issue.
If it proves wrong, as it has, then it’s locked down so we can recognize the counterfeits.
I’m not going to go putting words in Sundance’s mouth, nor thoughts in his head nor feelings in his heart.
I see they’ve brought their upvotes and paid reinforcements with them to bash Sundance.
These people are so predictable.
they’ve (?) their (?) them(?) and these (?) can you be a little more precise ….
“Again, I would review any pre-interview release transcript with a healthy dose of skepticism. There are multiple places where edits seem visible, and repeated patterns make the authenticity of the transcripts questionable. Let’s just wait and see what Carlson broadcasts.”
The fake transcript needs to stay as a record of what Americans were told. This fake will disappear from the internet when people realize that it was fake.
But we need to be able to refer back to it to see what they were trying to do.
It was an attempt to make Trump seem to be allied with a culturally shallow Vladimir Putin.
You have a great point: “The fake transcript needs to stay as a record of what Americans were told.”
But I doubt it will disappear from the internet. Seems more likely that this propaganda will be favored by the likes of Big Tech, rather than the real truth.
It’s a shame. Nothing about that supposed transcript rang true with me, and I agree with others who have expressed disappointment that it was posted here.
It would be delightful to see Tucker and Putin both find the original source of this lie, and sue their ass off.
I think I watched the whole interview – but I had to pause at some point in the middle and not sure I picked back up where I left. Was there any talk about Trump, or our ridiculous southern border or Trump not insulting Russia? Was this leaked transcript true, false or maybe these things got edited out?
I liked the way it ended. The talk about the Russian souls. Very profound and exemplary of Putin’s deep love of Russia.
What stood out to me is how Putin has been used as a bogyman for our military industrial complex – the lies we’ve been told. I remember when at the start of the Ukraine war they were all saying Putin has cancer or Parkinsons – complete with videos. He looked pretty good to me!
This is a man who loves his country and I can’t imagine any of our recent Presidents, even including DJT, being able to recite such history. But similarly, DJT loves the USA. Every country needs a leader who really loves his country and it’s people and that’s what we’ve been missing lately. The WEF loves no one but themselves and unfortunately they have a lot of clout these days with idiot “elites”.
Yes, I remember Putin chiding the United States about meddling in Eastern Europe when they had their own domestic affairs, and he mentioned the border problem explicitly.
I thought it was great, kind of like ai without the a.
I read the entire transcript from the Kremlin two days ago and sent it around to others. I was not even going to bother with the interview, but just a cursory look. Then I watched the interview today and it was COMPLETELY different, so I had to watch the entire thing. And the whole thing was completely different and there was no mention of Climate Change or Taylor Swift either. So, I don’t know which one to believe now, what is in writing from the Kremlin or what I just saw, given all of the AI deepfakes, etc ???
The interview is real, the advance transcript was someone punking us.
Thanks for that !!!
That fake interview was not from the Kremlin.
The real Putin interview will be on the Kremlin site tomorrow morning – probably by now. It will be in Russian or in English if you choose.
Good to know. That answers my question from earlier.. ie.. did the English language translator during Tucker’s broadcast convey Putin’s works correctly?
So much censorship and obfuscation, it really makes my head spin.
Not saying I completely buy into what Mr. Putin is saying, but he makes a lot more sense than Biden.
I appreciate Tucker getting and airing this interview.
I agree that Putin makes more sense than Biden, but then so does my collie.
😂
🤣
And as someone else said somewhere here – a foam mattress has a better memory than Biden. Gotta remember that one!
Our pResident is many dreadful things – but the only upside is – he’s comedy gold…
Let’s be honest. He makes a lot more sense than Pres. Trump as well. The only American politicians who could converse on Putin’s level are probably Ramaswamy and RFK Jr.
I think Kamala Harris could converse better than RFK and Ramasway.
Better than Biden anyway.
I don’t know, but I bet she’d do a great job polishing his Kremlin.
🙄
Nope
Hi, Kim. Are you the Democrat who wrote this piece of garbage? I hope Putin finds you.
Silliness
Agreed.
Though Trump has an/the X Factor, and has been wildly successful in the real estate equivalent of cockfighting ….NYC COMMERCIAL RE development….so he’s NOBODIES bitch…..
AND he’s taken his show world wide and PROVEN he can hang with ANYBODY globally…..
NOT TO MENTION HIS COOL HAND LUKE performance in his 1st term up to the present…..he’s taken EVERYBODIES BEST SHOTS and WILL NOT GO OR STAY DOWN…..
🤮🤮🤮🤮
Oh my! Let’s be disingenuous and support two clowns and show our never President Trump colors.
Try harder next time
“Who blew up Nordstream?
You did.
I didn’t I had an alibi.
You, (Tucker) possibly have an alibi. The CIA has no such alibi. ”
Imagine our Resident participating in such an interview, you can’t.
[Mr. Putin] said CIA has no such alib
Putin has a firm grasp on 12 hundred years of Russian History.
Biden has a firm grasp on a 12 year old.
Biden has a firm grasp on an ice cream cone.
Damn.
💥💥💥💥💥
Frickin brutal
Fully deserved.
Harrumph harrumph.
Thank you. I probably should not take Biden personally but I do. It only hurts me but it something hard to shake off. He is after all, “our resident.” God help me. I pray for help every day. This interview was an answer to my prayers. Confirmation that I am not a nut job.
My takeaway: Putin was being honest.
My question: For CTH, did we learn much of anything new?
We were already aware of the coup. We knew about the Nazi’s. We understood the violation of the Minsk accords. We understood the persecution and attacks on the Russian speaking people of Western Ukraine. We knew the 3 letter agency was behind just about every war and destabilization of countries for the last 80 years or so. Suprised he didn’t mention the biolabs.
Curious as to what CTH learned that we didn’t already know.
Supersoldiers
Mike Pompeo gave a speech about the super soldiers that China is developing. To the best of my recollection, Trump was still in office & Pompeo was Secretary of State at the time.
AI. China is #1. Russia will reunify, we in the US are the bad guys.
Nothing surprising, though I learned something from the 1000+ year history lesson.
The main point is to move it more into the spotlight, people who only listened to MSM will be shocked. Might take them a while to adjust their world view.
Can you imagine any of the MSM reporters sitting through that? The thought makes me laugh out loud. Christine Armapout would be having a hissy fit if that had been done to her as a superior international journalist. 🤣
It was verification of what we already knew.
We knew that nations have genetically modified humans who have been bred for specific purposes, like breeding Black Angus and Hereford?
I didn’t know that genetically modified humans already existed. 😵💫
We know of at least 5 people whose DNA has now integrated the MRNA through reverse transcription.
Congratulations to the 3 billion uncompensated lab rats.
Why the timing?
If you can grow your own corn hybrids to taste, do you need the original wild versions any more?
Same logic?
How far along are they? 2 decades? More?
Timing with a transhumanist agenda possibly?
It is curious in that corporations have been somehow allowed to patent some naturally occurring gene sequences found in nature.
Novel, ie synthetically created gene sequences have no such barrier.
If you own the gene sequence(s), what does that imply about the organism?
‘If you can grow your own corn hybrids to taste, do you need the original wild versions any more?” only a fool destroys the seed corn,.
I am fully human, and I’ve received a slew of phone calls lately asking for a blood donation. We who are fully human may wind up caged in a zoo like that Twilight episode.
Well, I guess that depends on whether Putin was exaggerating a little there…
…I don’t discount the possibility.
Every human that has been Vaxed and boosted with a mNRA EUA jab is a genetically modified organism.
Here’s hoping you haven’t bought any modified groceries. Unwittingly, of course, but the possibility remains that you’ve joined those modified humans.
Transhumanism plays up the “good” side, like creating bionic limbs or the prospect of repairing traumatic brain injuries. But genetically altered humans can just as likely wind up chemically lobotomized and rendered as zombie slaves and breeding stock.
I suspect these are the ones who Klaus Schwab says are going to “eat bugs and like it.” Revelation 9:6 prophecies that these tortured souls “shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”
Yes, because they’re no longer human, they can no longer die. Pretty grim.
Revelation speaks of this phenomenon. People crying to die, but can’t.
Did we learn anything more about who the true enemy is?
Mainstream media and many in our own institutions have been pushing that it’s Russia and Putin. If our “true” enemy is not them, then who is our true enemy?
I’ll give you a hint, they were behind making you, your children, your parents and grandparents wear masks for absolutely no reason for close to two years. They made grandma die alone in a hospital or nursing home. They shut down all of your children’s activities for two years for no reason. They weaponized the entire medical industry against you. They planned it out ahead of time and followed a script.
Those people are your real enemy.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. But I suspect the only reason we are hearing about this in the media, is that those responsible for destroying the human genome will try to hang it all on President Trump in this election year!
And those who fell for their lies the first time will likely fall for their lies this time. This is because the human psyche seeks to absolve itself of all blame, and who better than ‘orange man bad’ to take the fall?
I expect the medical community that continues to deny early treatments like HCQ and IVM, while relentlessly hawking their “poison death shots,” will be first to cast stones in his direction.
Most of us here are widely read on a lot of topics that don’t hit the MSM. We have researched to find things that are hidden from us. Sundance regularly gives us information that helps us interpret events. So maybe nobody here learned a whole lot of new information, but we have been able to attach it to what we already know and verify that knowledge.
The thing that I got out of this is that Vladimir Putin is not a liar like the people in DC, in the MSM, who tell us things that even they don’t really believe. What Putin says can be backed up by facts, by actual events and is what he truly believes to be the correct way of viewing the events.
THe better question is why is the MSM lying to the American people? They are acting Treasonous, so who is directing them to spew the lies?
The large corporations that run the media and our government.
Yes, Putin pointed that out very clearly. The media is our worst enemy. Their “time is gonna come” (song by Led Zepplelin) is here now, and playing out before my eyes. I hope you are also seeing that.
Operation Mockingbird…
Our real enemy.
And if you want to know the date of the meeting, look it up on the internet. Too funny.
Best to you Belle. I am in the Treehouse hanging on my branch here too.
He feels pressured/forced into responding to America’s effort in part to move Ukraine into the NATO. In direct violation of previous agreements with Russia.
As we know, Ukraine has a number of biolabs. This would put those labs under the control of NATO. And, NATO does not want Russia.
Yes. I was waiting for Putin to bring the biolabs reality into the interview as well. Many on CTH commented these last few days whether Putin would bring up the biolabs issues too.
In the context of the interview, I think Putin decided that subject was better left off of the menu of discussion in their discussion.
Honestly, I don’t know if Tucker could handle that subject at this time. But kudos to Tucker that he was “selected” by Putin for an interview.
According to Dan Bangonio (only rare listen here) many have called for interview with Putin, but only Tucker was chosen.
I learned that Carlson is not a very sophisticated interviewer. He had trouble asking coherent follow up questions.
Nope
Yeah, he looked like he had a stomach bug. When Putin threw out the fact that Tucker had applied to CIA, he looked especially uncomfortable.
Carlson did a workmanlike job, despite some poor habits he picked up from being in MSM for many years.
I think someone like Lou Dobbs may have done a slightly better job, and that would have really been something to see.
But Carlson did fine. He for the most part let Putin talk, which is the mark of an effective interview.
Watch Tucker’s after the interview interview. Tucker says it was hard to process what Putin was saying and how he was answering his questions. Tucker felt like Putin didn’t articulate answers very well.
Take that as you will…was Tucker a bad interviewer or was Putin a bad interviwee?
We also don’t know, to the best of my knowledge, that the excellent running translation we were treated to was the actual interpretation that Tucker was hearing; it’s possible that he had a real time interpreter in his ear and a separate process took place afterwards to smooth things out.
I’ve done real time interpreting, and it is not always as smooth a process as it would be in a post-production processing setting as this sounded like, and the person being interpreted for is a factor as well, if they are not habituated to hearing multiple languages running at the same time, drawing all the facial and body language inferences from one person yet hearing their thoughts in a second language by a third person in their ear or over their shoulder, it can be difficult for some to follow.
Those are very good points; the language barrier makes things MUCH HARDER! So much of communication is nonverbal & I’ll bet that almost none of us had Russian in school. Russia is also a different culture and most of us haven’t interacted with folks from that country.
Tucker said Putin “didn’t explain himself very well because he is in a position of not having to explain himself”. So is Trump. So is every powerful CEO. Not really a valid criticism, more a statement of fact?
Yeah, that line didn’t set well with me either.
For me it was a thing of curiosity, how it would play out. Not everyone is a Treeper, it was an education for them, at least the ones that had the attention span to watch the whole thing. I wish Putin had used a map w/a pen laser, going over the geography and historical part, but that is just me and how my brain works. Visual aids are helpful at times, helps my memory to maintain absorption of things.
I don’t think Tucker, or any of us really was prepared for how that would be the start to an “interview”. Brilliant on Vlad’s part to turn the tables from the get go.
I didn’t know Putin proposed a shared missile defense system…it’s probably a well-known story but this was the first time I’d heard it.
Agreed. I hadn’t heard that before.
How could it be a well known story? MSM ‘reports’ only the scripts they’re handed. That has been going on for many many years. And if it should have mentioned, it’d be a footnote on page 15.
Wondering who is the “we” you are referring to? For me, It’s always “refreshing” to learn how deep the depravity of the swamp goes. I imagine Condaleeza Rice, the so called “expert” on Russia, was glued to the interview tonight. And then just went off and played her concert piano. She could give a sh*t about being a war monger. That’s what I re-learned today.
“Curious as to what CTH learned that we didn’t already know.”
Can you really read this statement and the first question in the post and not know who the “we” is that I was referring to?
Note: CTH refers to The Conservative Treehouse
Side poll
Who is more honest Putin or Biden?
That is like asking: Who is more orange, a carrot or a potato
Better to ask who is more believable. It would be Putin.
Putin knows the Russian people and how to exercise power. Biden is a vicious buffoon.. an empty vessel available to the highest bidder or most votes in his better years……a weak sock puppet stuck in the politics of decades ago and led around by his handlers now in his decline. Putin knows that and he knows who is really in power in the United States.
Maybe a better question is who would you trust to allow the common man to pursue life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Rhetorical question…..trust no-one in DC- especially slojo
Putin. End
The interview was fascinating and informative, but none of the dialog you were provided made it into the interview. Nothing about Biden. Putin did say he does not believe the elected officials are making the decisions for the USA.
and neither do the educated people of America
The wood floor in that room is awesome!!!!
Yes! Craftsmanship and sheer art!!!!
That was fascinating
And we have Mr Potato Head as president
OMG. “How motivated are you to just call the American government and say, let’s come to terms.”🤣
Ya! Why didn’t we think of that before?? Just come to terms!🤷🏻♂️🤣
Too bad you didn’t get to conduct the interview.
👍
I think the exact right person conducted the interview.
Kudos to Tucker.
His commentary on the financial restrictions and considerations were in line with many of ours – at least in regards to the consequences and the reality that it is a massive shot in ones own foot. The disagreements in many of our views is the real motive underlying motive and who is pulling that thread.
The two interesting ‘tidbits’ out of the actual interview to me weren’t delved into deeply by Tucker (in fact, not at all – a complete lack of curiosity or desire to pick the threads).
One was “the golden billion” referenced by Putin several times.
The other was him commentary about the
eliteelitists and indirect references to the DS and the reality that most “presidents” don’t make the real decisions (which are connected to the first tidbit).By jove, I think he’s also a “conspiracy theorist.” No wonder they didn’t want this interview to occur. (for the general public, the history lesson is one the censors likely hated too)
ps. His commentary about a long view of things (China, Russia) versus a short view of things (U.S.) is so very true. It’s part of the reason our businesses and economy are no where near what they could be and the foreign policy is a shambles. It’s all about “right now” or “this reporting period” or “this quarter.” No long range vision or planning.
And… that’s intentional…
…that is…if the goal is to destroy our country.
Yes, true for the elitists – but I’ve seen it in businesses since I started working. It goes far beyond the intentional aspect of the elitists.
The USA is barely 250 years old. Other countries and cultures have been in existence for centuries, if not thousands of years!
These countries are guided by steadier hands, which is not to say that their citizens are free to govern themselves, only that power doesn’t change hands as often, and the people are more grounded in tradition.
Right now, the USA is basically being run as a sweatshop. We are one giant shirtwaist factory about to go up in flames.
In fairness, this nation had many traditions and “ties that bind as well” – the issue there is that since Dopey was installed in ’08 there has been a very concerted effort to destroy them all.
Don’t know about the “steadier” hands – but they do tend to have longer range plans – of the 5, 10, 25, 50, and in the case of China 100 year variety. They’ve definitely changed hands as it were (China’s cultural revolution, Mao – and Russia’s earlier 20th century revolution, Stalin). Their cultures are older though and have survived the various tumultuous periods in their histories.
The U.S. has been involved in at least one long term plan – just not one of and by the people, nationalistic, or cultural in nature (the one associated with the golden billion).
The way it’s currently run is by design – there are those very intent on destroying the nation and splitting it up into bits and pieces – balkanization.
The Golden Billion.
My ears perked up at that one, gonna have to dig in and see if it has precedence, but it’s a powerful term.
Sundance’s map of the current global cleaving clearly has just about One Billion souls living in the yellow.
I’ve wondered why Sundance chose yellow . . .
China and India together are a little under 3 billion people. So, I don’t understand the Golden Billion.
He was referencing the portion of the world that profits mightily from the current dollar reserve system.
Sundance’s map of the world depicting the cleaving of our world, depicts in yellow North America, Europe, Australia and Japan.
The Collective West.
Nope. Here’s an excerpt from a paper written for the government that was an attempt to label it as a “crazy conspiracy theory.” It originated from around the time the USSR was breaking up.
As a conspiracy theory, the Golden Billion is fairly run‐of‐the‐mill, at home easily among the Georgia Guidestones and the Elders and Zion (Gulyas 2016: 150; Bronner 2000): a story of saponaceous elites pulling strings to amass wealth and destroy regular people’s lives. I noticed it in 2010 only because I started an ethnographic project in Russia that year and the intense social openness ethnography demands made me attentive to conversations I might otherwise not have had reason to notice.
Here’s a video with a reference to the billion (about 11 minutes in) – but it is associated with the UN and Agenda 21, as described by Bush Sr.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/t5rm49lUhB7N/
The full paper the quote about the Golden Billion is from was written by a professor in St. Petersburg.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9348499/
Belle, see my reply to Maquis above 🙂
The golden billion are they who would rule over us all – the elitists. You can find descriptions of the term everywhere. Think WEF, billionaires, old EU money, bankers, etc..
Those who effectively own the Collective West and seek greater dominance.
It is possible to make a point without discounting another’s.
Especially when they in reality reinforce each other, n’est-ce pas?
Indeed .
Intent is clarification 🙂
Treepers excel in crowd sourcing.
Appreciate your finds, will review them soon.
I think his history in the KGB was economics while based in East Germany.
I’ll bet Putin views Tucker as a lightweight.
Because that’s how Tucker came across. Completely out of his depth. Some of the questions were very good, however.
Who cares, but you’re both wrong. Very interesting info and good questions. Could either of you have done better? Didn’t think so. I could not. I’m busy being retired.
All a “show.”
That is completely untrue. He conducted a good interview with good questions that Putin was very willing to answer in a respectful way. He never acted at all like he thought Tucker was incompetent. I wish Tucker had gone into some other topics, but it was a throughly and well done interview that will reach millions of people.
Agree. If I were Tucker I’d would have put on some kind of Depends underneath my skirt or pants. All things considered Tucker hung in there as best he was able to.
Putin several times refrained from putting words in another persons mouth (Biden, Bush, Rice etc.)
So I think he would be wiser than to make judgment as such.
The thing is the nature of a great Statesmen is that not only can you debate and talk to experts, but also to laymen.
Like a parent being patient with his child to explain all their why why why’s. You must have a love for the subject in order to be able to do so.
Putin did most of the talking and Tucker threw in some serious questions. (ie. no softball interview like some had said it would be)
and Putin talked to Tucker because…. ? He thought he might get a chance to say things to the west that would not get edited and changed for propaganda purposes?
calling Tucker a light weight or that Putin thought that of him, says more about Zellschmidt .
Of course he does – because in comparison to him and frankly any Russian on the street Tucker is a lightweight.
Well, that was an object lesson in how to be interviewed. I wonder if many, or any, other world leaders could conduct a two-hour discussion covering the origins of their modern territorial claims and the journey over a thousand+ years from there to here in such a restrained, patient, and informative manner. Respect to Mr Putin.
Respect too, to Mr Carlson. I doubt he has often been challenged to turn his showman talents to such a “serious discussion”. He adapted well to meet the situation given that his trademark chit-chat and hilarity was not going to suffice, and he even managed to ask the Nordstreem question, which I’d thought he was not brave enough to do.
This has left me so much to think about, especially the confirmation of Boris’ interference to stop peace negotiations. Maybe now the U.K. government faction seeking his restoration to power will be given pause. Boris’s not on the side of peace, either.
Thanks to all who made this happen.
after watching this interview, it’s clear that every US president, duly elected and installed in my lifetime, has been/is a moronic jackass compared to Putin (Trump excluded).
Thank you. Your post gave voice to my experience re the interview as well. I am looking forward to experiencing Tucker in his future. Somehow, I think this interview with Putin will be a defining moment for him. In the future I pray he will not have the need to make a joke about what he finds to be true.
Just so grateful that Tucker Calson.com posted this interview. It gave me much food for thought to digest. It will take me awhile to absorb.
I want and pray to ” Stay Calm, and Carry On.”
Meanwhile, FJB gave remarks during the Putin interview regarding his “exoneration” from classified documents crimes. He was visibly confused when reporters shouted questions at him and got angry a couple times when questions about his mental acuity were raised. He lasted about 12 minutes before finally shuffling out of the room.
This presser will be the MSM excuse for not covering the Putin interview in any detail.
The timing is not a coincidence.
Taken in its entirety, it was a very interesting interview.
However, I’m not sure the U.S. general population had the patience or understanding to comprehend much of what was said. I think Putin should have given the Cliff Note’s version at the beginning of the interview of why this war started.
Tucker also seemed very nervous and off his game a bit.
The bigger impression is going to be how lucid and intelligent Putin is in comparison with the nimrod who currently lives in the White House.
Putin has a better grasp of the USA, its ecomy and social conditions than FJB.
That was true 30 years ago too. Biden was an idiot before dementia kicked in.
A greedy, evil pawn – before the dementia kicked in.
Disagree. Tucker was fine.
Agree with you, mostlyOgauge, Tucker was fine. He listens, does not interrupt and by his facial expression, digests everything Putin stated. Not many interviewers actually listen and then able to provide feedback.
I admire Tucker for that.
Well, you might have a point but I was extremely fascinated and believe that people need to understand the past and history in order to understand where we are standing present day.
Perhaps the problem is with the average viewer who has no interest and little attention span to listen and watch an interview with one of the world’s greatest leaders.
How far we have fallen and very sad indeed.
Would you not be nervous asking potentially insulting questions to the potentate of a nation that for decades we have been told is just a button-push away from obliterating our nation? (Putin is right that our media has greatly exaggerated the threat to terrify us about Russia – that doesn’t mean Putin is a teddy bear, though.)
If you had the CIA watching everything you do for several days, you might be a little nervous and off your game a bit. Otherwise, I agree with your comment.
Wow. Just finished watching. Very interesting. Whoever released that partial “transcript” is a schmuck. Putin is spot on: we have way too many problems here in our own country to fix before getting involved anywhere else. Close the borders, bring ALL our troops home, no more money for other countries, secure utilities, get rid of at least half the gubmint, I could go on.
Best moment of the interview. What are you doing? Don’t you have bigger problems?
We have bigger problems, the $$ from our taxes invites UNVETTED Illegal Aliens to live in our country.
More than 50% of our income goes to taxes!! This $$ is squandered on fruitless wars and undeserving alien support that only serves to devalue our currency, creating discord and suffering.
Our Congress is controlled by their sins.
Our FED is controlled by big banks.
Wolverines must rally!
MAGA 2024!!
This was a riveting interview.
Including/especially the very end, “No will be able to separate the souls.”
Just finished watching this historic conversation. The reverberations from the massive red pill that just dropped will be felt for years.
Here we have the Russian President providing in eloquent detail a historical, current and future analysis of the geopolitical situation at a level most ordinary people, who care to listen, will understand.
In the immediate aftermath of my viewing it is as clear to me today as it was Nov 4 we are the victims of coup in the US and are rapidly devolving into a destructive force of death and destruction.
Don’t know about the rapidly devolving part of your statement…this government has been doing that for many many years already.
The end of our country is now rushing towards us rapidly – yes. This of course, has been the ultimate goal of whoever has had their hands on the control for all of those years.
I will be thinking about this interview for awhile.
My first thoughts are the distinct cultural differences between Americans (assuming Tucker is representative) and Russians (assuming Vladimir is representative).
I think this is a reasonable assumption.
Watching and listen to the words spoken and the thought processes behind them, there seems to be a distinct gap/difference.
The thought processes are different and distinct………..imbeciles like Lindsey Graham & company cannot comprehend how the Russian mind/soul works.
Tucker himself seemed to struggle at times to communicate with Vladimir on a common thought/logic basis.
I speculate that for most uninformed people or people who have already set views on Russia, this exchange will go right over their heads.
Good interview, very thought provoking……..I will need to think about this more and re-watch it several times.
That is how I feel. Americans seem so simple minded compared to Putin. I will have to think about what was said and possibly rewatch this but there is such a huge gap between the thinking of PUtin and the average american . why are we supposed to be so afraid and hateful of this man and his country. I cannot imagine biden tlking to him. Well, b still digesting and this transcrpt thar is posted here is embarrassing and i feel like a fool to have sent it on to a friend.
We have less patience for context and nuance that people in that world seem to lay out systematically. We want to jump to the point.
Putin is absolutely correct that Biden is not in control. Powerful oligarchs are.
People high up in JP Morgan installed Hochul in NY and most Likely Biden in the WH.
Don’t think we heard anything that could really even be debated as being not factual. It’s not like we didn’t already know the current stolen, fraudulent administration is corrupt. After watching the entire interview, its more obvious than before, all of the actions of this current crop of DC trash is for no reason other than enriching warmongers and destroying the US.
There is no separating the soul.
And then Putin gently suggested the interview conclude after that remark. There was the briefest silence, and I thought, “How appropriate. It’s almost like a prayer.”
At least Russia believes in traditional marriage and a man is a man and a woman is a woman .
Liberals don’t believe in any of that .
That’s part of the common sense.
His appears to be abundant.
Putin showed his great knowledge and intelligence and grace. You could see he was fuming inside at times but kept calm and graceful. He states things as historical and economic facts that have lead to decision for wars.
He is very logical and is extremely frustrated with all Western leaders being illogical and incompetent. He cannot understand why they do things to destroy their own countries. He puts Russian welfare first like all good leaders should. Solid economic and social policies to be fair to people.
Putin hates debt. Russia runs a balanced budget type of system seldom ever printing money. debt/GDP was near 100% when Putin took office in 2000. Now it is about 13% of GDP. US is at about 120% of GDP.
Lavrov Russia key international person is also very polite and gracious.
Putin’s grace is shown on the battlefield in Ukraine only hitting military targets and giving respect and kindness to POW. Versus US, Israel, Ukraine killing as many civilians as possible.
^^^^^^^^
Lavrov is a Russian National Treasure.
Rock Star in Diplomatic Circles.
Extremely interesting interview. He is certainly glossing over many things, like the fact he could release that American journalist tomorrow if he wanted to, but the gist of the interview shows him as fierce nationalist and patriot for his country, very intelligent and competent.. He is not entirely the peaceful, accommodating leader he seems to be, but he is Russian through and through and his focus is protecting and promoting his country and he will not let anyone cross a certain line in the sand to harm his country. . His background is communist, violent in some acts, but he is also a Christian which is very hard to reconcile. Thoroughly enjoyed that. Honestly, he was careful to diplomatically tell us our leadership are fools leading America down the path of destruction and he cannot figure out why that is happening. Although I’m sure he knows way more about that than we know, but he seems to believe we can fix ourselves still. I did not come away with any good feelings about America’s federal govt. and what it is doing to us and around the world and we the people are not doing much about it at the moment. He made sure to seem sincere and honest while keeping much to himself. He wanted the American people to see a man who is not the monster our own govt. has tried to make him out to be. Was he being himself or was he pretending to be something he is not. Thinking a bit of both.
Very thoughtful post. I didn’t sense any pretense – just hesitation to possibly say too much.
Was disappointed about no biolabs question. Thinking maybe Tucker’s questions were pre-screened? “Yes, you may ask. No, don’t go there.:
You guys tried. Pence and others F**ked you big time.
He put in motion the J6 travesty.
The West is committing suicide…or is it being murdered.
At any rate the demise is not Putin’s doing.
Putin, Xi etc are leaders our True Dope your Bi Dump 🤮
Cheers!
WEF is a suicide pact for the West on behalf of China.
World War Xi.
Conducted from the City of London.
Precisely!
Here in Greater Vancouver the Chinese owned assets are truly staggering.
Our entire federal government is corrupted.
However many locals “ shrug” as their house prices skyrocket and are only concerned with their “ pocketbook “
Cheers!
They are bringing in huge numbers of Chinese through our open borders, lots of plans coming to fruition, what a year we face.
Salut, Frere!
👍
CA govt is corrupted… that was blatantly obvious when your parliament gave a standing ovation to a WWII Nazi murderer…
None know it better than our Brother Dekester.
He harbors no illusions and suffers no fools.
As do we all, we deplore each other’s plights and condemn each others’ tyrants.
The latter is an excellent view – for it is only by standing together united across the west that we will wrest our future from the maw of evil.
Unity is our weapon.
I have watched several speeches and interviews of Vladimir Putin. He is pretty much the same way. A very serious and intelligent person, thoroughly Russia First, but generous not to insult Americans or reveal private information.
I didn’t get the impression at all that he in any way indicated he could not release him – only that negotiations were under way and had been and that it was the way such things were handled (i.e. he was unwilling to circumvent the process that is normally followed – and I think even may have indicated whom he would like to see exchanged).
Peaceful – not necessarily – but pragmatic and a realist.
Interesting that Putin basically called Tucker a CIA recruit washout and Tucker pretended like he didn’t hear anything.
I noticed that. Putin knows his stuff.
Oh how we’ve been lied to by arrogant a-holes who are operating on a legacy earned by our parents, and their parents, and that the the current group neither earned nor deserve.
Now that’s something I missed. Will listen for it next viewing.
I’ve been noticing the CIA family syndrome ever since someone here led me to that book about the CIA parentage of so many of the 60’s L.A.-based musicians.
re: “a CIA recruit washout”
COULD be taken as a compliment; One’s conscience may preclude employment by the See Eye A.
TUCKER: So you won’t get to see Taylor Swift either then?
PUTIN: No. We have been given a reprieve
Is that really the last thing he said? Classic.
That is not in this video interview. That was fake. I don’t know the purpose of the fake, but everything in it was fake.
Fake but accurate?
Best fakes are mostly so.
Uh, no, it wasn’t.
Evidently part of the fake transcript.
Someone did mention, however, that there are actually quite a few Putin interviews available on the web. In this one he proved how witty he could be with the crack about the CIA and the pipeline.
It could be that the transcript borrowed from some other exchanges he’s had in some other interviews…
An absolute tour de force, I’ll watch this again and read the transcript many times. Russia has a SERIOUS leader who looks out for his national self interest. We have Joe and Ho. God help us. TRUMP 2024 or bust.
Slow and Ho.
Some interesting items were revealed. Special Services from other countries are talking to each other per President Putin. Interesting confirmation given by Putin that the CIA prosecuted the Ukraine War and the overthrow of its government.
We are all aware by now that our Special Services are involved in the overthrow of America. And that they intend to stay in Ukraine until their objectives are completed.
The real question for me is – what are their true objectives?
And, given the track record of our Special Services, then how cooperative are they with those from other countries or do they work together?
Why are the Special Services still being paid?
Special Services’ true objective is to rob Russia of its wealth thru ongoing war just as they have/are robbing robbing the USA of its wealth thru illegal immigration.
the big take-away was that tucker punked the loser media. tucker did the background and logistics to pull off the interview. the losers will seethe with envy, jealousy and double down on their daily hate of all things tucker.
Watched every minute of interview. Putin makes those clowns in DC look like idiots, which they are. The man is brilliant. Compared to our politicians, who come across as shallow bull shit artists, Putin Is a very serious minded person.
Boy, that interview suggested that our Western Governments are immature, emotive, optically narcissistic douchebags compared to the serious, Putin and the Russians. The behaviour during much of that time period reeks as the same kind of moral terpitude that has wracked the Founders Promise. We are a system of rule of lawbreakers. Tucker was weak in that performance.
I thought Tucker did his job well.
No matter how well he did his job, there will always be some who think they would have done better.
Putin holds a law degree in international law and a doctorate degree in economics with a thesis discussing energy resources in international trade.
It is interesting to me that Wikipedia has fairly recently changed its entry on Vladimir Putin to add that some people think that he is a plagiarist. That was not in the Wikipedia article I read 6 months ago.
Is Harvard editing Wikipedia again? Sheesh.
Gay has free time on her hands now . . .
Intelligence agencies are frequent editors of politically charged topics.
Got news:
Western Governments are immature, emotive, optically narcissistic douchebags compared to the serious, Putin and the Russians.
Just like the media, you are here to watch a horse race …
The “leaked transcript” is complete fiction. It was a foolish mistake to publish it.
I disagree.
Sundance made clear that this was not an official transcript, but is was circulating. We should be aware, because there was a reason some entity made the effort to put the fake out there.
We need to learn to recognize the “tells” in the fake reports. We are constantly being manipulated.
I thought everyone knew from the start that it was just fiction. Had the actual interview even been done before the Alabama Moon piece?
I took it as fiction anyway. Realistic fiction though and I thought for fiction it was realistic.
I think this might explain what’s happening.
The final public speech of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the 34th President of the United States, delivered in a television broadcast on January 17, 1961. Perhaps best known for advocating that the nation guard against the potential influence of the military–industrial complex, a term he is credited with coining, the speech also expressed concerns about planning for the future and the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending, the prospect of the domination of science through federal funding and, conversely, the domination of science-based public policy by what he called a “scientific-technological elite”.
Ike was right. The MIC has cost trillions of dollars and can’t even say how many lives….not to mention the lies we’ve been told to support their killing machines for profit.
Took me a long time to realize that our government are the bad guys.
He intended to include “Congressional” in that complex.
It got left out, but clearly Congress is essential to the scheme.
I propose we make an effort to use Military Industrial Congressional Complex henceforth.
Ike was probably one of the last ones with skin in the game. Maybe JFK thought he was really in charge.
Remember that Ike was a top general, and had a lot of military friends who were profiting from various conflicts and contracts at the time. Maybe that speech was his conscience calling, but he was no ‘voice in the wilderness’.
Vladimir Putin is obviously a very intelligent, eloquent, sane Russian leader.
He is nothing like the American lamestream media portray him.
Tucker Carlson is an outstanding journalist who wants to report objective facts.
This interview made for great TV viewing!
It was not broadcasted on MSM TV.
To be fair, I am not sure the average MSM fake news viewer could have handled or even listened to more than 15 minutes of this interview, much less comprehend what was said in those minutes. I do not say that as an elitist but a realist.
Putin told us “Special Services” are running our country without telling us “Special Services” are running our country.
If we accept that ……..
then what are the questions we should have and how should our observations be different than before?
As something SD might say, we need to start asking ourselves the right questions.
Who and or what are the “Special Services” working for? It damn sure isn’t America’s long term interests!
(State Department and others absorbed by the clowns ? destroying hearts and minds and creating illusions)
And the real question: what are we going to do about these “Special Services”?
Jason Whitlock
@WhitlockJason
Listening to Putin talk and thinking about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris talking and I’m just stunned at the difference. We look/sound weak and unserious.
36.6 million views on X (twitter) so far.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
(I watched it on a Rumble show)
For more information: Oliver Stone’s documentary ‘Ukraine on Fire’ covers 2014 Ukraine Maidan Coup by the Western states.
Is this it? An hour and 36 minutes?
https://watchdocumentaries.com/ukraine-on-fire/
Here is full documentary on Rumble platform (1 hour and 36 minutes) :
https://rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine-on-fire.html
Full movies
Ukraine on Fire (2016) https://rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine-on-fire.html
Revealing Ukraine (2019) https://rumble.com/vwywfq-revealing-ukraine.html
Oliver Stone interviews Vladimir Putin.
Direct link:
https://rumble.com/embed/vubrga/
Sad to say but Tucker just got schooled by a much smarter person with an outstanding grasp of history – I verified that. I wasn’t expecting the interview to go that way. On top of that Putin has a perfect grasp of current events.
The sad part is that Putin , in his own words, wanted to be part of the European and American alliance (NATO) and was denied.. That speaks volumes. If so, this has been one of our country’s greatest blunders EVER – maybe by design because of the military industrial complex who now seem to run our country.
I am sure that Tucker is not feeling good after that interview. He was way out of his league. Don’t get me wrong, I like Tucker and commend him for the effort.
Putin is a very smart man, topped with a photographic memory when it comes to history.
Bottom line, Putin, and Russians as a whole, are a lot more like us than not. The difference is that they have better leadership.
lol. You think it was about Tucker
Um, why would Tucker be ‘out of his league’? This was an interview, not a debate … he wanted to hear what Putin had to say, not pass on to Putin what his (Tucker’s) agenda was, although Tucker spoke from his own viewpoint on issues.
Because, and don’t get me wrong, Tucker is the best we’ve got, but Putin is above his level – took him to school in history, and history is everything.
When this whole thing started a few years back I first went to the history of the region, and not in wiki and other brainwashing sites.
Even so, I missed their history by 1000 years, which according to Putin started in the 800’s, whereas I could only find good history starting in the 1700’s.
And that is how important history is. All the conflicts, the people in them, and the causalities that lead to the modern era.
Yeah, I think you may have too much MSM-ingrained thinking in you. Tucker didn’t waste his time in Moscow telling us what he knew, but rather he got Putin to tell us what Putin knows. You don’t see that? How did you miss that? Everything else is superfluous, and can be discussed outside Moscow and on our own time.
Look up Kievan Rus, that thread alone will lead you into much vital and worthwhile history.
What level of background knowledge do you expect from a journalist? I myself had a two-semester-long Russian history class which started all the way back at the beginning of Rus, and how it got to be Orthodox and all that, but I wouldn’t have done any better than Tucker while listening to all that. There’s a lot to keep track of to understand where he’s going with the history and what it has to do with Ukraine.
It’s a great compliment to have deep knowledge of another nation’s history or language, because it’s a difficult thing to learn for even one other nation, much less all the nations a world-class journalist ideally would have knowledge of.
“…are a lot more like us than not.” One of the reasons I say that the USA, as it is during the Biden Administration, has completed the evolution to become like the old USSR, while Russia has evolved to be like the old USA. Another comparison, remember the old geriatric leadership of the old USSR, who has the geriatric leadership now? Even though we know FJB’s strings are being pulled by Hussein Obama/WEF. The only alternative is to Make America Great Again and keep it great.
If Russia had better weather I’d probably investigate moving there. In some ways their values seems more sane than our current woke culture. Mutilating children, pregnant “men”, 35 trillion in debt and counting, open borders for replacement of US citizens, taxes on top of taxes, the WEF depopulation agenda, wars wars wars, a senile POTUS….Soros funding our destruction while the people in power take their cut…
I’m just SICK of it!
The sad thing is Bernie prob said the same thing when it was still the USSR. But I hear ya, I watched several videos of people walking around in various cities. Very clean and good prices on groceries, their meats look excellent.
My supermarket displays rows and rows of canned goods and other food items. As soon as the item is removed, however, the shelf behind it is completely bare.
Our ERs are packed with foreigners and there are few hospital beds to be had for sick Americans. My elderly mother was discharged from the ER late at night, when she should have remained on IV antibiotics with a drain, pending surgery.
I overheard a nurse prescribing Paxlovid to a nearby patient, which almost guarantees another bout of Covid two weeks later!
Our news is fake..
Our elections are a sham..
It is extremely disheartening to go from a first world country to the third world, seemingly overnight.
No matter how Tucker is portrayed, the fact is this may be an interview of journalistic or historical record importance.
Probably the Interview of the decade, and depending on how we handle our own country maybe the interview of the century.
It was surely by design that Russia has been kept on their heels and never truly embraced.
We promised not to move NATO one inch closer in 1991, and instead find ourselves after five waves of accessions actually waging a proxy war using a putative NATO eligible actor that substantially overlaps legitimate Russian territorial claims well founded in history both long and short.
Our Derps declared their intention to “decolonize” Russia from the moment the Soviet Union fell, dismembering and raping its assembled constituent regions has long been a dream of the dirty bankers behind all the misery this world has seen in the last couple centuries or so.
We have to have a boogeyman,you know the money…….
Agree. Someone with the intellect of William F Buckley would’ve been better able to keep up and might have done a better job of asking follow up questions. But Tucker did fine.
“…we do not meddle in your elections. We don’t need to because the same people end up running things anyway.” That’s why it’s called the Uni-Party and DeepState, Vlad.
I would like to pay a sincere compliment to the translator. Impressive!
If you’ve already watched it run it again. You don’t have to watch it again just get the numbers up up up. Post/tell your like minded friends. Run it on multiple devices. The left/uniparty/MSM will hate to see sky high numbers.
#throw-sand-in-the-machinery
Russia’s “Sputnik” news service has published its own summary of the two-hour long interview:
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240208/key-statements-from-tucker-carlson-interview-with-president-putin-1116677179.html
As they indicated, they did not publish this until after Tucker had the opportunity to present it.
Vladimir Putin is obviously a very intelligent, eloquent, sane Russian leader.
He is nothing like the American lamestream media portray him.
Tucker Carlson is an outstanding journalist who wants to report objective facts.
This interview made for great TV viewing!
EXCELLENT !!! interview…Things are happening that have released and opened the door to truth!!! TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH The TRUTH will prevail!!!
Why is it when Americans go to other countries, they always appear gauche in comparison? Is it our government schooling?
Americans have gotten that rap overseas for the past 75 years.
Our Founders, separated from their forebearers by oceans only slowly and laboriously traversed, knew far more of the world and its cultures and languages than Americans have been for a long time.
Now that we can cross in a matter of hours we still are so isolationist in culture and mindset, it’s often almost as if the rest of the world doesn’t exist.
I’ve wandered the world with the Air Force, and consider myself blessed by my time abroad, and the most common fault I observed in my fellows was a lack of respect for other races and cultures, to the degree that I rarely ventured out in any but my own company or with someone not intent on embarrassing us all.
There is no better way to show respect to a people than to make an attempt to communicate in their language, to avoid transgressing their norms and to seek amical engagement, it’s not so hard, and it makes all the difference in how one is seen and treated.
Look at the bright side.
Most traditional Parisians don’t like the rest of France.
Provincialism exists everywhere it seems.
Agreed, we had many encounters with Americans growing up in Scotland.
As two military bases were close by our town, and many Americans were “ about” working in the oil sector of the North Sea.
The ones we knew were terrific, their military bases were legendary for food, booze and other goodies.
However their world was the U.S.A. and their knowledge of geography or world history was shockingly poor.
Of course knowing what we now know, Americans had been lied to for decades.
Cheers!
The CIA says Vlad has an enormous head
And that he uses a coffin for a bed
They say he’s fussy with his food
And eats his breakfast in the nude
Is he robust or very pale?
At least we know he’s male!
Just read that Tucker Carlson met with Edward Snowden and Tara Reade when in Moscow. He recorded an interview with Tara Reade. No mention of an interview with Snowden.
If true? icing on the cake!
She’s a ballsy chick if she’s moved to Russia to live in safety
Russia offered her asylum because she was getting death threats from the US government. She was afraid to come home. Remember when we used to offer asylum to Russians? My how the tables have turned.
Watched whole thing. Super good.
So that ‘transcript’ above is bogus?
Fake but accurate.