Capitalism made communism stronger
Putin urges US to ‘negotiate’ on Ukraine in Tucker Carlson interview Anton Troianovski
Moscow | President Vladimir Putin called on the United States to “make an agreement” ceding Ukrainian territory to Russia to end the war, speaking for two hours with a former Fox News host in the Kremlin’s most direct appeal to American audiences since his invasion began two years ago.
“Wouldn’t it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement,” Mr Putin told Tucker Carlson in the interview broadcast on Thursday (Friday AEDT).
“Start respecting our country and its interests and look for certain solutions,” he told the American conservative commentator.
Much of the interview constituted a familiar Kremlin history lesson about Russia’s historical claim to Eastern European lands, beginning in the ninth century, that Mr Putin made little effort to distil for American ears.
Mr Putin also laid out his well-worn and spurious justifications for invading Ukraine, asserting that Russia’s goal was to “stop this war” that he claims the West is waging against Russia.
But Mr Putin was more direct than usual about how he sees his Ukraine invasion ending: not with a military victory, but through an agreement with the West.
At the interview’s end, Mr Putin told Carlson that the time had come for talks about ending the war because “those who are in power in the West have come to realise” that Russia will not be defeated on the battlefield.
“If so, if the realisation has set in, they have to think what to do next. We are ready for this dialogue,” Mr Putin said.
Responding to Carlson’s question about whether NATO could accept Russian control over parts of Ukraine, Mr Putin said, “Let them think how to do it with dignity. There are options if there is a will.”
The interview, conducted on Tuesday, was Mr Putin’s first with a Western media outlet since the start of the war in Ukraine and his first with an American one since 2021.
Vladimir Putin and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. AP
While Mr Putin regularly gave interviews to mainstream American media in his first two decades in power, his spokesperson said the Kremlin chose Carlson this time because those traditional outlets take “an exclusively one-sided position” with regard to Russia.
Afforded a chance by Carlson to expand on his efforts to portray Russia as a defender of “traditional values” against what he frequently depicts as a degenerate and declining West, the Russian president was uncharacteristically restrained. “Western society is more pragmatic,” he said. “Russian people think more about the eternal, about moral values.”
He added that “there’s nothing wrong with” the Western path, noting that it had led to “good success in production, even in science”. It was an echo of Mr Putin’s frequent assertion over the past two years that his conflict is not with the West as a whole, but with a hegemonic ruling elite.
Mr Putin’s appearance underscored his tactical confidence as his adversaries face a vulnerable moment: Ukraine is struggling on the battlefield, further military aid is stalled in the US Congress, and Kremlin-friendly politicians are ascendant on both sides of the Atlantic.
Chief among those politicians is former president Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner whom Carlson frequently praises.
That confluence of circumstances means that the interview with Carlson comes as Mr Putin senses his “finest hour,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre.
Mr Putin’s end goal, she said, is to secure a peace deal in Ukraine that would cement Russia’s control of the territory it has already captured and to install a friendly government in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. But to achieve it, Mr Putin appears to believe that he needs the United States to put pressure on Ukraine to hold negotiations on ending the war, rather than to continue to resist Russia’s invasion.
“He believes that he now has a window of opportunity,” she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
