Putin calls on US to ‘negotiate’ on Ukraine in Tucker Carlson interview

Washington: Russian 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 an interview broadcast online on Friday that was 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,” Putin told Tucker Carlson, the American conservative commentator and Trump supporter, in the Russian leader’s first interview with an American outlet since 2021. “Start respecting our country and its interests and look for certain solutions.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for two hours, hardly interrupted by the American journalist.Credit: AP

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 Putin made little effort to distil for American ears. 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 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, 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,” Putin said.

Responding to Carlson’s question about whether NATO could accept Russian control over parts of Ukraine, Putin said, “Let them think how to do it with dignity. There are options if there is a will”.

The original version, in Russian, of Putin’s comments was not immediately released, leaving viewers to rely on the dubbed translation in Carlson’s broadcast.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the Kremlin.Credit: Kremlin/AP

The interview, recorded on Tuesday, was Putin’s first with a Western media outlet since the start of the war in Ukraine and his first with an American journalist since 2021. While 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 took “an exclusively one-sided position” regarding 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 Putin’s frequent assertion over the last two years that his conflict is not with the West as a whole, but with a hegemonic ruling elite.

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 Putin senses his “finest hour”, said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre.

Putin’s end goal, she said, was 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, Putin appeared to believe that he needed the US 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.