"The United States doesn't like Russia, the US government doesn't like Russia. I think, like a lot of Russians, he expected the end of the Cold War would be sort of Russia's invitation into Europe, or sort of into Europe, because it is a European country that's half an Asia. But there is a lot that is European about it, and if you come to Moscow, it's a very European city, you see it and you can feel it culturally. And the West rejected Russia," Tucker Carlson said.
"The West was determined not to be allied with Russia, that's very obvious. That's the whole point of NATO, I guess, is to contain Russia. And Putin is wounded by this, he's very upset about this. His eyes flashed when we talked about that," Carlson explained in a video published on his website, adding that the Russian president is "angry" and is "mad about it," he added.
Carlson said his interview with Putin began with "an extremely detailed history going back to the 9th century of the formation of Russia from the tribes into a nation, and Ukraine's part in that," which was "really interesting" and "got much more interesting once I realized what it was, which is a window into how he thinks about the region." The media personality also showed a thick "old-fashioned" folder with documents handed over to him by the Russian president and called it his "nighttime reading."
The journalist called Putin "smart" but noted that the Russian president is "not very good at explaining himself" as he is "clearly spending a lot of time in a world where he doesn't have to explain himself."
Carlson also said that "Russia is not an expansionist power" as it is presented by "all the liars and ideologues who run the [US] State Department," adding that "you have to be an idiot to think that" since Russia is "too big already" and is "the biggest landmass in the world" with only 150 million people.
"So the idea that they wanna take over Poland: why would you wanna do that? ... The idea that they're gonna roll into Vienna or something? You'd have to be, like, an idiot to think that. This is not true, there's no evidence of it, actually," Carlson said, adding that Russians "just want secure borders."
The journalist also claimed that "professional liars in Washington who really do not know anything about the area or anything really about the world beyond New York," adding that "whatever Putin's many faults ... it's not an expansionist power."
It was "striking" for Carlson that Putin "was willing to admit that he wants a peace deal in Ukraine." However,the US journalist said "Putin would go to war, nuclear war if it came down to Crimea," calling US officials "lunatics" for thinking "that a condition of peace is that Putin's gonna give up Crimea," because the peninsula is "the home of Russia's warm water fleet, it's got a Russian population, they had a referendum, they chose Russia, it's part of Russia, it's where Russian wine comes from."
The journalist further said that Washington wants "a weak leadership in Russia," while questioning "how is that good for the United States," and saying that "a weak central government in a nation with the world's largest nuclear stockpile is insane."
"You're just gonna sort of let the nuclear stockpile float free and hope the best thing happens? You're a freaking nutcase if you desire that. And we are run by nutcases. The [US] President [Joe Biden] and that poisonous moron, [Acting Deputy Secretary and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs ] Victoria Nuland: 'We're gonna depose Putin.' Well, then what happens? What happened in Libya when we deposed and allowed, you know, [Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi be murdered? What happened in Iraq when we brought [former Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein] to justice? Those countries fell apart and they've never been rebuilt again. In Afghanistan, we took out the central government, and they came back, it's still run by the Taliban [under UN sanctions for terrorism]," Carlson said, adding that "you're on drugs if you think that's a good idea" to do that to Russia.
The interview, posted by the journalist on Thursday night, has already hit over 60 million views, more than 180,000 reposts and over 500,000 likes on X, and has been viewed by almost 3 million people on YouTube.