Tucker-Putin Interview to Erode Funding Crusade for US Proxy Conflict in Ukraine – Ex-CIA Agent
08:17 GMT, 9 February 2024
The much-talked-about Vladimir Putin-Tucker Carlson interview may further chip away at support for Ukraine and could even complicate the process for US lawmakers to come up with cash for the Kiev regime, Larry Johnson, a retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official, told Sputnik.
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Tucker Carlson has come under a barrage of verbal attacks and denunciation from the Washington elite for interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Among those going into meltdown mode and vilifying the renowned ex-Fox News host, were the US mainstream media, Team Biden officials and disgruntled, two-time failed presidential contender
Hillary Clinton who branded him as a "useful idiot", claiming that everything that Putin would say would be a "pack of lies". Meanwhile, millions took to Twitter and Carlson's website to watch
the history-making interview.
"The media freak out," Larry Johnson, a retired CIA intelligence officer, told Sputnik. "The media has been losing credibility with each passing week. They are seen as dishonest and propagandists. So, what they think is really of little importance, I don't see a groundswell developing to try to attack Tucker. The irony is, if you take the Fox News Network and MSNBC and CNN combined, Tucker has more viewers, more people following him, than those networks do. They're just jealous."
"Tonight, Fox News Network and CNN and MSNBC combined may have had a total of 8 million viewers. Tucker is already three times the size of whatever they saw. Now he also has a global audience, but, you know, this thing is going to spread. I would anticipate that before this is done, well over 100 million people, maybe 200 million, will have watched it worldwide," he predicted.
The now-retired CIA official believes that Putin's interview could end up
eroding support for the Kiev regime among American conservatives and make it even more difficult for US lawmakers to funnel billions into Washington's Ukraine proxy conflict.
Origins of Ukraine Conflict
While speaking to Carlson, Putin briefly recounted Russia's history to illustrate the strong cultural, religious, and ethnic bonds shared between Russians and Ukrainians
The Russian president shed light on the post-Cold War period and US schemes to pull Ukraine away from Russia's fold by promising to admit it into NATO and later fomenting a coup in 2014 with the active participation of neo-Nazi paramilitary groups which soon morphed into an eight-year war by the Kiev regime against Donbass. Putin underscored that Russia did not start the Ukraine conflict in 2022 but moved to end the Kiev regime's war against its own people.
"Putin believes, as I do, that history helps shape the present," Johnson explained. "And if you don't understand where you've been, you'll have a tough time to understand where you're going. And so understanding the history that's inherent in all of this and particularly people in Russia, in the Caucasus, down into the Middle East, they really bring a different historical perspective to life that is very different from what Americans do. Americans don't remember much."
Specter of WW2
If Americans want to comprehend why Russia rushed to the rescue of Donbass in 2022 and declared the denazification of Ukraine to be one of its key goals, they must remember that the wounds of WW2 that are still fresh in Russia, the ex-CIA official stressed.
"Whereas, as you see today, with respect to the Russian people remembering the Great Patriotic War [WW2], they remember," Johnson noted. "They carry pictures. So it's still fresh. And the damage inflicted upon the Russian people by the Germans, the Nazis, is something they have not forgotten and won't easily forget. So I think that's part of why Putin goes back to history, to drive home the point that Russians have a different timeline, different perspective from Americans. And it's important for Americans to understand that."
During the interview, Putin drew attention to the fact that the Kiev regime appeases neo-Nazi groups of all stripes in Ukraine, praises Hitler regime collaborators Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych as national heroes, and applauds a
former SS 14th Grenadiers veteran who has the blood of Poles and Jews on his hands.
Does the US Really Have Desire to Send Troops to Russia?
Meanwhile, the Biden administration's claims that Russia "would not stop" after winning the conflict in Ukraine and would go so far as attacking NATO have been repeatedly debunked by Moscow.
Speaking to Carlson, Putin castigated Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's remark that the US would have to send its troops to Russia unless Ukraine is granted a new $60 billion aid package as a "cheap provocation."
"If someone has the desire to send in American troops, that would certainly bring humanity to the brink of a very serious, global conflict...This conflict is taking place thousands of kilometers away from your national territory! Don't you have anything better to do?" the Russian president asked.
"I thought one of the most important, he had several important revelations, but he indicated that the number one supplier of mercenaries is Poland, followed by the United States, which I thought was quite telling. And then I guess third was Georgians," Johnson noted. "So he was commenting on the fact that Russia is already dealing with foreign fighters. But his specific point on that was that if you send armies in uniform under the command of generals, then you're looking at a nuclear war. Russia will defend itself with all necessary means at its disposal."
Team Biden Pushes Fearmongering About Russia
Team Biden and the US mainstream press is not only groundlessly accusing Russia of harboring plans to attack NATO, they are also spinning tales about Russia taking American citizens as hostages, which is similarly nonsensical, as per Johnson.
"As I watched our State Department continue to tell American people to stay away, it's a dangerous place. You're going to get picked up and you're going to be interrogated and imprisoned. And it's such nonsense," the CIA veteran said, citing the case of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges in Russia.
Johnson stressed that "it looks like [Gershkovich] was being used as an intelligence asset."
"He got caught. And maybe he was deliberate bait to try to, you know, that he was set up so that he would be caught in order to put pressure on Russia. That's one possibility. Or it could have been that the CIA was just sloppy and incompetent. That's another possibility," the former CIA analyst said.
During the interview with Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not rule out that the WSJ reporter could be released, stressing that Gershkovich was caught red-handed: "We don't rule out we can do that if our partners make reciprocal steps."
Summarizing his impressions from the Putin-Carlson conversation, the CIA veteran noted: "I think the American people that take time to watch this will be impressed with Putin, his relaxed manner, but also his passion and his candid discussion of Christianity, too. I think, you know, that's going to cause people to take a second look or the second thought."