Well, it’s finally happened. Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin has aired.

Ep. 73 The Vladimir Putin Interview pic.twitter.com/67YuZRkfLL

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 8, 2024

This is being hailed as a historic moment, which could lead to the end of the war, but we’ll all just have to wait and see if that is the case. (It seems to me a rather bold prediction.)

Putin started out with a sort of ruminating bit about the history of Russia. I don’t know that this was really “playing to the audience.” It’s a justification of historical claims on Eastern Ukraine, which is fine I guess, but I would think the Western audience, which is not typically interested in history lectures, would be more inclined to hear a moral justification than a historical one.

I understand that Putin and many Russians are very interested in history, but the necessity of denying the historical identity of the Ukrainians is a Russian issue, not an international one. For international audiences, the fact that the Ukraine is a criminal state that is oppressing ethnic Russians is enough of an explanation for the Russian annexation of these territories. The justice-based justification carries more emotional resonance, I think.

Tucker: “So how did this whole Ukraine thing come about?”

Putin: pic.twitter.com/G3lqTNmXk5

— The Middle-earth Mixer (@MiddleearthMixr) February 9, 2024

Anyway, Putin made his point as regards the historical illegitimacy of the Ukraine state, particularly their possession of the eastern territories. He also suggested, pretty strongly, that parts of the Ukraine should return to Hungary (and maybe even Poland).

Tucker Carlson was wearing a Kabbalah bracelet, again, by the way.

After the 30-minute history lesson, Tucker made his strange point that the West is afraid of Russia but not afraid of China. Putin, to his great credit, responded to this moronic shill claim from Tucker that in fact, the West is a lot more afraid of China than they are of Russia.

Putin then went into more recent history, as regards the fall of the USSR and his request to Bill Clinton that he be allowed to join NATO. Tucker for some reason called Putin “bitter,” and he gently corrected the Kabbalist, saying it’s nothing about bitterness, as it is not a romantic relationship, it simply was what it was.

Putin further elaborated on the US support for terrorism in the North Caucuses. He said he told the FSB to write to the CIA and tell them to stop doing that, and they wrote back saying “we will continue supporting the opposition.”

He went on to tell the story of meeting with George Bush Sr. and wanting to build a mutual missile defense system with US, Europe, and Russia.

Interestingly, he explained that there was never anyone to talk to in the US. There was no negotiator. The presidents didn’t really have authority, he said, as decisions were being made by hidden “deep state” type entities.

He explained that all of his overtures to the US and the West were denied, and the US expanded NATO up to Russia’s border. The Russians tolerated it until it came to the Ukraine. He then explained the Maidan coup, which was backed by the CIA (a story the reader of this site knows well).

Even after the Maidan coup, he explained, he tried to do the Minsk agreements to prevent the war in the east.

Then he said what I always say: Russia didn’t start the war in 2022, they joined a war that was ongoing since 2014.

PUTIN: “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.”

Putin identifies the coup, or overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2014, as the initial provocation that sparked the… pic.twitter.com/o1zvGYwll7

— The Vigilant Fox