Aftermath of the Tucker Carlson-Putin Interview By James Reed
By now, tens of millions of people have watched the Tucker Carlson-Vladimir Putin interview. The links are below, as well as a transcript. In addition, summary material is below too, for people who do not have time to watch the full two plus hours, where Putin does drag on. He gives a long opening history lesson to Tucker and the West, which seeks to establish the legitimacy of the Russian claims over the disputed lands, which are occupied by majority Russians, who voted to return to Russia anyway. Putin could have put a moral case for the war, but it is still valid to take the historical route.
Putin's line was that Russia is not an expansionist power and has no reason to invade Poland or other NATO countries. It has more than enough resources and land as it stands. Thus, the primary reason for war preparation in Britain and the rest of Europe is groundless. This, I think is certainly true, and it would be easily decided by negotiations over the Ukraine. If Putin did move upon Europe, then it would be full force to oppose him.
Putin said: "'If you want an end to the conflict, stop sending arms to Ukraine'
If the US wants to stop the Ukraine conflict, it should stop sending arms to Kiev, Putin said, adding that if this happened, the hostilities would end within weeks.
Putin went on to say it was "ridiculous and very sad" that Kiev listened to then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and refused to sign a draft truce with Russia that was agreed on during peace talks in 2022. The conflict continues on to this day, while Johnson himself is no longer in office, he noted."
Thus, there is a window of opportunity to prevent the Ukraine war spiralling into a full-on World War III, if America wants it. However, Democrats, as exemplified by Hillary Clinton, and Republican neo-cons, do not want this. Much then depends upon Trump winning the 2024 presidency. His campaign should now make the most of the fact that he could prevent global nuclear war.
https://vigilantfox.substack.com/p/tucker-carlsons-5-key-takeaways-from
"I'm not exactly sure what I thought of the interview," remarked American journalist Tucker Carlson shortly after his two-hour conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "It's probably going to take me a year to decide what that was."
Carlson said that "there's no question" that Putin is smart. However, he expressed that the Russian President is "not good at explaining himself."
Nonetheless, Carlson named five big-picture "quick perceptions" following his interview with Putin.
#1 – Putin is "very wounded" by the rejection of the West.During the interview, Putin shared an account with then-President Bill Clinton about the possibility of Russia joining NATO.
According to Putin, Clinton first answered, "I think so" to the proposition. But after speaking with others, he said, "It's not possible."
Carlson asked Putin if he was sincere about joining NATO, and Putin clarified that he genuinely wanted to know if membership was a possibility. He indicated that a positive response from the West could have led to a process of reconciliation and, potentially, eventual membership into NATO.
Carlson concluded in his post-interview statements, "That's the whole point of NATO, I guess, is to contain Russia. And Putin is wounded by this."
#2 – "Russia is not an expansionist power."Carlson declared, "You have to be an idiot to think that" Russia is an expansionist power.
Why does Carlson think that? Because "Russia is too big already. It's the biggest landmass in the world. They only have 150 million people."
He added, "They've got more than enough natural resources. They're swimming in natural resources. They don't have enough people, in their view. So, the idea that they want to take over Poland, why would you want to do that? They just want secure borders."
#3 – Putin likely wants peace in Ukraine.Carlson shared, "He [Putin] was willing to admit that he wants a peace deal in and sort of give it away and just say that out loud. He said it a couple of different times. Again, maybe he's lying in ways I didn't perceive, but he kept saying it, and I don't know why he would say it if he didn't mean it."
"As a matter of fact," Carlson continued, "there is evidence, overwhelming, that there was a peace deal, or part of a peace deal with the beginning of peace talks, a settlement of some sort on the table a year and a half ago that the former prime minister of Great Britain, Boris Johnson, scuttled on behalf of the Biden administration and convinced Zelensky and the Ukrainian government not to enter into these talks. I mean, that's kind of an established fact. The Israelis were there. They revealed this. That happened."
#4 – Demands for Russia to relinquish Crimea are insane."U.S. officials have said on the record and have said to me and are telling a bunch of people that part of the terms have to be Russia giving up Crimea!" Carlson exclaimed.
He added, "Crimea was in Russian hands at the beginning of this war" and warned, "Putin would go to war, nuclear war, if it came down to Crimea … So, if you really think that a condition of peace is that Putin is going to give up Crimea, then you're like a lunatic!"
#5 – The United States' track record with regime change is "spotty at best.""We are run by nutcases," Carlson deplored. "The President and that poisonous moron Victoria Nuland. 'Oh, we're going to depose Putin.' Well, then, what happens?" Carlson asked.
He recalled past incidents in recent U.S. history, where depositions of foreign leaders did not go so well:
"What happened in Libya when we deposed and allowed, you know, Qaddafi to be murdered? What happened in Iraq when we brought Saddam to justice? Those countries fell apart, and they have never been rebuilt again."
Carlson continued. "In Afghanistan, we took out the central government, and they came back. It's still run by the Taliban. So, our track record of knocking out the leader, which is very easy to do, is spotty at best. Things don't always get better. And to do that to Russia, the largest landmass in the world with the largest nuclear arsenal, you're on drugs if you think that's a good idea."
The full transcript is here:
https://www.rt.com/russia/592158-putin-carlson-interview-ukraine/
"Conservative American journalist Tucker Carlson has released a much-anticipated interview that he conducted with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
The interview mainly centered on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
In a video on X on Tuesday, Carlson claimed that Western media outlets "lie to their readers and viewers" by promoting Kiev's position while downplaying Russia's. "That's wrong. Americans have the right to know all they can about a war they are implicated in," he said.
The more than two-hour-long interview has garnered more than 46 million views on Carlson's X account and just under a million views on YouTube in the first hours since its release. Here are the key takeaways:
Ukraine 'started the war in 2014. Our goal is to stop this war' – Putin
Moscow did not start the war in 2022, but is trying to stop the war that Ukraine started in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Putin announced the military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, following eight years of Kiev's suppression of the Donbass population.
Commenting on the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements that sought to end the hostilities in Donbass, Putin said he sincerely believed that the crisis in the region could have been settled if the local population had been convinced to return to Ukraine, and if Kiev agreed to fulfil its social welfare commitments. Policymakers in Kiev, however, wanted to quell the uprising by force, he added.
Russia and Ukraine were close to ending the hostilities in the early days of the conflict, Putin said. However, once Moscow pulled its troops away from the area near the Ukrainian capital in the spring of 2022, Kiev ditched all diplomacy, caving in to Western pressure to fight Moscow until the very end, according to the president.
'Just threat mongering' – Putin on claims that Russia wants to attack NATO
Russia would only engage in a military conflict with a NATO nation such as Poland or Latvia if it is attacked, Putin said. Any Western claims to the contrary are "just threat mongering."
Speculation that Russia would use nuclear weapons against Ukraine or cause some kind of escalation of the conflict are "just horror stories for people in the street in order to extort additional money from US taxpayers and European taxpayers in the confrontation with Russia," he claimed.
'Unlike the US, Russia is not afraid of China'
Unlike the US, Russia is not afraid of the rise of China, Putin said, calling Carlson's suggestion that BRICS risks being "completely dominated by the Chinese economy" a "boogeyman story."
He went on to say that Beijing's foreign policy is aimed at finding compromises, not aggression, adding that Russia has created balanced trade turnover with China.
'If you want an end to the conflict, stop sending arms to Ukraine'
If the US wants to stop the Ukraine conflict, it should stop sending arms to Kiev, Putin said, adding that if this happened, the hostilities would end within weeks.
Putin went on to say it was "ridiculous and very sad" that Kiev listened to then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and refused to sign a draft truce with Russia that was agreed on during peace talks in 2022. The conflict continues on to this day, while Johnson himself is no longer in office, he noted.
Relations with the West
Putin said Russia accepted the collapse of the Soviet Union and expected that once all ideological differences were eliminated, it could engage in cooperation with the West.
But this never happened, and the US and its "satellites" supported separatism and terrorism in the northern Caucasus in the 1990s by providing political, informational, financial, and military support to insurgents. The West was also involved in the coup d'etat in Ukraine in 2014.
Putin on NATO expansion
NATO promised that it would not expand its territory eastwards, but quickly broke this promise by bringing all of Eastern Europe and Baltic states into the fold, Putin said. The US-led military bloc now intends to drag Ukraine in, he added.
Putin called the West's approach to Ukraine a colossal political mistake, pointing to NATO's 2008 promise to accept the country into the bloc, as well as the Western-supported coup d'etat in Kiev in 2014. The new Ukrainian government's campaign to persecute those who opposed the coup was a threat to Crimea, forcing Moscow to take the region under its own protection, he added.
Putin noted that he had asked former US President Bill Clinton about whether Russia could join NATO, but Clinton said it would not be possible. If, however, the US leader had said yes, it would have ushered in a period of rapprochement between Moscow and the military alliance, Putin stated.
'Who blew up Nord Stream?' – Carlson to Putin
Asked by Carlson who he believes blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia and Germany through the Baltic Sea, Putin replied: "You," referring to the US and its allies. When pressed whether he has any proof of CIA or NATO involvement, the Russian leader said that in cases like this, one should first look for those who would benefit from the attacks, and who had the capability to carry them out.
Elon Musk 'cannot be stopped' – Putin
Billionaire Elon Musk, who is pushing forward technical progress, including by implanting a neurochip into a human brain, "cannot be stopped," Putin said, adding that agreements and regulations on this technology should be reached. The president compared recent achievements in artificial intelligence and genetics to the development of nuclear weapons in the 20th century, explaining that when nations across the world started to sense the danger, they forged agreements to regulate the new technology.
Putin does not rule out the release of Gershkovich
Asked whether Moscow is prepared to release US journalist Evan Gershkovich (who was arrested on espionage charges in Russia last year) as a gesture of goodwill, Putin said that Russia has been prepared to work with the West, but this has not been reciprocated. However, Putin did not rule out the release of Gershkovich, adding that this would require flexibility from Western intelligence services.
'The US-led West' will always support those who antagonize Russia – Putin on Zelensky
Zelensky was elected president on a platform of peace, but allied himself with "neo-Nazis and nationalists" after taking office, Putin said. He gave two reasons for this.
The first is that people like this are "aggressive and… you can expect anything from them," and the second is that "the US-led West supports them and will always support those who antagonize Russia." It was "beneficial and safe" for Zelensky, but obviously betrayed the promises he made to voters, Putin said, adding: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine went on a quest to find its national identity, but found no better option other than promoting "false heroes" who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII."
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