Althouse: Tucker Carlson interviews Vladimir Putin.

February 8, 2024

Tucker Carlson interviews Vladimir Putin.

Ep. 73 The Vladimir Putin Interview pic.twitter.com/67YuZRkfLL
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 8, 2024

32 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...: "But NATO needs not to expand. That's what he said. If NATO expands, everything would be just the same as during the Cold War, only closer to Russia's borders."

- Vladimir Putin

Nothing would make the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) and National Intelligence Complex (NIC) happier. The peace dividend doesn't wow at quarterly earnings, buy a new Chris-craft, or rent higher-end ladyboy prostitutes in Pattaya.

Yes they do that. You know that right?; 2/8/24, 6:32 PM
Original Mike said...: Expected Putin to be shirtless.; 2/8/24, 6:32 PM
Birches said...: I skipped to the end to see Tucker ask for the American journalist. I think he did a great job on that. There was no sucking up. It was completely straight and persistent.; 2/8/24, 6:46 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Hillary gave the Russians a re-set button - and she's out their yelling bloody murder over an interview.; 2/8/24, 7:29 PM
Tommy Duncan said...: Wow. I just watched President of the US disintegrate.

Biden's timing, demeanor and content were precisely wrong.

I don't see how he can recover from this. What's he going to do, have another press conference?

Say "hello" to President Harris. Fasten your seat belt, we are about to encounter some turbulence.; 2/8/24, 7:34 PM
Dave Begley said...: Boring!

But at least Vlad has his wits about. He knows his dates! Joe doesn’t even know when he was VP.; 2/8/24, 7:59 PM
Josephbleau said...: I don't care about putin, I am not a democrat and don't need a reason to spend tax money to enrich those who will donate money to democrats.; 2/8/24, 8:24 PM
RideSpaceMountain said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/8/24, 8:37 PM
tim in vermont said...: Why are we involved in a war between commies and nazis?; 2/8/24, 8:40 PM
Temujin said...: 'Joe Biden is Corrupt' hilariously put this in perspective.; 2/8/24, 9:28 PM
The Vault Dweller said...: Having watched the first half so far while Putin is trying to give the long-view historical Russian perspective on the identity of both Russia and Ukraine, and how it lead up to the current war, I think he is also trying to sell an underlying message to a few other actors:

1)China- Putin's vision of the world and his ultimate justification for invading Ukraine rely heavily on long-term historical views of what is and isn't historically part of Russia. Even though there may have been later superseding events, The basis of the identity of what is and isn't Russia, in his mind, existed centuries before and that takes precedence in justifying actions of Russia today in protecting it's historical claims. This coincides with China's view of it's territory linking to it's historical idea of China which encompasses things like Tibet, Taiwan, vast swathes of the South China Sea, and other areas. Putin also spoke flatteringly of China, praising it's current ability and future potential. While not exactly kowtowing, I suspect the Middle Country still looks favorably on other countries paying their due respects. China is also probably Russia's most important partner now. It is a huge market for Russian energy supplies and raw materials, and a source for manufactured goods for them. There is also a very large border between Russia and China, that I suspect Russia would be hard pressed to successfully defend if China discovered new historical claims in Southern parts of Siberia.

2)Hungary- Putin specifically noted parts of Ukraine he visited during the existence of the Soviet Union and was clear to point out that the people living there were Hungarian. I don't know enough about Hungary to know how much sway this holds with the Hungarian people or how big an issue it is there, but Hungary has been hesitant about strong EU/NATO action against Russia regarding Ukraine. I think Putin is hoping to encourage positive, or at least neutral feelings of Russia in Hungary in hopes that Hungary can act as a spoiler regarding further actions by the EU or NATO against Russia. I think with some decisions, especially concerning new nations joining either organization, a single member can veto that proposal and prevent that from happening.

3)Poland- Putin seems like he is trying to rile up the Poles. Labeling Poland as Nazi collaborators must be galling to the average Pole. Especially considering at the beginning of WWII the USSR was in an alliance with Nazi Germany. It doesn't seem like he is trying tie it to his later De-Nazification argument for invading Ukraine so I'm not certain why he is bringing it up. Poland, and the Baltic states are already ardently against Russia, given their history of occupation by the Soviet Union. I suspect Putin might be offering that jab against Poland up for domestic consumption. The growth in the standard of living of Poles has vastly outpaced that of Russians over the last generation or so. While not as close as say Ukraine or Belarus, Russia still feels like all Slavic nations, including Poland, are in its orbit to a degree. And Russians might want reinforcement in feeling like they are the most important Slavic nation.; 2/8/24, 9:51 PM
tim in vermont said...: Hillary's foundation took hundreds of millions from Putin. Presumably she needed the money to make the needed payoffs to get his deal done to purchase control of the vast bulk of North American uranium. I don't know that much of it went to help poor Haitians, for example.; 2/8/24, 10:18 PM
The Vault Dweller said...: Putin: They're trying to intimidate their own population with an imaginary Russian threat. (Putin speaking of NATO nations)

I don't find it irrational for Russia to be worried about NATO. NATO is an anti-Russian organization, albeit a defensive one. But for Putin to turn around and then say the Russian threat is imaginary when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and 2014 and Georgia in 2008, and has a generations long history of occupying many now current NATO members is ridiculous.; 2/8/24, 10:29 PM
dicentra63 said...: I never watch the interviews with dictators. Dictators are pathological liars who are using the interview not to communicate their point of view but to manipulate the West and everyone else.

The reporters land the interviews as a professional coup, but the interviews are useless as news because of the aforementioned lying. The reporters know they won't hear the truth, but they don't care because bragging rights.

All too often the reporter ends up humanizing the dictator by letting him display his psychopathological charm to a world audience. The interviewer can ask hard-hitting questions, but the dictator won't be caught out, because he can lie convincingly about anything to anyone. Or he can tell the reporter there's no interview if certain questions are asked.

It's not even good as theater, which at least aspires to aesthetic excellence.

Waste of time at best; point-scoring for the dictator at worst. Why bother?; 2/8/24, 10:32 PM
paulr said...: Russia can keep Tucker. He fills an important gap not occupied by Scott Ritter, Edward Snowden and Steven Seagal.; 2/8/24, 10:46 PM
Quaestor said...: Vlad be talkin' shit.

Most historians don't buy this "Rurik invited to rule the Slavs" tale any more than they believe the story related by Bede about the Saxon brothers, Hengist and Horsa, who were invited to Britain by King Voritgern as mercenaries. Foundation myths abound that mix broad facts with narrow character-centric fantasy. It's quite true that for more than two hundred and fifty years Swedes pioneered and controlled a trade route to Constantinople by linking the River Nieman to the Dnieper by a broad and well-protected portage trail. By the early 10th century, the Swedes blazed another route to the Volga, giving them commercial access to Iran and India, attested by the Baghdadi chronicler, Ahmad Ibn Fadlan. Norse settlements along those trade routes became the first towns in what became the Muscovite state in the early 14th century. What's highly unlikely to be true is the risible notion that the Slavs, a disunited scatter of tribal hamlets in the 9th century invited the Swedes into their land to provide a government. From everything that can be gleaned from runestones and skaldic poetry, the Swedes were interested in two things during their adventures in what was to be Russia, the continuance of their very lucrative trade with the Byzantium and the Muslim East, and a steady flow of slaves destined for the markets of the West. The number of eastern peoples take captive by the Swedes and sold in England was so pervasive that our word for a captive laborer, slave, derives from Slav.; 2/8/24, 11:09 PM
Josephbleau said...: I dont know why Democrats are making a final push now to crush the middle class and create a dependent proletariat.; 2/8/24, 11:29 PM
Josephbleau said...: If I was going to attack the us, today would be the day, as a strategical exercise, in theory.; 2/8/24, 11:31 PM
Readering said...: Did anyone actually watch this through?; 2/9/24, 1:04 AM
Rich said...: Moscow Tucker. Not to be outdone by Hanoi Jane. Feeding the beast of hostage diplomacy a particular art perfected by Putin. I always wonder why US citizens visit Russia at all?; 2/9/24, 5:59 AM
Mark said...: Now both Tucker and George W Bush can say they looked into Putin's eyes saw a good soul.

Not sure why Tucker is retreading Bush's steps, but the desperation must be kicking in.; 2/9/24, 6:29 AM
rehajm said...: With my horology peeps they're obsessing over Putin removing his watch. One camp says it's a respectful symbolic move, the other camp says he can still see what time it is and he looks at it a lot...; 2/9/24, 6:30 AM
tcrosse said...: Headline in today's Telegraph:
"In Russia you don't interview the President. The President interviews you."; 2/9/24, 7:16 AM
tim in vermont said...: "Russia can keep Tucker. He fills an important gap not occupied by Scott Ritter, Edward Snowden and Steven Seagal."

Anybody who tells you stuff your government would rather that you not hear is an enemy of the people.

'I never watch the interviews with dictators. Dictators are pathological liars."

Our own government of course, headed by our sterling head of state, Joe Biden, never lies to us about anything. I didn't come to the conclusion that Ukraine is full of Nazis because Putin said so, I became interested in Ukraine when they interfered in our presidential election in 2016, which was why it was important to fix the blame, in the public mind, on Russia before the news of it became too widely known. Stories in the Western Press about Ukraine written before Feb of 2022 are full of stories about Ukrainian nazis. Zelensky knew exactly who that nazi was when he was introduced to a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament. Why didn't he warn anybody? Because Nazis give off a stink that other nazis like.; 2/9/24, 7:41 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Essentially Putin is saying his ancestors were in Russia before native Americans were in the Americas… or something.; 2/9/24, 7:45 AM
tim in vermont said...: "albeit a defensive one."

Yeah, OK, now tell me about Libya, Syria, Iraq... NATO's attempted move into Ukraine follows a long line of aggressive NATO expansions aimed at Russia and invasions of countries that had done nothing to any NATO country, but were former Soviet clients.

Why is Syria's border just a line on some paper, and the US can violate it at will? Why is Israel carrying out air strikes into neighboring Lebanon? Do they have some kind of extraterritorial right of self defense? Why doesn't Russia?

Nobody here can explain how what we are doing in Syria is one jot different than what Putin is doing in Russia. Except that Syria, like Ukraine, is on the other side of the world from the US, and Ukraine is a couple of hundred miles from Moscow.; 2/9/24, 7:50 AM
rhhardin said...: Putin reader Vlad Vexler decodes the interview.; 2/9/24, 7:50 AM
tim in vermont said...: He's right too, and there is plenty of evidence for anybody who wants to call BS on me, that the coup in Ukraine in 2014 was US backed. The Russian speakers in the Donbas did not want to be ruled by this new regime of Russian hating ultranationalists, and so refused to go along with the coup. This is called a civil war. It's still going on to this day.

The first clue that we backed the coup is right out in the open. It was a violent overthrow of the internationally recognized as democratically elected government, but we almost immediately recognized the coup plotters as the legitimate government.

We have the leaked recording of our own State Department official discussing who should be in the new government *before* the coup took place.

We have John McCain encouraging the Maidan demonstrations which he said would lead to a "transition of government," not an election, BTW.

Our own Secretary of State repeats the Ukrainian lie that the former government killed dozens of demonstrators, when painstaking investigations have shown that there were Right Sector snipers in a Maidan controlled who killed them. These deaths were then blamed on the government, and the parliament was stormed by the crowd and armed men.

BTW, this technique of firing on the crowd to provoke a violent reaction was also used on a peaceful crowd on J6, but they just used riot control munitions, which are bad enough. The reason that Pelosi didn't want the National Guard there was because they had their own plans as to how to handle the crowd.; 2/9/24, 8:02 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Joe Biden Is Corrupt said...
"Hillary gave the Russians a re-set button - and she's out their yelling bloody murder over an interview"

My recollection is that it was an "overcharge" button.; 2/9/24, 8:20 AM
Quaestor said...: Lem writes, "Essentially Putin is saying his ancestors were in Russia before native Americans were in the Americas… or something."

I think he's staking a claim to purity. In Putin's self-image, he's a purebred Russian, whereas Tucker, an America, is a mongrel -- very hitleresque trope for the guy who claims to be fighting Nazis.; 2/9/24, 10:13 AM
mikee said...: Shades of Rather and Hussein! Here's hoping that the outcome of this interview follows the same pattern as that historical military crisis.; 2/9/24, 4:03 PM
Rusty said...: "3)Poland- Putin seems like he is trying to rile up the Poles."
They won't get any further than they did in Ukraine. And the Poles have better equipment. Putin seems to think Russia is still a first class military power.; 2/9/24, 9:23 PM