The Kremlin confirmed on Wednesday that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow, but disputed a claim he made that Western journalists hadn't attempted to interview the leader throughout the war.
After initially declining to comment on the matter, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov addressed the mounting speculation during a press briefing, Russian state-run media reported.
Hours earlier, Carlson released a video on X, formerly Twitter, announcing that he would be interviewing the Russian president, because "Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they are implicated in."
Carlson was the host of Tucker Carlson Tonight from 2016 to 2023 before he was fired by the network in April 2023, with no official explanation given.
"Yes, I can confirm this," Peskov said. "As soon as [the interview] is prepared, it will be released."
When questioned by reporters why Putin had accepted an interview with conservative media figure Carlson, the Kremlin spokesperson said: "He has a position that differs from the rest [of Western media]."
"It's not pro-Russian by any means, and it's not pro-Ukrainian; rather, it's pro-American. But at least it stands in clear contrast to the position of the traditional Anglo-Saxon media," Peskov added.
However, Peskov said Carlson is "wrong" by suggesting that Western journalists haven't attempted to interview Putin—an assertion the former Fox News host made in a lengthy video announcing his interview with the Russian leader.
"He, in fact, cannot know this. We receive many requests for interviews with the president," Peskov said.
In his announcement video, Carlson said he wanted to do the interview because "most Americans are not informed" about the war in Ukraine, which began when Putin launched a full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
Many Western journalists have interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but "not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview" the Russian president, Carlson claimed.
"That is not journalism—it is government propaganda," he said.
That assertion was quickly met with backlash from journalists from multiple publications.
In a post on X, Steve Rosenberg, the BBC's Russia Editor, said the BBC has "lodged several requests with the Kremlin in the last 18 months. Always a 'no' for us."
"Does Tucker really think we journalists haven't been trying to interview President Putin every day since his full scale invasion of Ukraine? It's absurd -- we'll continue to ask for an interview, just as we have for years now," CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour said on X.
Before Carlson's departure from Fox News, he faced criticism from the left on several issues, including his criticism of Zelensky and his stance on the war in Ukraine, which had earned him praise among Kremlin propagandists.
Peskov declined to comment on when exactly the interview would be released.
"I wouldn't like to get ahead of myself: after all, this is his interview, so when he's ready to publish it, he'll probably talk about all the details himself first," Peskov said.
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Update 2/7/24, 7:27 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
