Tucker Carlson on Monday said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to compromise in order to reach an end to the war in Ukraine.
Carlson, who garnered international attention for a taped interview with Putin that aired on Thursday, made the comment during a discussion at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
When he sat down with Carlson last week, Putin attempted to justify the February 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. He also accused the West of pressuring Kyiv to back out of previous negations and said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has since refused to discuss peace.
When asked by Egyptian journalist Emad Eldin Adeeb at the Dubai summit if he feels Putin is willing to compromise to end the war, Carlson answered: "Of course. Leaders of any country on this planet, other than maybe the United States during the unipolar period, are forced by the nature of their jobs to compromise. That's what diplomacy is. And he [Putin] is among those [leaders willing to compromise]."
However, Carlson said he feels Putin could be less willing to compromise as the conflict continues.
"His position is clearly hardening. Russia has been rebuffed by the West," he said. "Putin wants to get out of this war. He's not going to become more open to negotiation the longer this goes on."
Carlson added that he had a separate conversion with Putin that was not part of the recorded interview, but he did not disclose the nature of the talk.
When reached for comment, the Kremlin responded with a statement.
"President Putin more than once said that he is ready for negotiations," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Newsweek in the message.
One area in which Carlson said he does not believe Russia would be willing to budge during potential peace negations with Ukraine is the subject of Crimea.
Putin invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, and Zelensky has frequently pledged that reclaiming the territory as part of Ukraine is one of his goals in the current conflict.
"I have heard—personally—U.S. government officials say, 'Well, we're just going to have to return Crimea to Ukraine,'" Carlson said. "Well, you don't need to be a Russia scholar—that's not going to happen short of a nuclear war. That's insane, actually. So even to say something like that reveals that you're a child, you don't understand the area at all, and you have no real sense of what's possible.
"As long as our leaders—and not simply in the U.S. but NATO, and I really mean Germany—don't take the time to learn about what's possible, we're not going to get anywhere."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
