Tucker Carlson Slammed by Nobel Prize Winner Over Putin Interview

Tucker Carlson allowed Vladimir Putin to peddle genocidal rhetoric and lies about the threat he poses to the West, a Ukrainian human-rights lawyer whose organization won the Nobel Peace Prize told Newsweek.

Oleksandra Matviichuk, who heads the Kyiv-based Center for Civil Liberties, was reacting to the former Fox News anchor's interview with the Russian president at the Kremlin in Moscow, which was released on Thursday.

In 2022, Matviichuk's center became a joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the first time the award was given to a Ukrainian individual or organization.

Carlson was mocked online for not challenging Putin's replies. These often descended into monologues about Russian history, World War II and Moscow's claims on Ukraine, which were later debunked in fact-checks. Newsweek emailed the Tucker Carlson Network on Saturday for comment.

"Why did Carlson throw Putin softballs, allowing him the opportunity to repeat genocidal calls that Ukrainians do not exist and that Ukrainians are one people with Russians?" Matviichuk said in a statement to Newsweek.

Matviichuk added that her center had documented how the Russian army had used Putin's argument to justify its actions in Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow. These included the torture and killing of Ukraine's cultural and political figures; curbing the Ukrainian language; and deporting the country's children.

"The timing of his interview broadcast is also no coincidence as it comes right before Democrats are due to make a new attempt to restore U.S. military funding to Ukraine after a first vote on a multibillion-dollar aid package failed due to opposition from the Republican Party," Matviichuk said.

Analysts have said that an impasse in Congress over further funding for Kyiv threatens to hand Russia and advantage on the battlefield, as Ukraine faces a critical shortage of artillery.

"It's a pity that some politicians are going against the values long upheld by great leaders like Ronald Reagan and supporting an imperial Russian state," Matviichuk said.

Putin's previous denials that Russian soldiers were in Crimea before it was annexed in 2014 and that there would not be a full-scale invasion eight years later showed that his claims he had no plans to take his belligerence further should not be believed, Matviichuk added. "Now Putin is telling Carlson that Russia is not going to attack NATO countries," she said. "The fact that a lie is repeated many times to an audience of millions does not mean it ceases to be a lie."

Before the interview, Carlson was frequently accused of pushing the Kremlin line about Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and of expressing sympathy with the Russian president, positions that were praised by Kremlin propagandists.

Tetiana Hranchak fled Ukraine in 2022 and is now a visiting assistant teaching professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs in New York. She told Newsweek that the timing of the interview was significant, given the impasse in the U.S. Congress over further funding for Kyiv.

"Putin's message to the Americans is simple and clear; it is a call to return to the past... the policy of isolationism of the 19th century," Hranchak said.

"He emphasizes, 'This is not your war. It is so far from you. You have other matters besides Ukraine,'" she added. "Putin really wants to persuade the West to end the war sooner, which may indirectly indicate that his resources are running out."