02/07/2024

Putin Interview with Tucker Carlson Highlights Kremlin's Preferred Presidential Pick

The leader of Russia blatantly appealed to Trump's base

As Russian state television propagandists salivated over Tucker Carlson’s interview with President Vladimir Putin, the first of Carlson’s falsehoods about his visit to Moscow was punctured, fittingly enough, by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who presumably helped arrange the whole strange venture.

Carlson, the conservative former Fox News host with a history of airing bogus "news," claimed — falsely — that prominent U.S. newspapers and television outlets had refused to interview Putin since his invasion of Ukraine and were ignoring Russia's perspective. Carlson labeled Western media as "corrupt" and accused them of lies on Tuesday in a video confirming that he was in Moscow for a Q&A with the president.

"Mr. Carlson is wrong," Peskov said during his daily briefing for reporters. "We receive many requests for interviews with the president." Peskov conceded that the Kremlin routinely blocked media interview requests from large Western outlets, but he said it gave Carlson the nod because "his position is different" from the major "Anglo-Saxon media." (Anglo-Saxon is a common blanket jab at the West even when mostly Americans are involved.)

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.