Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, Feb. 10Tucker Carlson, a well-known American news anchor, released an exclusive interview with Russian Vladimir Putin earlier this week on the 8th. This is the first time Putin has been interviewed by an American journalist since the escalation of the Ukraine crisis nearly two years ago.
On July 29, 2023, Vladimir Putin of Russia attends a press conference in St. Petersburg. Xinhua TASS.
"Sooner or later" Russian-Ukrainian relations will be restored
Putin stressed that he still hopes to resolve the Ukrainian issue through negotiations. He said that the Russian side has repeatedly proposed a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian issue, has never refused to negotiate, and is willing to cooperate with any Ukrainian leader. However, after the Istanbul talks in March 2022, there was no progress in the negotiations between the two sides.
According to Putin, the Istanbul talks drew up an agreement, and the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia, initialed some of the terms. In order to create conditions for reaching an agreement, the Russian side withdrew its troops attacking Kyiv, Ukraine, in accordance with the proposals of France and Germany. The Ukrainian side then changed its position.
Putin said that Arakhamia later admitted that then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had advised the Ukrainian side not to formally sign the agreement, a move that led to a missed opportunity to end the war. "I think it's ridiculous, and it's a pity", and didn't understand why Johnson did that, Putin said, "Mr. Johnson is now **? And the war continues. ”
Putin believes that "sooner or later" Russia and Ukraine will reach an agreement to end the conflict peacefully, and relations between the two countries and even between the two peoples will be restored. "It will take a long time, but it will recover. ”
U.S. ** Biden attends a press conference after the NATO Extraordinary Summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Huansong.
"You made a huge historic mistake".
Putin told Carlson that he had the last phone call to date with U.S.-based Joseph Biden before Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Putin said to Biden: "You made a huge historic mistake by supporting everything that is happening in Ukraine and alienating Russia. ”
Putin said that the Russian side has constantly called on US and European leaders to stop pumping ** to Ukraine in order to implement the Minsk agreements. If the U.S. "really wants to stop the fighting, it has to stop*** it (the Russia-Ukraine conflict) will end in a few weeks."
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, has claimed that the United States will eventually have to send troops to fight in Ukraine if aid to Ukraine is cut off. In this regard, Putin said that this is purely a "provocation", and that American mercenaries are already participating in the war in Ukraine.
Putin said that Russia has no territorial claims to Poland, Latvia and other countries on the European continent and will not use force against Poland unless Poland attacks Russia.
Staff officers sort out the U.S. flag at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Cheng.
Putin said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict was triggered by the 2014 "coup" in Ukraine. This "coup d'état" was carried out with the support of the US ** Intelligence Agency, and from a technical point of view, the goal of regime change was achieved, but from a political point of view, it was a "great mistake". Clashes then broke out in the Donbass region.
Russia's decision to end the armed conflict in Donbass, which began in 2014, with the help of force, "some will say that it was our mistake," Sputnik reported, citing Putin. However, before the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that reneged on its commitments, expanded eastward five times in a row, and "opened the door" to Ukraine at the 2008 Bucharest summit.
"The CIA does not have an alibi".
Carlson asked Putin in the interview: "Who blew the Nord Stream gas pipelines?" Putin smiled and said: "Of course it's you." ”
Carlson jokingly added, "I was busy that day. I didn't blow up the 'Nord Stream' gas pipelines. Putin went on to say: "You may personally have an alibi, but the CIA does not." ”
This aerial photo** released by the Swedish Coast Guard on September 28, 2022 shows that the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline is still leaking large amounts of gas. Xinhua News Agency (Photo courtesy of the Swedish Coast Guard).
Putin said that the whole world knows what happened to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, and even some US analysts directly said so. In his opinion, in order to find out about the Nord Stream pipeline incident, it is necessary to find people who have both the idea and the ability to do so.
The Nord Stream gas pipeline departs from Russia and reaches Germany via the Baltic Sea floor. At the end of September 2022, there was a leak in the pipeline**, with leaks in 3 of the 4 pipelines, with a total of 4 leaks, located in the sea near Sweden and Denmark. The incident was widely regarded as "sabotage".
On the 7th, the Swedish prosecutor announced the end of the investigation that lasted more than 16 months on the grounds of "Sweden's lack of jurisdiction", saying that it had handed over the relevant investigation materials to the German side, but did not give a conclusion on the determination of responsibility for the incident.
Putin also said that although Nord Stream 2 was damaged, one of the pipelines was still intact and could deliver gas to Europe, and that Russia was ready, but Germany did not agree to open it. According to Putin, he was surprised that "the current German leaders do not act in the interests of their own country, but in the interests of the collective West."
This is a photo taken on January 6 in Moscow, the capital of Russia, of the Kremlin (left) and St. Basil's Church. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Cao Yang.
The famous mouth said that he had been blocked by Biden
Carlson's interview with Putin was recorded in the Kremlin on the 6th and broadcast on Carlson's personal and social accounts, lasting more than two hours.
Carlson is a right-wing news commentator in the United States and a former anchor on Fox News. He is close to the former American Donald Trump. Fox News was accused last year of airing false reports about the 2020 ** election, firing Carlson after paying hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. Carlson started another and opened a ** program on social media platform X, with a cumulative click rate of hundreds of millions.
Carlson also singled out that Biden twice tried to prevent him from interviewing Putin. According to him, about three years ago, Biden illegally spied on his team's text messages and then leaked the content to the news in order to prevent them from interviewing Putin. "They did it again, but we came to Russia anyway. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denied it on the 6th, calling Carlson's statement "ridiculous."
The Kremlin said that Putin agreed to be interviewed by Carlson because he did not report on Ukraine as one-sidedly as many other Western **s. Carlson believes that many Western reports of the Russia-Ukraine conflict are biased towards Ukraine. But a number of Western journalists said that they applied to the Kremlin to interview Putin, but they were refused.