The White House condemns the “cruelty” of the Kremlin master

Tucker Carlson’s latest stunt isn’t exactly making American executives happy. The White House in fact confirmed on Wednesday that a new interview with Vladimir Putin is not needed to understand the “cruelty” of the Russian president, for whom the meeting with this conservative American presenter is expected.

Close to Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, long a star host on the Fox News Channel, now has a show on X. He recently traveled to Moscow for the first interview ever given to a Western journalist by a Kremlin master. Countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Interview published at midnight in Paris

The interview will be broadcast on Tucker Carlson’s website this Thursday, he announced on his Instagram account. The interview will be published at 6 p.m. Washington time (midnight in Paris), he said in a black-and-white post, on which the faces of both men are displayed.

“What Mr. Putin did in Ukraine should be clear to everyone, as should be the fictitious and ridiculous reasons with which he tries to justify his action”, a spokesman told the press of the American executive, John Kirby.

Tucker Carlson, a regular purveyor of conspiracy theories, has repeatedly criticized American support for Ukraine in recent months. His visit to Moscow was widely covered by Russian state media.

Violation of press freedom in Russia

The Kremlin, however, opposed the presenter, who boasted of being the only person who wanted to speak to the Russian president, claiming to receive requests for interviews with Vladimir Putin from Western media. But Tucker Carlson has “a position that is at odds with the traditional Anglo-Saxon media,” according to a spokesman for Russian President Dmitry Peskov, confirming an interview with the Russian president granted to the host.

The access Tucker Carlson enjoys contrasts with other restrictions on foreign journalists in Russia, where two American journalists, Ivan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, were arrested and detained last year. Russia has stifled critical voices for years, but the campaign of repression ramped up significantly after the attack on Ukraine began two years ago.