The visit of an American journalist to the kremlin dictator showed that the attitude of Western audiences toward putin is unlikely to change significantly

Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson became the first Western journalist to interview vladimir putin after russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This material was to be a significant achievement for Carlson and putin. In particular, for the former, it was an opportunity to increase his relevance after his suspension from the TV channel and to promote his new media company. While for the head of the kremlin, it was a chance to justify his invasion of Ukraine. 

During the interview, vladimir putin falsely claimed that Russia was interested in ending the war in Ukraine through negotiations. Putin also actually indicated that russia is not interested in meaningful or legitimate negotiations and that he is determined to destroy Ukraine as a state.

Putin also expressed general hostility to the West and falsely accused it of having forced russia to attack Ukraine. The dictator repeatedly emphasized that Russia is ready for negotiations, appearing to be a global player, while accusing "Western ruling elites" of obstructing the talks.

In addition, putin repeatedly expressed the russian propaganda narrative in interviews, claiming that it was Western officials who forced Ukraine to abandon a lucrative deal during the talks between Kyiv and moscow in Istanbul in March 2022.

Thus, putin supported the old narratives, trying to convince Western states that Ukraine is not an independent participant in the negotiations, and the West should recognize moscow's role. In this way, russia will try to get the West to take actions in the name of Ukraine that would undermine its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In recent weeks, putin and the kremlin have stepped up this rhetoric, indicating russia's intention to achieve maximum goals in Ukraine, which includes the complete surrender of Ukraine and the West. Putin's negotiating position remains unchanged: he still aims to destroy Ukraine and is using the ceasefire to create favorable conditions for a further more successful war against Ukraine. 

The most important conclusion of this interview was that putin made it clear why he started this war. And it is not the expansion of NATO to the east, as propagandists claim, whose borders have doubled since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. The answer lies in a 30-minute "historical background" that the kremlin leader told the American journalist. Putin told Carlson about Mazepa, the Pereiaslav Council and many other things, thus putin tried to show the whole world that he is a "russian tsar" who is collecting "russian lands." 

If the reason for russia's invasion of Ukraine was really geopolitics, he would have simply said: "there is a threat at our side and we are acting like this", instead putin gave a 30-minute lecture on history from the Ruriks to the present day, because this is the true reason for the war. 

It was precisely this communication approach that became putin's final failure in the eyes of Western audiences, the historical excursion he conducted was not at all clear to the target audience. Tucker Carlson went to this interview hoping that putin would talk about "traditional values", gender quotas, criticize tolerance of LGBT people, and generally do everything that Carlson became popular for. 

Tucker Carlson became famous thanks to Fox, hosting the evening political TV show "Tucker Carlson Tonight" from 2016 to 2023, the audience of which sometimes exceeded 5 million viewers.

However, his career on this TV channel, which traditionally supports Republicans, ended quite suddenly.

On the morning of April 24, 2023, Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News, which was unexpected for him, as he had promised viewers the day before to go on air that evening. The official reason for the dismissal was not announced, but the American press reported that it may be related to a lawsuit filed in connection with Carlson's report on the events of January 6, 2021 and the spread of Trump's false claims about the falsification of the 2020 election results.

Carlson left Fox News six days after Fox paid $787.5 million out of court to voting systems firm Dominion Voting Systems.

This company has filed a lawsuit against Fox Corp, claiming that the channel spread false claims by Trump and his supporters about rigging the 2020 election, including the use of voting machines.

After Carlson left Fox, he did not lose his popularity, having a large audience of followers on social media who share his far-right views and interest in conspiracy theories.

In particular, Tucker Carlson continues to express his support for Donald Trump, advocates for curbing illegal migration, for preserving the right to own weapons, expresses doubts about global climate change, the Black Lives Matter movement, gender ideology and other liberal views, and he hoped to hear the same from the master of the kremlin. 

After the interview, the Carlson admitted that the kremlin leader "is not able to explain clearly." In a video posted after the conversation with the dictator, Carlson noted that putin "is not someone who gives interviews too often".

"He can't explain clearly. However, he obviously has to spend a lot of time in a world where he is not obliged to explain", the journalist noted.