Tucker Carlson Conducted Neutral Journalism by Interviewing Putin
Tucker Carlson travelled to Moscow in February 2024 and interviewed Vladimir Putin, claiming it was an act of impartial journalism. Fact-checkers documented that Carlson did not challenge a single one of Putin's lies about Ukraine, and historians described Putin's 45-minute historical introduction as 'complete fiction.'
What we know
Tucker Carlson is a former Fox News host who was dismissed in 2023 and subsequently launched an independent podcast and YouTube channel with tens of millions of subscribers. In February 2024, he travelled to Moscow and filmed an interview with Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin simultaneously broadcast on Russian state television and Carlson's own channel - a rare collaboration between a Western media figure and the Russian propaganda apparatus.
The interview began with a 45-minute historical lecture by Putin on why Ukraine is not a real country. Sergei Radchenko, a historian at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told the BBC: 'This is complete fiction. Vladimir Putin is trying to construct a narrative backwards.' Putin claimed that Russia was founded in 862 and that Ukraine has no independent historical tradition - a claim contradicted by the very archives Putin himself cited. Euronews fact-checkers documented specific false claims: that Ukraine started the war (Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in 2022); that Ukraine wants a ceasefire (contrary to Zelensky's public statements); and that NATO expansion justifies the invasion (not under international law).
Carlson did not challenge a single one of those claims during the interview. The New Yorker described this as evidence of inadequate preparation or a naive expectation that the 'real Putin' would somehow differ from the public one. At the end of the interview, Carlson accepted a grey folder from Putin as 'historical evidence' without examining its contents - a gesture that symbolises the level of critical distance he maintained.
Carlson subsequently returned to Russia and reported on how the Russian supermarket experience was superior to the American one - coverage his critics described as open Kremlin propaganda. In the context of Russia's war in Ukraine, the normalisation and humanisation of Putin's narrative by Western media figures with large audiences carries concrete geopolitical consequences.
Common claims
- Carlson's interview with Putin was an act of impartial journalism.False - not a single one of Putin's lies was challenged
- Putin presented historically grounded arguments in the interview.False - historians called them 'complete fiction' and 'a selective abuse of history'
- Russia annexed Crimea in response to NATO provocation.Not supported - the annexation was a violation of international law
Evidence hierarchy
All sources
- Vladimir Putin's controversial Tucker Carlson interview fact-checkedEuronews · 2024
- Tucker Carlson interview: Fact-checking Putin's 'nonsense' historyBBC · 2024
- Tucker Carlson Promised an Unedited Putin. The Result Was BoringNew Yorker · 2024
- Adding nuance to Tucker Carlson's Interview with Vladimir PutinDoing History in Public · 2025