Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson's announcement that he had interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin has sparked outrage from many journalists, some of whom say the Kremlin could use the interview for propaganda purposes.
In a video posted on Ix, Carlson said he wanted to interview the longtime Russian leader because "Americans have a right to know everything they can about the war they're involved in."
Presidential elections are scheduled to take place in Russia in mid-March, in which Putin is guaranteed to win. Putin probably agreed to the interview with Karlsson because he thinks it will help his campaign, according to Mikhail Rubin, deputy editor-in-chief of the Russian research house Proekt Media.
"Carlson has to understand that he is part of the campaign for the presidential election and that he will help (Putin), unfortunately," Rubin told Voice of America.
Rubin added that Karlsson's interview will likely be used to portray Moscow in a positive light.
"The most important thing is to show that Putin is open and that American journalists can work inside Russia because Russia is an open and free country," said Rubin.
But that story is clearly false, points out Rubin, who fled the country in 2021 for security reasons.
"If I go to Russia, as I understand it, I will be arrested tomorrow," said Rubin, who now lives in Washington.
Other Russian journalists shared similar criticisms on social media.
"I am like hundreds of Russian journalists who are in exile to continue reporting on the Kremlin's war against Ukraine. The alternative was to go to jail," Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats wrote on IX. "Moscow, which costs $1.000," she wrote.
Karlsson has also drawn criticism for appearing to ignore the poor state of media freedom in Russia and the arrest of large numbers of journalists inside the country, as well as the fact that many have had to flee Russia.
"It's interesting to complain that there aren't enough American journalists reporting on the Russian side of Putin's invasion of Ukraine when two of them - Evan Gershkovich and Alsa Kurmasheva - are currently in prison for doing just that," wrote Max Seddon, head of of the Moscow bureau of the Financial Times.
The Wall Street Journal's Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 on espionage charges that he, his employer and the US government vehemently deny.
Kurmasheva, the editor of Voice of America's sister station, Radio Free Europe, was arrested in October 2023 and faces charges of failing to register as a "foreign agent" and spreading false information about the Russian military. She and her employer deny the charges.
In addition to Kurmaseva and Geršković, at least 2023 more journalists have been imprisoned in Russia by the end of 20, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Karlsson's interview with Putin was recorded on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal says it is likely to be released on Thursday. Carlson announced that the unedited interview will be uploaded to IX.
Tucker Carlson is a right-wing television host who had a prime-time show on Fox News from 2016 until his firing in 2023. Carlson's departure came shortly after Fox News agreed to pay more than $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems, which sued the television station for defamation and spreading false news about the stolen 2020 election. Many of those stories were spread by Carlson.
Tucker Carlson's network did not immediately respond to VOA's request for comment.
After accusing the American media of "indulgent and motivational interviews" with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Karlson went on to claim that "not a single Western journalist bothered to interview the president of the other country in this conflict, Vladimir Putin."
Journalists also took to social media to criticize that claim.
"Does Tucker really think we journalists haven't been trying to interview President Putin every day since his invasion of Ukraine? That's absurd — we'll keep asking for an interview, just like we've done for years," CNN's Christiana Amanpour wrote on Iks.
Even the Kremlin somehow disputed that claim by Carlson.
"No, Mr. Karlsson is wrong. In fact, he cannot know that," Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin receives many requests for interviews with Putin.
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