Tucker Carlson, the darling of the Russian state media, returned to Moscow this week, apparently intent on boosting Vladimir Putin’s key message on Ukraine. The Kremlin’s TV stooges suggested he may have had an even more sinister ulterior motive.
During Carlson’s second pilgrimage to Moscow, he interviewed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The interview, broadcast Thursday night, allowed the former Fox News star to push the Kremlin’s agenda that the U.S. should back off the war in Ukraine to avoid sparking a global nuclear crisis that could doom us all.
The sit-down failed to produce any bombshell revelations, but some Kremlin insiders believe it was merely a cover for what Carlson is really doing in Moscow. While the former Fox host is positioning himself as a dove of peace, toiling to prevent a nuclear war, Putin’s acolytes say he is also acting as a carrier pigeon for the Russian president and privately delivering his messages to Trump. During Wednesday’s broadcast of Full Contact on channel Solovyov Live, host Vladimir Solovyov told Americanist Malek Dudakov, “What is important here is that the man who came to talk to Lavrov spent the last six months shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump. Obviously, he didn’t just come to conduct an interview. He has something to say. Apparently, he has a message that he is bringing.”
Dudakov confidently surmised, “Yes, we currently see quite a few similar emissaries. It seems Viktor Orbán is again planning to meet with Trump, and after that, he may come to Russia once again. There are people who are willing to pass messages back and forth, indirectly.” Dudakov hypothesized that Trump and Putin are exchanging messages as to the terms of their future negotiations about the president-elect’s alleged 24-hour peace plan. Solovyov replied, “Trump will understand what his plan is only after he personally meets with Putin,” implying that the Russian president will dictate terms for his American counterpart.
The interview itself came at a perfect time for the Kremlin. After Ukraine was granted permission to use long-range missiles against military targets within Russia, Putin’s government and media apparatus ratcheted up their nuclear saber-rattling, spiced up with the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, Oreshnik.
Moscow’s premier mouthpieces have escalated their threats in tandem with government officials. The head of RT, Margarita Simonyan, repeatedly explained the goal of this nuclear blackmail during multiple state TV appearances—Russia has to create a modern-day equivalent of the Cuban Missile Crisis that will force America to back down and stop supporting Ukraine’s fight for its survival and independence.
State media propagandists bemoaned the lack of the anticipated panic in the West, grasping at straws in their attempts to conjure up the best strategies to scare Americans and their allies. Tucker seemingly understood the assignment and framed his interview with Lavrov around the concept of an impending nuclear apocalypse that can be avoided only if America abandons Ukraine. The introduction to the interview on the website for the Tucker Carlson Network said, “We’re on the brink of global war. Why isn’t anyone talking about it?”
Lavrov was happy to play along. Instead of a drawn-out history lesson, Tucker received from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lavrov lectured him about the rules of the UN Charter and easily refutable fallacies like “Russia did not start this war.” Carlson delivered no pushback or follow-up, and Lavrov was able to drone on without interruption.
The former Fox News host implied that the U.S. is at war with Russia because it is supplying weapons to Ukraine and was seemingly amazed when Lavrov disagreed and replied, “I wouldn’t say so.” Disregarding Lavrov’s denial, the description of the interview on the TCN website claimed, “Russia’s longtime foreign minister describes the war with the United States and how to end it.”
The same pattern continued throughout the interview. Carlson solicited sensational commentary from Lavrov and, upon receiving routine run-of-the-mill responses, repeatedly reiterated t
he same questions about the imminent threat of a nuclear war. He then proceeded to pack his questions with sensational soundbites, asking Lavrov about a potential nuclear exchange that could kill hundreds of millions of people and asserting, “Both sides are speaking about exterminating the other populations that this could somehow get out of control in a very short period and no one could stop it.”
Russia’s Foreign Minister replied by disingenuously claiming, “We are not talking about exterminating anybody’s population. We did not start this war... we don’t have any intention to exterminate the Ukrainian people. They are brothers and sisters to the Russian people.” Once again, Carlson failed to ask about Russia’s self-proclaimed genocidal agenda that is constantly reiterated on state television—including shows that are routinely watched by Putin—which manifests in grotesque war crimes perpetrated against Ukrainians.
Carlson’s attempt to extract new data out of Lavrov was fruitless. His question about Russian casualties was stonewalled with a non-response, “It’s not for me to disclose this information.” Carlson’s inquiry about the reason for Alexei Navalny’s death was met with an absurd insinuation that the Germans should have to answer about “what they did to him” when he was treated in Germany after being poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent.
Carlson insisted, “How do you think he died?” Lavrov replied with another non-response, “I am not a doctor, but for anybody to guess, even for the doctors to try to guess, they need to have information.” Once again, there was no follow-up, and Carlson failed to mention an investigation that implicated agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Navalny’s poisoning. The host carefully avoided any criticism of the Kremlin and failed to put his obfuscating interviewee on the spot at any point during the interview–but there again, this may have been by design.