No doubt that B broadcast time of the interview conducted by the host Tucker with President Putine is one of the most stressful things for any professional political economy analyst is having a powerful, bold interview with a global figure broadcast on the air late at night. However, even with the timing of the broadcast, we think it was successful to suit the viewership density in the West (Western Europe and the United States) because the moderator was one of the most important moderators on Fox News previously and wanted a high viewership rate among his followers. He also wants to send a message to Fox News that he is still one of the most followed moderators in America, even if his interview was broadcast via X platform.
Interview venue
It is clear that Mr. Tucker, the moderator of the dialogue, was recording this dialogue last Tuesday, February 6, 2024, from one of Putin’s offices in the Kremlin. I think, according to the beginning of the video, his residence may have been with this background that appears (Red Square in the heart of Moscow and the Kremlin), the Four Seasons Hotel directly facing Red Square, that area that I know by heart because it is the most important political, touristic and commercial area of Moscow. Also, because I lived there for three consecutive years.
Interview mechanism with President Putin
For your information, and this is something common for moderators of dialogues with experts or public figures, there is a common mechanism for the moderator of the dialogue or the entity he represents to send an offer requesting an interview, attaching to it the proposed questions for the guest, expert, or public figure. Then there is agreement on an answer to either all, the majority, or part of the questions. But it is clear from the dialogue, which extended for more than two and a half hours, that President Putin agreed to answer all the questions and prepared himself well as usual to respond.
This interview with the American media comes about six years after the time of the last interview President Putin conducted on Fox News, which took place in Finland during the “G-8 Summit in the summer of 2018.” It is worth noting that the dialogue at that time did not exceed 40 minutes only, which also had a major impact on the Western media at the time, and turned the tide on several issues, including “Russian meddling in the 2016 American presidential elections in favor of Donald Trump.” At that time, President Putin was able to comfortably refute all the American allegations made by the Democrats in this regard, which made the dialogue decrease from an hour to only 40 minutes.
Who is Tucker Carlson the moderator of this interview with President Putin?
Quoted from BBC: “Mr. Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host, has been criticized for his controversial statements and controversial content and his full support to the Republicans in the USA, as well as to ex-president Trump. He was fired in April 2020 after Fox News paid an extraordinary $787m settlement to (dominion voting systems) over false election claims.
Carlson’s run at Fox ended in April, and he announced he would begin a new show on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. In December, he framed a paid streaming service, the Tucker Carlson Network, which he framed as free from corporate influence. His content and guests have become increasingly fringe, with Carlson publishing a two-and-a-half-hour interview with Andrew Tate, the British-American influencer accused in Romania of rape, human trafficking, and forming an organized crime group to exploit women sexually.
He also posted a surprise Christmas Eve fireside chat with disgraced actor Kevin Spacey, as he reprised his role as House of Cards lead character, the fictional President Frank Underwood. Despite his controversial statements, Carlson’s popularity and attention at Fox have not been re-created, and his appearance with Putin’s appearance may be a boon for him and his star.”
Perhaps opinion polls also indicate that Trump may return to the White House easily this time, as Biden’s popularity is declining sharply, and Biden is not a friend of Putin like Trump, and this serves the program of the Republicans and Trump in his election campaign.
This interview is also considered a revival of presenter Tucker Carlson, thanks to the growing intensity of viewing. This interview and its viewership rates confirm the decline in trust among Western peoples, especially in America and Europe, and the American-controlled Western media in general.
Timing of the interview
Within America, there is a great competition that may turn into a struggle between the two chambers of Congress (the Senate and the Representatives) to obtain a decision to support more than 100 billion dollars for America’s foreign fronts (Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan), and the representatives’ opposition to this law through the Border and Immigration Law. In addition to the large internal debt of $33 trillion.
A world on fire on several fronts – American shame on the Arab side regarding the genocide in Gaza, and disappointment for US Secretary of State Blinken, especially from Saudi Arabia regarding the issue of normalization with the Zionist entity and preventing Hogstein from visiting Lebanon because Lebanon rejects his dirty deal.
Major parliamentary elections in Pakistan, the second largest Islamic country in terms of population after Indonesia, a landslide victory for the Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and another American loss in a strategic and important country in South Asia and the Islamic world.
The growth of cooperation between Russia and China, with the trade volume currently reaching approximately $230 billion, the BRICS alliance increasing to BRICS Plus, and its total gross product far exceeding what is currently unrealistically called the G7 Big Seven.
It is clear that America has a problem with its failure to defeat Russia through NATO or Ukraine, and another failure on the other two fronts in Taiwan and Gaza, despite the endless support for Israel. Its agenda in the region failed, with the Houthis entering the front line – and the tripartite drills scheduled to be held between the new power triangle (Russia, China, and Iran) near the region.
Viewing intensity of the interview
It is worth noting that according to Western websites, including the “Austin American Statesman,” this interview received viewing rates at the time of writing this article on Elon Musk’s X platform, which Putin indirectly praised during the interview, for about (125 million) views. It is the largest follow-up and viewership in the history of this platform, which brought a lot of money and advertisements to the platform, the interview, and the interviewer, “Tucker.”
Interview topics and their significance to Russia and the world
1- Historical and contemporary points of conflict with some neighboring countries such as Poland
These points related to Poland and its historical roles in destabilizing Russia and its support for the Nazis before World War II, and the constant attempt by Poland and the Polish Nazis to create a wedge between Russia and Ukraine until today – and the ironic thing is that Zelensky’s father himself was one of the fighters against Nazism in central Europe. How did Zelensky become like that? Prone to Nazism and racism – this is a deplorable situation.
This dialogue was similar to a previous dialogue that we previously referred to, which was “Twenty Questions for President Putin” in February 2020, before the complete lockdown related to the Corona pandemic, which was prepared by the Russian TASS agency. It was one of the best programs that took place throughout the history of (Putin and TASS) jointly for high technology, which I did not even watch on American satellite channels, including Fox News and CNN itself.
2- As for Ukraine and those behind it in the White House
Putin stressed the same points that we know, and he even repeated them previously, which are logical points, in particular the expansion of NATO at Russia’s expense, and NATO itself previously refused to accept Russia’s membership in 2007. Why is Ukraine’s membership currently being threatened, and does Ukraine really need this membership, what is the current situation it has reached economically and politically?
Also, the violation of the Minsk Agreement by the Ukrainian side, with the knowledge of the European guarantors, after the neo-Nazis came to power in 2014, through the Orange Revolution against a previously democratically elected president, and what are the standards of NATO countries in democracy in this regard.
NATO’s role in halting the Istanbul negotiations two months after the special military operation, and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s intervention in discouraging Zelensky from moving forward with signing settlement agreements with Russia with the aim of breaking Russia, but that’s not it.
Is Zelensky afraid that the neo-Nazis in Poland and Ukraine and foreign mercenaries will overthrow him if he tries to reach a settlement with Russia and achieve peace in eastern and central Europe?
In response to an important question regarding whether Putin should contact President Biden to resolve the current crisis if the decision comes from Washington, Putin’s response was that a dialogue took place in February 2022, and we spoke for hours on all points, but the problem is not the person of Putin or Russia. The problem is that America is thousands of miles away and feels that it is (a security threat) – and we do not know if it is threatened by anything. What is its relationship, for example, with Ukraine or Russia? Or is it just the desire to dominate and control the world?
Putin added that he believes that officials in America must reconsider the world again because it has indeed changed, and America is no longer the first power, not even economically.
3- Media
As for the media – perhaps the talk and dialogue that took place through Colonel Tucker was the best message from Russia to the world and the West in particular, after a rupture that lasted more than two years between Russia and the West in the media. America controls social media platforms and websites globally. This is what Putin indicated: Unfortunately, the media is unable to confront America. This requires a lot of money to confront America.
But telling the truth and acting logically always wins. Because the reader and listener currently use their mind, and if you want to influence the media, you must cooperate with the BRICS Plus countries in producing a search engine parallel to Google and social media platforms similar to the Russian VK, with the same international specifications and even surpassing them. Russia, China, India, Iran, and Egypt have a qualitative leap in digitization and artificial intelligence, and they also have economic power that exceeds the seven countries with the entry of (Saudi Arabia), as Mr. Putin mentioned. As well as a great space industry, better than America. All of this could make a difference in the near future.
Also, of course, there was implicit thanks and praise for Elon Musk because the meeting was broadcast on his digital platform ْ(X) and of course, in response to raising the issue of the future of artificial intelligence, Putin stressed that this matter is of concern to those working in this field, with the necessity of concluding a collective international agreement on the ethics of using artificial intelligence.
4- The dollar and some economic issues
Putin spoke briefly about the dollar crisis – and that America, unfortunately, is printing dollars without real production, and the internal debt has become very large, amounting to 33 trillion dollars, that is, at a rate of (100 thousand dollars in debt / for almost every American citizen).
Also, the issue of unilateral economic sanctions is no longer useful because the Russian economy, despite the huge amount of sanctions that are similar to what Iran is exposed to, for example, has become stronger than any European economy, and it is currently ranked fifth in the world after China, Japan, America, and India – so it has become European countries are the ones punishing themselves with sanctions imposed on cheap energy (natural gas), especially Germany.
Also, the Russian economy is no longer the rentier economy that the West used to mock, even though time and experience have proven the opposite because cheap energy and its availability have become the main driving factor for any development or economic growth. But Russia has become a major global player in the space, digitalization, artificial intelligence, and high-technology industries, in addition to industry and agriculture.
The Russian economy is growing alongside China, the world’s first economic power, until the level of economic transactions between the two countries reached $230 billion, doubling nearly 4 times over 2019.
Russia also relied on nearly 70% of the dollar for the majority of its transactions. But with the special Russian operation in Ukraine and to confront the sanctions, Russia diversified its reserve money basket, increasing dealing in the Chinese yuan to approximately 35%, and oil, even with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, began to be revalued in the yuan. The dollar is losing its unjustified economic dominance internationally, which has taken its strength from transactions on oil since 1975.
Here is Putin, as a professional president, in listing the most important matters related to the dollar and Russia, as well as the issue of de-dollarization.
5- Germany and the matter of (Nord Stream I and II)
Regarding the West and NATO, Putin certainly mentioned Germany – even though Putin, in his famous dialogue in October 2020, admitted that he hinges the future of the world on two friendly countries that he trusts, China and Germany – this matter was consistent with the book that I published in August 2021 (China, Germany, Russia: A New World Order).
As for the bombing of the Nord Stream I and that Ukraine was involved in that – Putin said that this requires major intelligence work, trained diving teams, and maps, and a country with Ukraine’s capabilities cannot do that, as it must be a large country that carried out this major terrorist act. And here we remember the report of the great investigative journalist (Simon Hirsch), who accused British and American intelligence of planning this terrorist act, despite Mr. Hersh’s good reputation that he built over decades, we found that members of Congress accused him of lying and fabrication. As this is linked to the power of the media before the previous point, and the power of the American media, which always turns the facts into Lies and vice versa.
However, he criticized the current ruling German regime and that, unfortunately, it is not as mature as its predecessors. This was reflected in the economy of Europe, and Putin said that Germany feeds Poland and Poland feeds Ukraine – there is the Nord Stream II line that passes from Ukraine and then through Poland. Unfortunately, Ukraine is closing the Nord Stream II – if Germany wants economic recovery again, it must order Ukraine to open this line – but unfortunately, the current German regime, instead of thinking about the prosperity of its country, comes in second place in supporting Ukraine militarily after the United States, at the expense of taxpayers in Germany and America, they distort the facts, so how do we describe this matter – is this reason or logic?
6- Release of Ivan Gregovic, an American citizen
The last point that was addressed was the request of Mr. Tucker and his team, as a gesture of good faith, to hand over USA one of its journalists called (Ivan Gregovic,) who is imprisoned inside Russia – but Mr. Putin was smart to respond to this request, “We have made many good gestures and intentions toward the United States and the West, but unfortunately we were not treated reciprocally by your side. He added, “Mr. Gregovic, as far as I know, was not a journalist, and he was collecting classified information that was prohibited from being dealt with in a way that would harm Russian security. Accordingly, he was arrested, because he was not authorized to do so based on the documents he had.”
But Mr. Putin left the door open – and even demanded that if America showed us the gesture of something similar in return, we would have no objection to doing so.
To Conclude, Putin was able to deliver his message to the world at an appropriate time and through an American media figure and also played on the contradictions in the American system between Republicans and Democrats. There was a kind of mutual benefit between President Putin and his introduction to the West, especially with his re-election as President of Russia next March for the fifth time, and Lieutenant Colonel Tucker Carlson, whose biography will include his dialogue with the leader of one of the largest countries in the world.
