Tucker Carlson, an American journalist popular with the far right, recently traveled to Moscow to interview President Vladimir Putin about Russia’s war in Ukraine. During the interview, Putin explained his public reasons for the invasion and promised that he had no intention of invading other neighboring nations in Europe. The Russian dictator consistently made similar statements about Ukraine previously–even up to the day before he invaded it in February 2022.

Straight Arrow News contributor Dr. Rashad Richey contends that it is more accurate to call the Carlson-Putin discussion a “lecture” as opposed to an “interview,” and he predicts that Tucker will only continue to parrot Moscow’s disinformation to an increasingly extreme degree over time.

Okay, well listen, it’s bad enough that a political pundit can have a show and become the de facto propaganda minister for a government. But now, these individuals are becoming propaganda ministers for whoever will pay them the most money. Tucker Carlson, at one time, was the de facto propaganda minister for Donald Trump, the apologist-in-chief, I would say. But now, he has decided to hitch his wagon, pitch his tent, and he has decided to cozy up to Vladimir Putin. He just gave what some would call an interview. I call it a lecture. He was lectured to for over two hours.

In this alleged interview, Putin basically read a dissertation to Tucker Carlson. And then this dissertation, which by the way, Vladimir Putin wrote in 2021, you could check it out, in this dissertation, he provides an outline that somehow blames everybody else for the war, rather than Putin himself. Sounds familiar, right?

Let me give you some nuances. It should have been clear that this was already a fixed match, so to speak. I’m sure Tucker Carlson was paid a good chunk of change for this interview. In Putin’s account, the war was actually brought by the United States. Yeah, the war that Russia has decided to launch against the nation [of] Ukraine, well, that war is because of the U.S., that’s according to Putin.