You have issues on the border. Issues with migration, issues with the national debt. More than $33 trillion. You have nothing better to do. So, you should fight in Ukraine. Wouldn't it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement. Already understanding the situation that is developing today, realizing that Russia will fight for its interests to the end. And realizing this actually a return to common sense, start respecting our country and its interests and look for certain solutions. It seems to me that this is much smarter and more rational.
Carlson remarked on Putin’s “encyclopedic knowledge” of the history of the region as Putin went into a lengthy history establishing why Ukraine is part of Russia, as well as the origins of the conflict, including wading into details largely ignored by global leaders and corporate news media.
“And let's get into the fact that after 1991, when Russia expected that it would be welcomed into the brotherly family of civilized nations, nothing like this happened. You tricked us,” Putin explained. “I don't mean you personally when I say you. Of course, I'm talking about the United States. The promise was that NATO would not expand eastward. But it happened five times. There were five waves of expansion. We tolerated all that. We were trying to persuade them. We were saying, Please don’t.”
Putin explained that what began the conflict was the 2014 coup in Ukraine, which he blamed on the CIA. “They started persecuting those who did not accept the coup. And it was indeed a coup. They created the threat to Crimea, which we had to take under our protection. They launched the war in Donbas in 2014 with the use of aircraft and artillery against civilians. This is when it all started,” he said.
When Carlson pressed him about that incident being nearly a decade before the most recent conflict, Putin again stated that the coup initially provoked the conflict. Complicating factors, he reiterated that the West broke its promise not to expand NATO, Russia never agreed to Ukraine joining NATO, and cited Ukrainian officials' decision to not implement the Minsk agreements.
A major point of contention over the past year has been who is responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, which supplied cheap natural gas from Russia to Europe.
After speaking with multiple sources within the U.S. government, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh published an exposé blaming the Biden administration for the attack.
U.S. officials predictably denied any association with the pipeline’s destruction.
When Carlson asked Putin who he believed was responsible for the pipeline’s destruction, he unequivocally responded, “You, for sure,” referring to the U.S. government, specifically the CIA.
The Russian president said that the responsible party would have to have the interest in blowing up the pipeline, but also the capabilities “of sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and carrying out this explosion,” which he said the CIA is able to accomplish.
During the interview, Putin said that he has long sought to resolve issues with the West, but his foreign counterparts seem to have other priorities.
“I repeat, once again, we have repeatedly, repeatedly proposed to seek a solution to the problems that arose in Ukraine after 2014 coup d'etat through peaceful means. But no one listens to us,” he told Carlson.
