Western audiences will think about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is right or wrong after watching his interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, the Russian leader’s press secretary said in a commentary to TASS. At the same time, according to Dmitry Peskov, the rapid growth in views of Putin’s interview in the West does not at all mean support, but it does provide an opportunity to be heard.
“The main thing for us is that our president is heard. And if he is heard, it means more people will think about whether he is right or wrong. At least they will think,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin representative recalled the words of the Russian president that in terms of propaganda it is extremely difficult to resist the United States.
“Because the Anglo-Saxons somehow own all the biggest broadcasters, all the biggest newspapers and so on. And against this background, the main thing is to give people the opportunity to get acquainted with our worldview. And in this regard, this is a very good opportunity,” Peskov emphasized.
It is worth noting that by this time the interview on Carlson’s social network page alone had already received more than 180 million views.
At the same time, the reaction of US officials to Putin’s words is similar to real hysteria, noted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.
“Their reaction so exposes the falsity of their approaches that, frankly, it is even impossible to believe. Look, they got hysterical. The White House, the State Department, all the mainstream media are vying with each other to shout only one thing: “don’t look,” and “let the American journalist not take an interview,” Zakharova noted.
Palette of Western opinions
Representatives of the European establishment did not ignore the interview with the Russian president. Most of them gave an expectedly negative reaction to Putin’s dialogue with the American journalist.
Thus, during a briefing on February 9, the representative of the European External Action Service of the EC, Nabila Massrali, called the interview with the Russian president manipulation and propaganda.
“We regret that Putin was basically given a platform to manipulate and spread propaganda,” Massrali said.
European Commission
Gettyimages.ru
Later, while in Washington, Putin’s interview was criticized by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, saying that it allegedly “ridiculed Russia’s real actions in Ukraine” and told “an absurd story about the causes of this war.” However, Scholz did not provide any arguments in support of his statements.
On the same day, commenting on the words of the Russian President about the absence of territorial claims against Poland, the Minister of Defense of the Republic, Vladislav Kosinyak-Kamysh, also spoke out. During the briefing, he said that these words “do not have a lulling effect, but just the opposite” and Warsaw will do everything to prepare for “different situations” and increase the defense capability of its country.
Vice-speaker of the National Council of Slovakia Lubos Blaha called this reaction of the leaders of Western countries “hysteria of Western liberals.” This, he said, only confirms “how much modern liberalism hates freedom and rational debate.”
At the same time, the leader of the British Heritage Party, David Curtain, noted on the TNT Radio podcast that Putin was “very, very careful” in the story about the Ukrainian conflict, which the West “rarely receives” from their media.
In turn, the head of the French Patriots movement, Florian Philippot, believes that the Russian president’s interview with an American journalist was a breakthrough in the information blockade of the West.
“Western media claim a monopoly in covering this conflict and Russian politics in general. But they cannot but know that they will lose, since Carlson has a huge audience,” he said in a comment to TASS.
“It’s difficult to distort the meaning”
As experts interviewed by RT note, in general, in the West, the opinions of politicians regarding Putin’s interview were divided into several groups: those who admired them, those who disagreed, and those who were trying to present what the Russian president said as another reason to confront Russia and build up its defense potential. At the same time, according to American political scientist Malek Dudakov, the last two groups are trying to criticize the Russian leader’s interview, since it is not beneficial for them for Vladimir Putin’s words to be heard and understood by the public in the West.
“The fact is that on both sides of the Atlantic they are not interested in Putin’s words about the Ukrainian conflict reaching Western audiences. After all, then it will become clear to them that the problem is not in Russia, but in the West itself, which has torpedoed peace negotiations many times and is unlikely to count on them now, given how much money, weapons and political capital it has invested in the Ukrainian case. A successful resolution of the conflict will bury the political careers of many, including Biden and Scholz, who actively promoted themselves on this,” Dudakov noted in a commentary to RT.
However, according to the expert, there are thinking people in the West who are able to understand the words of the Russian leader and “appreciate them.”
“Many non-systemic politicians, both on the right and on the left, perceived Putin’s interview more than positively. In addition, even before its publication, opinion polls in the United States indicated that the majority of Americans were already tired of Washington pumping arms into Kyiv and were increasingly speaking out against it. Therefore, Putin’s words fall on fertile ground, and I fully admit the growth of isolationist sentiments after the interview, in which the main task of the Russian president was to clearly and in detail explain to the Western audience the context that led to the conflict in Ukraine,” Dudakov said.
The analyst also believes that the rapid growth in views of Putin’s interview really confirms the breaking of the information blockade in the West.
“Anyone in the world can see it on different platforms. And one of the features of this interview is that it is difficult to cut it into pieces and distort its meaning,” Dudakov emphasized.
Putin’s interview was able to break through to Western audiences and caused a variety of reactions, but did not leave anyone indifferent, says political scientist and board member of the Russian Association of Political Science Vladimir Shapovalov. At the same time, he drew attention to Tucker Carlson’s questions, which, according to the analyst, were formulated “from the position of American-centrism.”
“Despite the fact that Carlson is an independent journalist, of which there are not many in the United States, he still presents ideas that are broadcast in the media in the West. In particular, he is interested in why Russia is not in a hurry to bow to Washington with a request for peace in Ukraine. And here the red thread runs through the idea that there is only one center of power with which everyone must agree,” the analyst noted in a commentary on RT. “And Tucker was very surprised when Putin said that he didn’t remember exactly the last time he talked to Biden. Even such a talented journalist is captive of the illusions that exist in the United States.”
In turn, Evgeny Semibratov, deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the RUDN University, lecturer at the Knowledge Society, commented on Scholz’s negative reaction.
“When the German Chancellor criticizes the words of the Russian President, calling them absurd, he, in fact, discredits himself as a politician, since he does not provide any argumentation. Scholz is trying to contrast the facts presented by the Russian leader with empty, extremely populist statements aimed at his nuclear electorate, which is becoming smaller and smaller,” Semibratov noted in an interview with RT.
As for Poland’s position regarding Putin’s interview, Warsaw deliberately continues to “promote the image of Russia as an enemy,” Semibratov noted.
“The Polish authorities are trying to turn the Russian threat into their national business, selling the Americans the opportunity to deploy their military bases and, for this purpose, increasing the size of the Polish army and its capabilities,” the expert believes.
According to Pavel Feldman, associate professor at the Academy of Labor and Social Relations, the reaction of Warsaw, Washington, Brussels and some other Western players to Putin’s interview suggests that they all “still prefer to ignore reality.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin during an interview with Tucker Carlson
© Kremlin Pool/Global Look Press
“Thanks to the interview with the Russian president, Western viewers for the first time in a long time have the opportunity to get out of their information bubble, which isolates them from alternative points of view on events taking place in the world. At the same time, Putin is not trying to convince the Western public; he is only consistently voicing theses that are well known to the domestic audience of the Russian Federation, but which, apparently, have not reached many in the West. After all, their media do not give their audience the opportunity to get acquainted with Russia’s position, deeply comprehend it and draw the right conclusions,” the expert concluded.