Correspondent in Moscow
Hunted by Russian television since his arrival in Moscow, publicized like a rock star, the sulphurous Carlson Tucker has been creating more buzz than ever since he revealed an open secret on Tuesday evening, notably on his banned X account. in Russia: the purpose of his trip is none other than an interview with Vladimir Putin.
His announcement - a video with the Cathedral of Christ the Savior as a backdrop - was viewed fifty-four million times in a few hours.
The interview was recorded on Tuesday, the Kremlin said on Wednesday morning.
His spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, added, cryptically, that the interview would be
“published as it is prepared”.
A little earlier, the Russian presidency's press pool specified that the interview would be broadcast Thursday at 6 p.m. (Washington time), on the Carlson Tucker website, as well as on the platform owned by Elon Musk.
According to blogger Alex Jones, who reportedly spoke to the former Fox News
headliner
, the interview lasts two hours and
"will be epic"
- although observers in Moscow are dubious about possible announcements from Vladimir Putin that has already spoken a lot on Russian channels about Ukraine and its relations with the West.
The fact remains that, this time, this formidable publicity stunt is aimed at the American public, and directly serves the interests of the Trump camp, to which Tucker Carlson is close.
Read alsoAfter a survey by Elon Musk on X, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones could make his return to the social network
"The interview makes Western censors nervous who keep Americans in the dark
," says blogger Alex Jones, echoing Carlson's arguments in his ad that Americans
"don't know the reality of what's happening in China." Russia and Ukraine
.
Why did he come to Russia?
“To annoy the United States
,” responds an interlocutor close to the Kremlin to the
Moscow Times
, on condition of anonymity.
“Access to the American public through Carlson during the period of bitter struggle between Biden and Trump is again an opportunity to exert this famous influence on the American elections, given the interviewer's enormous audience”
, a Russian official also told the
Moscow Times
.
For another source close to the Kremlin, cited in the same article,
“it is quite simply a matter of spoiling the atmosphere of the American president's entourage by saying: 'You didn't expect that?
But we can do it.
Fuck off, Joe!'
”
A star visit
Seen on Monday leaving an official building, photographed at the Bolshoi Theater during a performance of Spartacus, Carlson Tucker complacently played a game of cat and mouse with the Russian media.
“Is the interview already recorded?”
, asks a journalist from
Ria Novosti
, one of the federal channels close to the Kremlin.
“
You are a state agency, you should know about it
,” the person replied with a smile, adding that he was going to have a coffee
.
“No Americano today
,” the histrionic joked a little later, even if this
joke
has not been confirmed.
Judging by the avalanche of humorous “posts” on Russian networks, no one seems fooled by the biases of the man who, in his announcement on Tuesday, claims to have come “not
for love of Putin, but for love of the United States
.
“Any question about the war in Ukraine will be a question about the United States on the eve of the American elections,”
said Ilya Chepeline, a former journalist for the independent television channel
Dozhd
, who left Russia.
He recalls that Tucker Carlson, interviewing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban last summer, showed himself to be an
“elite microphone holder”
.
“Not only was there not a single awkward question, but both of them said several times: it would be great if Trump were president again!”,
underlines Ilya Chepeline.
The boasting of the man who drapes himself in his status as a “journalist”, claiming that his colleagues had not taken the trouble to interview the Russian president, also caused a reaction.
The Kremlin leader's last interview with a foreign media dates back to October 2021. However, numerous requests were addressed to him, as recalled by Steven Rosenberg of the BBC, one of the most respected correspondents in Moscow.
“The only suspense is whether Tucker will refrain from questioning Putin about the fate of an American citizen currently detained in an FSB (Russian security services, Editor's note) prison for almost a year, without question. “no evidence has been presented publicly,”
says journalist Ilya Chepeline.
Wall Street Journal
journalist Evan Gershkovich,
accused of espionage, has been imprisoned in Russia since last March.