Listed below are the takeaways from Putin’s sit-down with Carlson.
- Putin isn’t completed together with his conflict
The primary message Putin sought to convey to People: There’s no level serving to Ukraine with more cash and weapons. And Carlson, who has himself beforehand questioned U.S. help for Ukraine because it seeks to defend its folks and its land within the face of Russia’s assault, was all too completely happy to assist ship that message.
“In case you actually wish to cease preventing, it’s worthwhile to cease supplying weapons. It is going to be over inside a couple of weeks. That’s it,” Putin claimed, including that it was as much as the U.S. to inform Ukraine to come back to the negotiating desk.
However that’s not likely the total story, as Putin himself made clear in two telling responses to Carlson’s follow-up questions.
First, requested whether or not Russia had achieved its conflict goals, Putin mentioned: “No. We haven’t achieved our goals but as a result of one in every of them is de-nazification.” The declare that Russia is looking for to “de-nazify” Ukraine is extensively seen as code for the removing of the nation’s democratically elected (Jewish) president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In a robust indication of what he meant by his remark, Putin mentioned “we’ve got to eliminate these folks” who he claimed, with out foundation, “help” Nazism.
Second, when Carlson requested whether or not Putin would “be glad with the territory that you’ve now,” the Russian autocrat refused to reply, returning to his level about de-nazification and insisting he hadn’t but completed answering the earlier query. We’ll take that as one other no.