Vladimir Putin – now that, is a leader

This week, former Fox News host – now independent journalist – Tucker Carlson did something no one has seen done for years. He actually did journalism – which happens to be his job – and rocked several boats to the point of capsize. Specifically, he “scored” an interview with one of the last honest national executives left on this planet: Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin held up a mirror to the West and embarrassed it as the former Soviet Union never could have. It was a masterclass in leadership – and lessons to which Western electorates had better pay attention.

Lead-up to the Vladimir Putin interview

Tucker Carlson traveled to Russia without telling anyone. Earlier this week, several social-media influencers spotted him in Moscow and reported that fact. Jim Hoft at The Gateway Pundit carried one of the first reports, citing Newsweek. He also found this post, from Alexei Venediktov, formerly of the Echo of Moscow radio station:

Translation:

As far as I understand, Tucker Carlson got what he wanted.

Official Washington, and the Interlocking Editorial Board of the Mainstream Media, alternately gasped and howled with outrage. In response – or rather, in anticipation – Tucker Carlson left his embedded-video post:

Cullen Linebarger provided a partial transcript:

Here’s why we’re doing it: First, it’s our job. We are in journalism. It is our duty to inform people.

Two years into a war reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed…But they should know because they are paying much of it.

That war is the Russia-Ukraine War, of course. Carlson went on:

Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine and what his goals are now…Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they are implicated in, and we have a right to tell them about it because we are Americans too.

CNAV knows why Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine – or rather, why someone had to invade Ukraine. Start with the biological weapons development laboratories in Ukraine, with American funding, and American direction, and American staffs. Vladimir Putin has the receipts, and his Foreign Office showed them nine months ago. Before that, the X account War Clandestine shed light on those laboratories. Twitter, under its old regime, suspended his account – and Elon Musk restored it after buying the company. Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) flatly accused Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) of having guilty knowledge of those labs.

Then consider that Ukraine has a problem with the ideology of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialists, that goes beyond leftover symbolism.

Tucker Carlson asks about Ukraine before

Tucker Carlson has had serious questions about American support for Ukraine for nearly a year:

1. Is opposing Russia in Ukraine of vital strategic interest to America?
2. What is our objective in Ukraine, and how can we know when we have achieved it?
3. What is the limit on the amount of money and/or weapons you would be willing to send to President Zelenskyy?
4. Should the United States support regime change in Russia?
5. Have U.S. sanctions been effective? And:
6. Does the United States face a risk of nuclear war with Russia?

The correct answers, in order, are:

1. No. In fact, the cleaning-out of biological weapons development laboratories in Ukraine serves the real vital public interest. Those laboratories have American funding, American direction, and American staffs. Or they had until Russia destroyed them.
2. The people can have no objective in Ukraine. This is not our fight and we ought to get out and stay out.
3. We exceeded those limits long ago – because the limit is zero. The war must stop. (And according to Darrell L. Castle, it will stop once the people turn off the money spigot.)
4. Absolutely not. As one particular candidate says, we need “regime change” in the United States. Happily, we can do that with something called an election.
5. No. Sanctions have been countereffective. Russia never needed international trade.
6. Yes. Russia could take out New York City, Washington, Boston, etc. with one Poseidon missile each.

The Vladimir Putin interview with outline

For everyone’s information, Poseidon is a class of intercontinental, nuclear-powered, nuclear-tipped autonomous – torpedo. Russia cannot deploy it at scale – yet. Well can one imagine the value – indeed the vital necessity – of interviewing the leader of a country that can develop, and prepare to deploy, that kind of weapon.

But of course the Biden administration and the legacy media didn’t see it that way. They see Vladimir Putin as an enemy and warned people not to listen. Nevertheless Tucker Carlson released the Vladimir Putin interview promptly at 6:00 p.m. EST Thursday (February 8). Several YouTube channels streamed it live – and YouTube staff systematically tracked down every stream and shut it down. But Elon Musk pledged no interference on Platform X. Therefore one can play the interview here.

Tucker Carlson provided a full transcript here to those willing to subscribe to his site. Members can also play his after-the-show monologue. (In it, as Jim Hoft reported, Tucker reminded people that Vladimir Putin would never give up another territory Ukraine thinks it can get back: Crimea.)

But Carlson provided, free of charge, this outline of the interview:

Points Vladimir Putin made

In that history lesson, Putin made clear that “Ukraine” as a separate country was an artificial concept. The old Soviet Union invented it. Why, Putin refused to speculate. But Nikita S. Khrushchev “granted” Ukraine “independence” to score another vote in the United Nations General Assembly. Recall that Khrushchev, like Lenin and Trotsky before him, envisioned their Union of Socialist Soviet Republics to encompass the world. In other words, it would have an English Socialist Soviet Republic, a French Socialist Soviet Republic, and so on. In this light, “independence” for Ukraine was a symbolic gesture, “grift” for votes in the United Nations – and nothing else. Vladimir Putin likely knows it, would rather not dwell on it – but certainly disavows it. As far as he’s concerned, Ukraine is part of Russia and always has been.

Evidently Putin said nothing of the Khazars, the legendary original rulers of Ukraine who disappeared from history. Regrettably, Tucker Carlson did not think to ask.

Various Gateway Pundit commentators dissected some of these discussions. Anthony Scott reported that Vladimir Putin expressed concern about Elon Musk’s Neuralink company and its projects. Said he:

I think there’s no stopping Elon Musk. He will do as he sees fit. Nevertheless, you need to find common ground with him and search for ways to persuade him.

Scott also reported that Putin knew of Tucker Carlson’s application to join the Central Intelligence Agency. Tucker did not deny this.

Jim Hoft reported that Putin flatly accused the United States of blowing up the Nord Stream Pipeline. Recall that Seymour Hersh knew that from the beginning. See here, here, here, and here.

Weaponization of the dollar and other points

Hoft also cited Viadimir Putin warning against the weaponization of the U.S. dollar. In short, the U.S. weakened itself by using its currency – the reserve currency of the world – as a weapon. One thing the world knows: it prompted the establishment of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South African Union (BRICS).

Hoft then dropped this report. Vladimir Putin asked, in so many words, WTF is America fighting to defend Ukraine’s border while opening its own?

Do the United States need this? What for? Thousands of miles away from your national territory. You have issues on the border, issues with migration, issues with the national debt, more than 33 trillion dollars… You have nothing better to do so you should fight in Ukraine? Wouldn’t it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement. Realizing that Russia that will fight for it’s interest to the end. Return to common sense and look for solutions.

Notice the translation of “the United States” as a plural noun. Then again, only in English, it seems, are collective nouns ever singular. So Putin might not be referring to the pre-War-Between-the-States usage of “United States” as an always plural entity.

This morning, TGP commentator Larry Johnson offered more insights from the Vladimir Putin interview. First, none of the “cable” outlets mentioned anything from the interview, except Carlson asking Putin about Evan Gershkovich. (Jeremy at The Quartering called Tucker’s question an act of great courage. Actually it was only sensible. Pleading and begging does not impress Vladimir Putin, as one can tell by looking at him.)

Reaction of two not-so-impressive personalities

Second, the two legacy outlets that did cover the interview, did so only superficially. Among other things, Putin recalled President Bill Clinton reneging on a promise to support Russian entry into NATO. Third: of all the recent U.S. Presidents during his effective headship of Russia, Putin refused to mention one: Barack Obama. Translation: he blames Obama for the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine of 2014. And that event still rankles.

So how does the Western world react? Again, YouTube tried to shut the interview down. (Rumble did not.) On Thursday morning, before the release, Hillary Clinton called Tucker Carlson a “useful idiot” and “puppy dog” for his efforts.

That was part of a litany of statements: Russians always tell lies, and no one should believe anything they say. Tellingly, she drew hecklers at a conference against “conflict-related sexual violence” at Columbia University, where she has a teaching job. Those hecklers called her a “war criminal.”

This morning, Jim Hoft reported that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Carlson a traitor for taking the interview.

From the reaction to this post, Johnson impressed no one.

Analysis

Vladimir Putin is Donald Trump without the Alpha Male bombast. He will do a thing and then talk about it. He reminds one easily of one other U.S. President:

Speak softly and carry a big stick – you will go far. President Theodore Roosevelt

More to the point, he has a deep, abiding sense of history. Vladimir Putin understands what few in his position do: that history is who you are and where you came from. His history lesson for Tucker Carlson was no filibuster. His entire casus belli in Ukraine is that he is recovering part of Russia. And he is starting with those lands where ethnic Russians live.

Alaska was once part of the Russian Empire. Then Czar Aleksandr II sold it to the United States, negotiating with Secretary of State William H. Seward, in 1867. Vladimir Putin recently took a step toward “research and registration” of present and former Russian lands, and Russian-owned property beyond its present borders.

Someone interpreted that and/or other statements to mean Putin was contesting the sale of Alaska.

That claim might or might not be accurate. But the day before the interview, Russian bombers tested American air defenses in the region.

Only because we have a doddering old fool in command – to which Putin alluded in the interview – should this even concern Americans. But we have an election coming up, and perhaps this song – translated or dubbed into English – should tell us the kind of leader America needs.