Today, I watched a short video by The Rubin Report, where Karol Markowicz was a guest. At 2:28 she states that she speaks Russian (she was born in the Soviet Union and her family moved to America) and that the translation of what Putin said in a widely shared clip is incorrect. She also says that the people who hate Tucker Carlson will say he’s a Russian stooge and the people who love him will say he’s the greatest journalist to ever journalist She explains that the incorrect translation completely flipped the meaning of what Putin actually said.
The European and liberal American insane reaction to Tucker Carlson doing this interview certainly went totally off the rails into Cuckoo Land. I didn’t see this kind of reaction when other Americans journalists or when Oliver Stone interviewed Putin. Putin’s a master at these interviews with American media, just like he was a master at manipulating Trump in that meeting and came with that soccer ball to hand to Trump – carefully planned Russian propaganda move there.
Here’s a Pravda headline from yesterday: Putin presented Tucker Carlson with copies of historical documents
I’m halfway through the Tucker Carlson interview of Vladimir Putin and this is a classic KGB-staged performance, to foment distrust of the US government among mainly Trump supporters, who are, thanks to Trump’s fawning all over Putin and the relentless right-wing media efforts (especially Tucker Carlson’s efforts) totally willing to side with Putin. Putin also repeatedly waded into blaming the American “Deep State” for causing problems, which plays well with Trump supporters now, although years ago, that sentiment played well with the left in America. What’s always missing though is any concern about Kremlin malignant actions around the world, especially in Ukraine. Why so many Trump supporters have become sympathetic towards Putin and buy into his bs, I’ll never understand. Putin and his influence operations in America, also have worked very hard to turn Americans against NATO and against aiding Ukraine. Trump also holds anti-NATO views and spouts many things about NATO, that are completely untrue, yet his followers have completely bought into those views too.
In this interview Putin was also playing to bolster support for his war in Ukraine among the Russian people and that’s where his carefully constructed, laborious recitation of his version of Russian history comes in – he goes to great pains to show the historical legitimacy of Russia’s present claims to Ukraine. The handing Carlson copies of historical documents was a masterstroke of theatrics – sort of “I’m handing you copies of these sacred historical documents.” I tried not to laugh.
Americans have to be pretty gullible to buy into this, but so many seem to despise Democrats and the corruption within the US government so much that they’re willing to trust a Russian despot, who has his political enemies murdered, without hesitation. Sadly, it seems most Americans don’t understand how the Soviet Union seized control of Eastern Europe after World War II and they’ve forgotten all the lessons of the Cold War. Putin hasn’t forgotten the Cold War though, because as a KGB agent, he was an active player and true believer in the Soviet Union.
It was hilarious how Putin had rehearsed all these ancient historical details to sell legitimacy that Ukraine is really part of Russia, but when Carlson asked him which president he was referring to when Putin was talking about a conversation with an American president, Putin wouldn’t say which president said that. Yet, he went into excruciating detail on the ancient Russian origin story… but with the modern history that’s really relevant – it was vagueness.
Putin can’t say, that after watching Biden’s withdrawal debacle in Afghanistan and seeing America retreating in such an embarrassing manner, it was a very opportune time to try a bold military action – a decapitation of the government in Kiev military effort. Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was intended to be carried out swiftly – in a few days, Putin expected Kiev to fall and he expected Western Europe and especially the Biden WH to not be able to aid Ukraine quickly. None of that turned out the way Putin intended. Obama had not responded when Putin seized Ukrainian territory in 2014 and it’s understandable that Putin expected Biden to waffle too. Anyone who believes Putin is a peacemaker is a fool.
Americans who buy into this will be in for a rude awakening I fear, because China, Russia and Iran are preparing to launch more bold military actions and many of them will be asymmetrical – like China hacking our infrastructure. They aren’t into peacemaking – they’re setting the stage for wider war. China has been building artificial islands in the South China Sea to expand China’s military reach in the region for years. Here’s a March 20, 2022 article from The Telegraph: China has fully militarized three islands in South China Sea, US admiral says. China, Russia and Iran have also expanded both their economic and military reach in Central and South America – all the way into Mexico.
Wake-up America!
Iran is arming proxies, who are attacking American forces daily.
I’ve heard a lot of isolationist sentiment on the right in America and Trump amplifies that, even though he did authorize military attacks while president. It’s become popular on the right to be isolationist and some Americans want all American troops home, which would quickly place America into being irrelevant on the world stage and it would quickly lead to Americans’ standard of living plummeting even worse than it is now, as world shipping lanes would then be controlled by China, Russia and other rogue actors. Say good-bye to dollar stores. There seems to be zero comprehension that American military forces around the globe provide security for international shipping lanes. Yes, we should secure our own borders, but that doesn’t mean we should just retreat from the world.
Putin invaded Ukraine, because he didn’t expect the Biden administration and Europe to respond. He’s got more territorial aspirations too.
I’ll try to listen to the rest of this interview later, but the first half was something else – carefully constructed propaganda designed to turn Trump supporting Americans against the American government… and to sell the war in Ukraine to war-weary Russians.
2/11/2-24: I did a little bit of editing and added some thought to this post this morning – post-publication.
libertybelle diaries 
I think there is a lot more to the Ukraine/Russian conflict than we as a nation in the US understand. That’s why I think we need to stay out of it and protect/close our own borders. Putin is an incredibly intelligent individual, Tucker is just another pawn. I’m at the point where if the republican establishment loves someone (like Tucker, Elon, Trump…) I don’t trust them. But I also don’t think that the USA as a nation is going to survive much past our 250th anniversary.
I agree that Putin is very intelligent. He’s also very ruthless.
I hope the USA, as a nation, weathers these brewing storms, for my grandkids sake.
Me too for my own children.
Candidly I’m not getting too worked up over this latest interview. Of course that may be due to my not being regularly inundated by much (except radio) media. I do recall Shakespeare having some fellow – best of recollection tells me The Tempest – and something something “Makes strange bedfellows.”
Truthfully, JK, I don’t understand the European and liberal media meltdown about Tucker’s interview, other than Tucker has a huge audience. . Putin, was being Putin and Tucker fared just like other American politicians and journalists do dealing with him. Putin sticks to the prepared Kremlin script, so there’s never any earth-shattering news when he is interviewed by Westerners.
Putin still operates like a tightly-scripted product of the Kremlin and his performance was pretty predictable. Tucker fared like the rest – he didn’t get any answers, except what Putin had prepared in advance.
“Tucker fared like the rest – he didn’t get any answers, except what Putin had prepared in advance.”
Hard to disagree with that assessment.