Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview that aired on Thursday that Russia would fight for its interests “to the end,” but has no interest in expanding its war in Ukraine to other countries such as Poland and Latvia.
In his first interview with an American journalist since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, Putin said that Western leaders had come to realize it was impossible inflict a strategic defeat on Russia and were wondering what to do next.
“We are ready for this dialogue,” he said.
Photo: AFP
Putin also said he believed it was possible to reach an agreement to free US journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal, who has been detained in Russia for nearly a year and is awaiting trial on spying charges.
Putin made the comments in a more than two-hour interview with conservative talk-show host Tucker Carlson which was conducted in Moscow on Tuesday and aired on tuckercarlson.com.
Asked if he could imagine a scenario in which he would send Russian troops to Poland, a NATO member, Putin said: “Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia. Why? Because we have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don’t have any interest.”
Putin spoke in Russian and his remarks were dubbed into English. He began with lengthy remarks about Russia’s relations with Ukraine, Poland and other countries.
He devoted a substantial part of the interview to complaining that Ukraine had been on the verge of agreeing a deal to end hostilities at talks in Istanbul in April 2022, but backed away, he said, once Russian troops withdrew from near Kyiv.
“Well now let them think how to reverse the situation,” he said. “We’re not against it. It would be funny if it were not so sad that. This endless mobilization in Ukraine, the hysteria, the domestic problems, sooner or later it will result in an agreement.”
The Russian leader said the US had pressing domestic issues to worry about.
“Wouldn’t it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement. Already understanding the situation that is developing today, realizing that Russia will fight for its interests to the end,” Putin said.
Washington, which has sent Ukraine more than US$110 billion in aid since Russia invaded in February 2022, has made clear it has no interest in talking on Putin’s terms
Putin said that Russian and US special services were discussing the Gershkovich case and had made some progress.
Putin suggested that in return, Moscow wanted Germany to free Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted of the 2019 murder of a Chechen dissident in Berlin, although he did not mention Krasikov by name.
“There have been many successful examples of these talks crowned with success,” Putin said. “Probably this is going to be crowned with success as well, but we have to come to an agreement.”
The Kremlin said Putin agreed to the Carlson interview because the approach of the former Fox News host differed from the “one-sided” reporting of the Ukraine conflict by many Western news outlets.
Carlson is considered to have close connections to Trump, who is expected to be the Republican Party candidate in the November US presidential election.
Complaining about the billions of dollars in aid sent to Kyiv so far, Trump has called for a de-escalation of the war in Ukraine, in which the Biden administration has strongly backed the Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government.
For his part, Carlson has said much Western media coverage of the war is biased in Kyiv’s favor.
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