Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson announced Tuesday that he is interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Carlson made the announcement in a video posted to social media from Moscow.
The interview would be Putin's first with an American journalist since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Carlson, who became Fox News' most popular personality after replacing Bill O’Reilly in Fox’s prime-time lineup several years ago, parted ways with the network last year just days after it reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in a defamation lawsuit related to the network's 2020 election coverage. He since launched his own streaming service and broadcasts his show on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Since leaving Fox, Carlson has conducted interviews with former President Donald Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Argentinian President Javier Milei.
In his video Tuesday, Carlson launched numerous broadsides on American media outlets for what he described as a pro-Ukraine bias.
"Since the day the war in Ukraine began, American media outlets have spoken to scores of people from Ukraine, and they have done scores of interviews with Ukrainian President Zelensky,” he said. "We ourselves have put in a request for an interview with Zelensky and we hope he accepts, but the interviews he’s already done in the United States are not traditional interviews, they are fawning pep sessions" which he baselessly claimed are designed to amplify the Ukrainian leader's request for more U.S. aid.
"That is not jounalism. It is government propaganda, propaganda of the ugliest kind," he charged, before going on to describe U.S. politicians and media outlets of "promoting [Zelenskyy] like he's a new consumer brand."
"Not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin,” he continued. “Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now. You’ve never heard his voice. That’s wrong. Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in and we have the right to tell them about it because we are Americans too."
The former Fox News host said he would share the interview "unedited" on his website.
"We are not encouraging you to agree with what Putin may say in this interview," Carlson said. "But we are urging you to watch it. You should know as much as you can, and then like a free citizen and not a slave, you can decide for yourself."