(ConservativeSense.com) – Following the much-anticipated and controversial interview with Tucker Carlson, some Russian media had to do some damage control to correct a few mistakes uttered by President Vladimir Putin and to downplay unsavory moments.
On Tuesday, Feb. 6, Carlson went to Russia and sat down with Putin to have a long-form interview. The roughly two-hour conversation was released on Thursday, Feb. 8, stirring up quite a bit of controversy as many criticized Carlson for wanting to speak with the Russian president after his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Some believed the former Fox News anchor did not do enough to challenge Putin.
With the war entering its third year, the interview was the first conducted with Putin by a Western journalist since the conflict began. During the interview, Carlson was subjected to a long Russian history lesson when asked about why he decided to invade his neighbor, but it seems Putin made a few errors. Russian media also cut out some interjections by Carlson, as well as a segment of the interview where Putin mentioned German dictator Adolf Hitler.
At one point during the interview, Putin was asked about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and whether or not he believed Zelensky had “the freedom to negotiate a resolution” to the conflict. Putin said it was “difficult” for him to judge and then stated that Zelensky’s father fought “the fascists” and “the Nazis” in World War II. Putin said one of the reasons he invaded was to purge the country of Nazis, who are allegedly present in the Ukrainian military and have an influence on their government. Kyiv has denied these accusations, although the existence of the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade is well documented.
Putin then claims he spoke with the Ukrainian president and asked what he was doing and why he supports “neo-Nazis in Ukraine today” when his father “fought against fascism” in the past, stating that Zelensky’s father was a “front-line soldier.” This turned out to be a mistake, as the Ukrainian president’s father wasn’t born until 1947 when the war was already over. It seems Putin confused Zelensky’s father with his grandfather, who did, indeed, fight against Germany, according to Russian media outlet Agentstvo.
The Kremlin initially retained the word “father” in the transcript but then later changed it to “grandfather” the following morning after the broadcast aired, covering up Putin’s mistake. The Kremlin showed “an already censored version” of Putin’s words, which also omitted a few other moments they considered to be unsavory.
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