Exclusive: Tucker Carlson Interviews Vladimir Putin

0:00 the following is an interview with the president of Russia Vladimir Putin shot February 6 2024 to about 700 p.m. in the building behind us which is of course the Kremlin the interview as you will see if you watch it is primarily about the war in progress the war in Ukraine how it started what's happening and most presently how it might end one note before you watch at the beginning the interview we asked the most obvious question which is why did you do this did you feel a threat an imminent physical threat and that's your justification and the answer we got shocked us Putin went on for a very long time probably half an hour about the history of Russia going back to the 8th century and honestly we thought this was a filibustering technique and found it

0:46 annoying and interrupted him several times and he responded he was annoyed uh by the interruption but we concluded in the end for what it's worth that it was not a filibustering technique there was no time limit on the interview we ended it after more than 2 hours instead what you're about to see seemed to us sincere whether you agree with it or not Vladimir Putin believes that Russia has a historic claim to parts of Western Ukraine so our opinion would be to view it in that light as a sincere expression of what he thinks and with that here it is Mr President thank you on February 22nd 2022 you addressed your country in a nationwide address when the conflict in Ukraine started and you said that you were acting because you had come to the

1:32 conclusion that the United States through NATO might initiate a quote surprise attack on our country and to American years that sounds paranoid tell us why you believe the United States might strike Russia out of the blue how did you conclude that it's not that America the United States was going to launch a surprise strike on Russia I didn't say that are we having a talk show or a serious conversation here's the quote thank you it's a formidable serious because your basic education is in history as far as I understand

2:20 yes so if you don't mind I will take only 30 seconds or 1 minute to give you a short reference to history for giving you a little historical backgr please let's look where our relationship with Ukraine started from where did Ukraine come from the Russian State started Gathering itself as a centralized statehood and it is considered to be the year of the establishment of the Russian state in 862 when the town's people of no invited a varangian prince rurick from Scandinavia

3:05 Terrain in 1862 Russia celebrated the 1,000th anniversary of its statehood and in no there is a Memorial dedicated to the 1,000th anniversary of the country in 882 roric successor Prince Oleg who was actually playing the role of regent at ruri's young son because ruri had died by that time came to Kia he asked two brothers who apparently had one's been members of ruri's squad so Russia began to develop with

3:52 two centers of power Kev and novaro the next very significant date in the history of Russia was 988 this was the baptism of Russia when Prince Vladimir the great grandson of ruri baptized Russia and adopted Orthodoxy or Eastern Christianity from this time the centralized Russian state began to strengthen why because of the single territory integrated economic ties one and the same language and after the baptism of Russia the same faith and Rule of the prince the centralized Russian state began to take

4:39 shape back in the Middle Ages Prince yaroslav the wise introduced the order of succession to a trone but after he passed away it became complicated for various reasons the trone was passed not Direct ly from father to eldest son but from the prince who had passed away to his brother then to his sons in different lines all this led to the fragmentation and the end of rose as a single state there was nothing special about it the same was happening then in

5:26 Europe but the fragmented Russian state became an pre to the Empire created earlier by King ishan his successors namely batan came to Rose plundered and ruined nearly all the cities the southern part including Kiev by the way and some other cities simply lost Independence while Northern cities preserved some of their sovereignty they had to pay tribute to The Horde but they managed to preserve some part of their sovereignty and then a unified Russian state began to take shape with its Center in Moscow the southern part of Russian lands including

6:11 Kiev began to gradually gravitate towards another magnet the center that was emerging in Europe This was the Grand duy of Lithuania it was even called the Lithuanian Russian duche because Russians were a significant part of this population they spoke the old Russian language and were Orthodox but then there was a unification the union of the grand duy of Lithuania and the kingdom of Poland a few years later another Union was signed but this time already in the religious sphere some of the Orthodox priests

6:57 became subordinate to the pope th thus these lands became part of the Polish Lithuanian State during decades the poles were engaged in polonization of this part of the population they introduced their language there tried to entrench the idea that this population was not exactly Russians that because they lived on the French they were ukrainians originally the word Ukrainian meant that the person was living on the outskirts of the state along the fringes or was engaged in a border patrol service it didn't mean any particular ethnic group so the polls were trying

7:44 to in every possible way to poize this part of the Russian lands and actually treated it rather harshly not to say cruy all that led to the fact that this part of the Russian lands began to struggle for their rights they wrote letters to Warsaw demanding that their rights be observed and people be commissioned here including to KF I beg your pardon can you tell us what period I'm losing track of where in history we are the Polish oppression of ukra it was in the 13th century now I will tell you what happened later

8:30 and give the dates so that there is no confusion and in 1654 even a bit earlier the people who were in control of the authority over that part of the Russian lands TR waro I repeat demanding that they sent them to rulers of Russian origin and Orthodox faith when Warsaw did not answered them and in fact rejected their demands they turned to Moscow so that Moscow took them away so that you don't think that I'm inventing

9:17 things I'll give you these documents well I I it doesn't sound like you're inventing and I'm not sure why it's relevant to what happened two years ago but still these are documents from the archives copies here are the letters from bdan hitz the man who then controlled the power in this part of the Russian lands that is now called Ukraine he wrote to Warsaw demanding that their rights be upheld and after being refused he began to write letters to Moscow asking to take them under the strong hand of the Moscow SAR there are copies of these documents I will leave them for your good memory there is a translation into Russian you

10:04 can translate it into English later Russia would not agree to admit them straight away assuming that the war with Poland would start nevertheless in 1654 the pun Russian assembly of top clergy and land owners headed by the SAR which was the representative body of the power of the old Russian State decided to include a part of the old Russian lands into Moscow Kingdom as expected the war with Poland began it lasted 13 years and then in 1654 a truce was concluded and 32 years later I think a peace treaty with Poland which they

10:50 called Eternal peace was signed and these lands the whole Left Bank of Neer including Kia went to Russia and the whole right Bank of Nipper remained in Poland under the rule of Catherina the great Russia reclaimed all of its historical lands including in the South and West this all lasted until the revolution before World War I Austrian general staff relied on the ideas of Ukrainian isation and started actively promoting the ideas of Ukraine and the Ukrainian their motive was obvious just before

11:37 World War I they wanted to weaken the potential enemy and secure themselves favorable conditions in the Border area so the idea which had emerged in Poland that people residing in that territory were allegedly not really Russians but rather belonged to a special ethnic group ukrainians started being propagated by the Austrian general staff as far back as the 19th century theorists calling for Ukrainian Independence appeared all those however claimed that Ukraine should have a very good relationship with Russia they insisted on that after the 1917

12:24 Revolution the biks sought to restore the statehood and the civil War Began including the hostilities with Poland in 1921 peace with Poland was proclaimed and under that treaty the right Bank of Nipper River once again was given back to Poland in 1939 after Poland cooperated with Hitler he did collaborate with Hitler you know Hitler offered Poland peace and a treaty of friendship an alliance demanding in return that Poland gave back to Germany the so-called dancing caror which

13:11 connected the bulk of Germany with East Prussia and CSG after World War I this territory was transferred to Poland and instead of Danzig a city of dun emerged Hitler asked them to give it amicably but they refused of course still they collaborated with Hitler and engaged together in the partitioning of Czechoslovakia but may ask you you're making the case that that Ukraine certainly parts of Ukraine eastern Ukraine is in effect Russia has been for hundreds of years why wouldn't you just

13:57 take it when you became president 24 years ago you have nuclear weapons they don't if it's actually your land why did you wait so long sure I'll tell you I'm coming to that this briefing is coming to an end it might be boring but it explains many things I just don't know how it's relevant good I'm so gratified that you appreciate that thank you so before World War II Poland collaborated with Hitler and although it did not yield to Hitler's demands it still participated in the partitioning of Czechoslovakia together with Hitler as the polls had not given the daning corridor to Germany had went Soo far

14:42 pushing Hitler to start World War I by attacking them why was it Poland against whom the war started on 1st September 1939 Poland turned out to be uncompromising and Hitler had nothing to do but start implementing his plans with Poland by the way the USSR I have read some archived documents behaved very honestly it asked Poland's permission to Transit its troops through the Polish territory to help chos Slovakia but the then polish foreign minister said that if the Soviet plans flew over Poland they would be downed over the territory of Poland but that doesn't matter what

15:29 matters is that the War Began and Poland felt prey to the policies it had pursued against Czechoslovakia as under the well-known molotto ribbon trop PCT part of the territory including Western Ukraine was to be given to Russia thus Russia which was then named as USSR regained its historical land after the victory in the Great Patriotic War as we call World War II all those territories were ultimately enshrined as belonging to Russia to the USSR as for Poland it received apparently in compensation the lands which had originally being

16:19 German the Eastern parts of Germany these are now Western lands of Poland of course Poland regained access to the Baltic Sea and danzik which was once again given its polish name so this was how this situation developed in 1922 when the USSR was being established the bik started building the USSR and established the Soviet Ukraine which had never existed before right Stalin insisted that those republics be included in the USSR

17:05 as autonomous entities for some inexplicable reason Lenin the founder of the Soviet state insisted that they be entitled to withdraw from the USSR again for some unknown reasons he transferred to that newly established Soviet Republic of Ukraine some of the lands together with people living there even though those lands had never been called Ukraine and yet they were made part of that Soviet Republic of Ukraine those lands included the Black Sea region which was received under Catherina the great and which had no historical connection with Ukraine whatsoever even if we go as far back as

17:53 1654 when these lands returned to Russian Empire that ter was the size of three to four regions of modern Ukraine with no Black Sea region that was completely out of the question in 1654 exactly well I'm just you obviously have encyclopedic knowledge of this region but why didn't you make this case for the first 22 years as president that Ukraine wasn't a real country the Soviet Union was given a great deal of territory that had never belonged to it including the Black Sea region at some point when Russia received them as an outcome of the Russo

18:40 Turkish Wars they were called new Russia or no Ria but that does not matter what matters is that Lenin the founder of the Soviet state established Ukraine that way for decades the Ukrainian Soviet Republic developed as part of the USSR and for unknown reasons again the Bolsheviks were engaged in Ukrainian isation it was not merely because the Soviet leadership was composed to a great extent of those originating from rather it was explained by the general policy of indigenization pursued by the Soviet Union same things were done in other Soviet republics this involved promoting national languages and

19:26 National cultures which which is not bad in principle that is how the Soviet Ukraine was created after the World War II Ukraine received in addition to the lands that had belonged to Poland before the war part of the lands that had previously belonged to Hungary and Romania so Romania and Hungary had some of their lands taken away and given to the Soviet Ukraine and they still remain part of Ukraine so in this sense we have every reason to affirm that Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped at st's will do you believe Hungary has a right to take its land back from Ukraine and that other nations have a right to go back to their 1654 borders I'm not sure whether they should

20:13 go back to the 1654 borders but given Stalin's time so-called Stalin's regime which as many claim saw numerous violations of human rights and violations of the rights of other states one may say that they could claim back those lands of theirs while having no right to do that it is at least understandable have you told Victor Orban that he can have part of Ukraine never I have never told him not a single time

20:59 we have not even had any conversation on that but I actually know for sure that hungarians who live there wanted to get back to their historical land moreover I would like to share a very interesting story with you I digress it's a personal one somewhere in the early 80s I went on a road trip in a car from then lenning R across the Soviet Union through Kiev made a stop in Kiev and then went to Western Ukraine I went to the town of bavo and all the names of towns and Villages there were in Russian and in

21:44 the language I did not understand in Hungarian in Russian and in Hungarian not in Ukrainian in Russian and in Hungarian I was driving through some kind of village and there were were men sitting next to the houses and they were wearing black three-piece suits and black cylinder hats I asked are they some kind of entertainers I was told no they were not entertainers they're hungarians I said what are they doing here what do you mean this is their land they live here this was during the Soviet time in the 1980s they preserved the Hungarian language Hungarian names and all their National costumes they are hungarians and they feels to be hungarians and of course when now there

22:31 is an infringement well that that is and there's a lot of that though I think many nations they're upset about Transylvania as well as you obviously know but many nations feel frustrated by the redrawn borders of the wars of the 20th century and Wars going back A Thousand Years the ones that you mentioned but the fact is that you didn't make this case in public until two years ago February and in the case that you made which I read today just you you explain at Great length that you felt a physical threat from the West in NATO including potentially a nuclear threat and that's what got you to move is that a fair characterization of what you said I understand that my long speeches

23:16 probably fall outside of the genre of the interview that is why I asked you at the beginning are we going to have a serious talk or a show you said a serious talk so bear with me please we're coming to the point where the Soviet Ukraine was established then in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and everything that Russia had generously bestowed on Ukraine was dragged Away by the ladder I'm coming to a very important point of today's agenda thank you after all the collapse of the Soviet Union was effectively initiated by the Russian

24:03 leadership I do not understand what the Russian leadership was Guided by at the time but I suspect there were several reasons to think everything would be fine first I think that then Russian leadership believed that the fundamentals of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine were in fact a common language more than 90% of the population there spoke Russian Family Ties every third person there had some kind of family or friendship ties common culture common history finally common Faith coexistence with a single state for centuries and

24:49 deeply interconnected economies all of these were so fundamental all these elements together make our good relationships inevitable the second point is a very important one I want you as an American citizen and your viewers to hear about this as well the former Russian leadership assumed that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and therefore there were no longer any ideological dividing lines Russia even agreed voluntarily and proactively to the collapse of the Soviet Union and believed that this would be

25:35 understood by the socalled Civilized West as an invitation for cooperation and Association that is what Russia was expecting both from the United States and the so-called Collective West as a whole there were smart people including in Germany Egon bar a major politician of the Social Democratic party who insisted in his personal conversations with the Soviet leadership on the brink of the collapse of the Soviet Union that a new security system should be established in Europe help should be given to unify Germany but a new system should be also established to include the United States Canada Russia and other central European

26:22 countries yes but NATO needs not to expand that's said if NATO expands everything would be just the same as during the Cold War only closer to Russia's borders that's all he was a wise old man but no one listened to him in fact he got angry once if he said you don't listen to me I'm never setting my foot in Moscow once again everything happened just as he had said well it of course it did did come true and I and you've mentioned this many times I think it's a fair point and many in America thought that relations between Russia and the United States would be fine with the collapse of the

27:08 Soviet Union the end of the Cold War that the opposite happened but you've never explained why you think that happened except to say that the West fears a strong Russia but we have a strong China the West does not seem very afraid of uh what about Russia do you think convinced policy makers they had to take it down the West is afraid of strong China more than it fears a strong Russia because Russia has 150 million people and China has 1.5 billion population and its economy is growing by Leaps and Bounds or 5% a year it used to be even more but that's enough for China as Bismark once put it potentials are the

27:53 most important China's potential is enormous it is the big biggest economy in the world today in terms of purchasing power parity and the size of the economy it has already overtaken the United States quite a long time ago and it is growing at a rapid clip let's not talk about who is afraid of whom let's not reason in such terms and let's get into the fact that after 1991 when Russia expected that it would be welcomed into the brotherly family of civilized Nations nothing like this happened you trick this I don't mean you personally when I say you of course I'm talking about the United States the promise was that NATO would not expand Eastward but it happened five times there were five waves of expansion we

28:38 tolerated all that we were trying to persuade them we were saying please don't we are as Bourgeois now as you are we are market economy and there is no Communist Party power let's negotiate moreover I have also said this publicly before there was a moment when a certain Rift started growing between us before that Hilson came to the United States remember he spoke in Congress and said the good words God Bless America everything he said were signals let us in remember the developments in Yugoslavia before the Yim was lavished with praise as soon as the developments in Yugoslavia started he raised his voice in support of serbs

29:25 and we couldn't but raise our voices or serbs in their defense I understand that there were complex processes under way there I do but Russia could not help raising its voice in support of serbs because serbs are also a special and close to us nation with Orthodox culture and so on it's a nation that has suffered so much for Generations well regardless what is important is that yelton expressed his support what did the United States do in violation of an international law and the UN Charter it started bombing being Belgrade it was the United States that led the genie out of the bottle moreover when Russia protested and expressed its resentment what was said the UN Charter and international law have become obsolete now everyone

30:13 invokes international law but at that time they started saying that everything was outdated everything had to be changed indeed some things need to be changed as the balance of power has changed it's true but not in this man Elon was immediately dragged through the mud accused of alcoholism of understanding nothing of knowing nothing he understood everything I assure you well I became president in 2000 I thought okay the Yugoslav issue is over but we should try to restore relations let's reopen the door that Russia had tried to go through and moreover I said it publicly I can reiterate at a meeting here in the

30:58 Kremlin with the outgoing President Bill Clinton right here in the next room I said to him I asked him Bill do you think if Russia asked to join NATO do you think it would happen suddenly he said you know it's interesting I think so but in the evening when we met for dinner he said you know I've talked to my team now no it's not possible now you can ask him I think he will watch our interview he'll confirm it I wouldn't have said anything like that if it hadn't happened okay were you sincere impossible now would you have

31:44 joined look I asked the question is it possible or not and the answer I got was no if I was ins sincere in my desire to find out what the leadership position was but if he had said yes would you have joined NATO if he had said yes the process of reproach would have commenced and eventually it might have happened if we had seen some sincere wish on the other side of our partners but it didn't happen well no means no okay fine why do you think that is just to get to motive I know you're clearly bitter about it um I understand but why do you think the West rebuffed you then why the hostility why did the end of the Cold War not fix

32:29 the relationship what motivates this from your point of view you said I was bitter about the answer no it's not bitterness it's just a statement of fact we're not bride and groom bitterness resentment it's not about those kind of matters in such circumstances we just realized we weren't welcome there that's all okay fine but let's let's build relations in another manner let's work for common ground elsewhere why we receive such a Negative response you should ask your leaders I can only guess why too big a country with its own opinion and so on and the United States I've seen how issues are

33:15 being resolved in NATO I will give you another example now concerning Ukraine the US leadership exerts pressure and all members obediently vote even if they do not like something now I'll tell you what happened in disregard with Ukraine in 2008 although it's being discussed I'm not going to open a secret to you say anything new nevertheless after that we try to build relations in different ways for example the events in the Middle East in Iraq we were building relations with the United States in a very soft prudent cautious manner I repeatedly raised the

34:02 issue that the United States should not support separatism or terrorism in the north Caucasus but they continue to do it anyway and political support information support financial support even Military Support came from the United States and its satellites for terrorist groups in the Caucasus I once raised this issue with my colleague also the president of the United States he says it's impossible do you have proof I said yes I was prepared for this conversation and I gave him that proof he looked at it and you know what he said I apologize but that's what happened I'll quote he says well I'm

34:48 going to kick their ass we waited and waited for some response there was no reply I said said to the FSB director write to the CIA what is the result of the conversation with President he wrote once twice and then we got a reply we have the answer in the archive the CIA replied we have been working with the opposition in Russia we believe that this is the right thing to do and we will keep on doing it just ridiculous well okay we realized that it was out of the question forces in opposition to you so you're saying the CIA is trying to overthrow your government of course they meant in that particular case the separatists the

35:35 terrorists who fought with us in the caucuses that's who they called the opposition this is the second point the third moment is a very important one is the moment when the US missile defense system was created the beginning we persuaded for a long time not to do it in United States moreover after was invited by Bush Jr's father Bush senior to visit his place on the ocean I had a very serious conversation with President Bush and his team I proposed that the United States

36:22 Russia and Europe jointly create a missile defense system that we believe if created unilaterally threatens our security despite the fact that the United States officially said that it was being created against missile threats from Iran that was the justification for the deployment of the missile defense system I suggested working together Russia the United States and Europe they said it was very interesting they asked me are you serious I said absolutely ask what year was this I don't remember it is easy to find out on the internet when I was in the USA at the invitation of a bush senior it is even

37:08 easier to learn from someone I'm going to tell you about I was told it was very interesting I said just imagine if we could tackle such a global strategic security challenge together the world will change will probably have disputes probably economic and even political ones but we could drastically change the situation in the world he says yes and asks are you serious I said of course we need to think about it I'm I said go ahead please then Secretary of Defense Gates former director of CIA and Secretary of State rice came in here in this cabinet right here at this table they sat on this

37:55 table me the foreign Minister the Russian defense minister on that side they said to me yes we have thought about it we agree I said Thank God great but with some exceptions so twice you've described US presidents making decisions and then being undercut by their agency heads so it sounds like you're describing a system that's not run by the people who are elected in your telling that's right that's right in the end they just told us to get lost I'm not going to tell you the details because I think it's incorrect after all it was confidential conversation but our proposal was

38:41 decline that's a fact it was right then when I said look but then we will be forced to take counter measures we will create such strike systems that will certainly overcome missile defense systems the answer was we are not doing this against you and you do what you want assuming that it is not against us not against the United States I said okay very well that's the way it went and we created Hypersonic systems with InterContinental range and we continue to develop them we are now ahead of everyone the United States and the other countries in terms of the development of hypersonic strike systems and we are improving them every day but it wasn't

39:27 we proposed to go the other way and we were pushed back now about NATO's expansion to the east well we were promised no NATO to the east not an inch to the east as we were told and then what they said well it's not enshrined on paper so we'll expand so there were five waves of expansion the Baltic states the whole of Eastern Europe and so on and now I come to to the main thing they have come to do Ukraine ultimately in 2008 at The Summit in Bucharest they declared that the doors for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO were open now about how decisions are made there Germany France seemed to be

40:13 against it as well as some other European countries but then as it turned out later President Bush and he's such a tough guy a tough politician as I was told later he exert pressure on us and we had to agree it's ridiculous it's like kindergarten where are the guarantees what kindergarten is this what kind of people are these who are they you see they were pressed they agreed and then they say Ukraine won't be in the NATO you know I say I don't know I know you agreed in 2008 why won't you agree in the future well they pressed us then I say why won't they press you tomorrow and

40:59 you'll agree again well it's nonsensical who's there to talk to I just don't understand we're ready to talk but with who where are the guarantees none so they started to develop the territory of Ukraine whatever is there I have told you the background how this territory developed what kind of relations they were with Russia every second or third person there has always had some ties with Russia and during the elections in already independent Sovereign Ukraine which gained its independence as a result of the Declaration of Independence and by the way it says that Ukraine is a neutral State and in 2008 suddenly the doors or gates to Nato were

41:46 opened to it oh come on this is not how we agreed now all the presidents that have come to power in Ukraine they relied on electorate with a good attitude to Russia in one way or the other this is the southeast of Ukraine this is a large number of people and it was very difficult to disuade this electorate which had a positive attitude towards Russia Victor yanukovich came to power and how the first time he won after president kuchma they organized the third round which is not provided for in the con tion of Ukraine this is a cud just imagine someone in the United States wouldn't

42:33 like the outcome in 2014 before that no this was before that after president kuchma Victor yanukovich won the elections however his opponents did not recognize that Victory the US supported the opposition and the third round was scheduled what is this this is a c the US supported it and the winner of the third round came to power imagine if in the US something was not to someone's liking and the third round of election which the US Constitution does not provide for was organized nonetheless it was done in Ukraine okay Victor yushenko who was considered a pro Western politician came to

43:19 power fine we have built relations with him as well he came to Moscow with visits we visited KF I visited Sue we met in an informal setting if he's Pro Western so be it it's fine let people do their job the situation should have developed inside independent Ukraine itself as a result of kma's leadership things got worse and Victor yanukovich came to power after all maybe he wasn't the best president and politician I don't know I don't want to give assessments however the issue of the association with the EU came up we have always been lenient to this

44:04 suit yourself but when we read through the Treaty of Association it turned out to be a problem for us since we had the free trade zone and open Customs borders with Ukraine which under this Association had to open its borders for Europe which could have led to flooding of our Market we said no this is not going to work we shall close our borders with Ukraine then the Customs borders that is yanukovich started to calculate how much Ukraine was going to gain how much to lose and said to his European Partners I need more time to think before signing the moment he said that the opposition began to take destructive steps which were supported by the West

44:49 it all came down to maidan and a coup in Ukraine so he did more trained with Russia than with with the EU Ukraine did of course it's not even the matter of trade volume although for the most part it is it is the matter of cooperation size which the entire Ukrainian economy was based on the cooperation size between the Enterprises were very close since the times of the Soviet Union One Enterprise there used to produce components to be assembled both in Russia and Ukraine and vice versa used to be very close ties a was committed although I shall not delve into details now as I find

45:34 doing it inappropriate the US told us calm yanukovich down and we will calm the opposition let the situation unfold in the scenario of a political settlement we said all right agreed let's do it this way as the Americans requested yanukovich did use neither the Armed Forces nor the police yet the armed opposition committed a coup in Kev what is that supposed to mean who do you think you are I wanted to ask the then us leadership with the backing of whom with the backing of CIA of course the organization you wanted to join back in the day as I

46:21 understand we should thank God they didn't let you in although it is a serious organization I understand my former viav in the sense that I served in the first main directorate Soviet Union's intelligence service they have always been our opponents a job is a job technically they did everything right they achieved their goal of changing the government however from political standpoint it was a colossal mistake surely it was political leadership's miscalculation they should have seen what it would evolve into so in 2008 the doors of NATO were open for Ukraine in 2014 there was a

47:09 coup they started persecuting those who did not accept the coup and it was indeed the coup they created a threat to Crimea which we had to take under our protection they launched a war in dunas in 2014 with the use of aircraft and artillery against civilians this is when it all started there is a video of aircraft attacking donet from above they launched a large scale military operation then another one when they failed they started to prepare the next one all this against the background of military development of this territory and opening of NATO's doors how could we not express concern

47:56 over what was happening from our side this would have been a culpable negligence that's what it would have been it's just that the US political leadership pushed us to the line we could not cross because doing so could have ruined Russia itself besides we could not leave our brothers in faith in fact a part of Russian people in the face of this war machine what was the so but that was eight years before the current conflict started so what was the trigger for you what was the moment where you decided you had to do this conf is initially it was the coup

48:43 in Ukraine that provoked the conflict by the way back then the representatives of three European countries Germany Poland and France arrived they were the guarantors of to signed agreement between the government of yanukovich and the opposition they signed it as guarantors despite that the opposition committed a coup and all these countries pretended that they didn't remember that they were guarantors of the peaceful settlement they just threw it in the Stow right away and nobody recalls that I don't know if the us know anything about the agreement between the opposition and the authorities and it's three guarantors who instead of bringing this whole situation back in the

49:30 political field supported the goou although it was meaningless believe me because president yanukovich agreed to all conditions he was ready to hold an early election which he had no chance of winning Frankly Speaking everyone knew that then why the coup why the victims why threatening Crimea why launching an operation in dunas this this I do not understand that is exactly what the miscalculation is Cia did its job to complete the coup I think one of the Deputy secretaries of State said that it cost a large sum of money almost 5 billion but the political mistake was

50:15 colossal why would they have to do that all this could have been done legally without victims without military action without losing Crimea we would have never considered to even lift a finger if it hadn't been for the bloody developments on maidan because we agreed with the fact that after the collapse of the Soviet Union our borderers should be along the borders of former Union's republics we agreed to that but we never agreed to NATO's expansion and moreover we never agreed that Ukraine would be in NATO we did not agree to Nato bases there without any discussion with us for decades we kept asking don't do this

51:02 don't do that and what triggered the latest events firstly the current Ukrainian leadership declared that it would not implement the Minsk agreements which had been signed as you know after the events of 2014 in Minsk where the plan of peaceful settlement in dbas was set forth but no the current Ukrainian leadership foreign minister all other officials and then president himself said that they don't like anything about the Minsk agreements in other words they were not going to implement it a year or a year and a half ago former leaders of Germany and France

51:48 said openly to the whole world that they indeed signed the Minsk agreements but they never intended to implement them they simply let us by the nose was there anyone free to talk to did you call a US president secretary of state and say if you keep militarizing Ukraine with NATO forces this is going to get good this is going to be a we're going to act we talked about this all the time we addressed the United States and European countries leadership to stop these developments immediately to implement the Minsk agreements Frankly Speaking I didn't know how we were going to do this but I was ready to implement them these

52:35 agreements were complicated for Ukraine they included lots of elements of those donbas territories Independence that's true however I was absolutely confident and I'm saying this to you now I honestly believe that if we managed to convince the residents of dbas and we had to work hard to to convince them to return to the Ukrainian statehood then gradually the wounds would start to heal when this part of territory reintegrated itself into common social environment when the pensions and social benefits were paid again all the pieces would gradually fall into place no nobody wanted that everybody wanted to resolve the issue by military

53:21 force only but we could not let that happen and the situation got to the point when the Ukrainian side announced no we will not do anything they also started preparing for military action it was they who started the war in 2014 our goal is to stop this war and we did not start this war in 2022 this is an attempt to stop it do you think you've stopped it now I mean have you achieved your aims uh no we haven't achieved our aims yet because one of them is the nazification this means the prohibition

54:08 of all kinds of Neo-Nazi movements this is one of the problems that we discussed during the negotiation process which ended in Istanbul early this year and it was not our initiative because we were told by the Europeans in particular that it was necessary to create conditions for the final signing of the documents my counterparts in France and Germany said how can you imagine them signing a treaty with a gun to their heads the troop should be pulled back from Kiev I said all right we withdrew the troops from

54:54 K as soon as we pulled back our troops from Kiev our Ukrainian negotiators immediately through all our agreements reached in istabul into the Ben and got prepared for a longstanding armed confrontation with the help of the United States and its satellites in Europe that is how the situation has developed and that is how it looks now but what is part of my what is densification would that mean that is what I want to talk about right now it is a very important issue

55:41 denazification after gaining independence Ukraine began to search as some Western analysts say it's identity and it came up with nothing better than to build this identity upon some false Heroes who collaborated with Hitler I have already said that in the early 19th century when the theorists of Independence and sovereignty of Ukraine appeared they assumed that an independent Ukraine should have very good relations with Russia due to the historical development

56:27 those territories were part of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth Poland where ukrainians were persecuted and treated quite brutally as well as were subject to cruel Behavior there were also attempts to destroy their identity all this remained in the memory of the people when World War II broke out part of this extremely nationalist Elite collaborated with Hitler believing that he would bring them Freedom the German troops even the SS troops made Hitler's collaborators do the dirtiest work of Exterminating the

57:13 Polish and Jewish population hence this brutal Massacre of the Polish and Jewish population as well as the Russian population too this was led by the persons who are well known Bandera shich it was those people who were made national heroes that is the problem and we are constantly told that nationalism and neo-nazism exist in other countries as well yes they are seedlings but we approved them and other countries fight against them but Ukraine is not the case these people have have been made into national heroes in Ukraine monuments to those

57:58 people have been erected they are displayed on flags their names are shouted by crowds that walk with torches as it was in Nazi Germany these were people who exterminated Poes Jews and Russians it is NE Neary to stop this practice and prevent the dissemination of this concept I say that ukrainians are part of the one Russian people they say no we are a separate people okay fine if they consider themselves a separate people they have the right to do so but not on

58:44 the basis of Nazism the Nazi ideology would you be satisfied with the territory that you have now I will finish answering the question you just asked the question about neo-nazism and the nazification look the president of Ukraine visited Canada this story is well known but being silenced in the Western countries the Canadian Parliament introduced a man who as the speaker of the parliament said fought against the Russians during the World War II well who fought against the Russians during the World War II Hitler and his

59:30 accomplices it turned out that this man served in the SS troops he personally killed Russians Poes and Jews the SS troops consisted of Ukrainian nationalists who did this Dirty Work the president Ukraine stood up with the entire parliament of Canada and applauded this man how can this be imagined the president of Ukraine himself by the way is a Jew by nationality really my question is what do you do about it I mean Hitler's been dead for 80 years Nazi Germany no longer exists and so true and so I think what you're saying is you want to extinguish or at least control Ukrainian nationalism but how how do you do

1:00:19 that watch listen to me your question is very subtle and I can tell you what I think do not take offense of course this question appears to be subtle it is quite pesky you say Hitler has been dead for so many years 80 years but his example lives on people who exterminated Jews Russians polls are alive and the president the current president of today's Ukraine applauds him in the Canadian Parliament gives a standing

1:01:04 ovation can we say that we have completely uprooted this ideology if what we see is happening today that is what the nification is in our understanding we have to get rid of those people who maintain this concept and support this practice and try to preserve it that is what nification is that is what we mean right my question was a little more specific it was of course not a defense of Nazis NE or otherwise it was a practical question you don't control the entire country you don't control Kev you don't seem like you want to so how how do you eliminate a culture or an ideology or feelings or a view of history in a country that you don't control what do you do about

1:01:53 that you know as strange as it may seem to you during the negotiations in Istanbul we did agree that we have it all in writing neo-nazism would not be cultivated in Ukraine including that it would be prohibited at the legislative level Mr Carson we agreed on that this it turns out can be done during the negotiation process and there's nothing humiliating for Ukraine as a modern civilized state is any state allowed to promote Nazism it is not is it that is it um will there be talks and why

1:02:39 haven't there been talks about resolving the conflict in Ukraine peace talks and you they have been they reached a very high stage of coordination of positions in a complex process but still they were almost finalized but after we withdrew our troops from Kiev as I have already said the other side threw away all these agreements and obeyed the instructions of Western countries European countries and the United States to fight Russia to The Bitter End moreover the president y has

1:03:24 legislated a ban on negotiating with Russia he signed a decree forbidding everyone to negotiate with Russia but how are we going to negotiate if he forbade himself and everyone to do this we know that he is putting forward some ideas about the settlement but in order to agree on something we need to have a dialogue is that not right well but you wouldn't be speaking to the Ukrainian president you'd be speaking to the American president president when was the last time you spoke to Joe Biden I cannot remember when I talked to him I do not remember we can look it up you don't remember no why do I have to remember everything I have my own things to do we

1:04:11 have domestic political Affairs well he's funding the war that you're fighting so I would think that would be memorable well yes he funds but I talked to him before the special military operation of course and I said to him then by the way I will not go into details I never do but I said to him then I believe that you are making a huge mistake of historic proportions by supporting everything that is happening there in Ukraine by pushing Russia away I told him told him repeatedly by the way I think that would be correct if I stop here what did he say ask him please it is easier for you you are citizen of the United States go

1:04:57 and ask him it is not appropriate for me to comment on our conversation but but you haven't spoken to him since before February of 2022 no we haven't spoken certain contexts are being maintained though speaking of which do you remember what I told you about my proposal to work together on a missile defense system yes you can ask all of them all of them are safe and sound thank God the former president Kiza is safe and sound and I think Mr Gates and the current director of the intelligence agency Mr Burns the

1:05:46 then ambassador to Russia in my opinion our very successful Ambassador they were all witnesses to these conversations ask them same here if you are interested in what Mr President Biden responded to me ask him at any rate I talk to him about it I'm I'm I'm definitely interested but from the outside it seems like this could devolve or evolve into something that brings the entire world into conflict and could um initiate some a nuclear launch and so why don't you just call Biden and say let's work this out what's there to work out it's very simple I

1:06:32 repeat we have contacts through various agencies I will tell you what we are saying on this matter and what we are conveying to the US leadership if you really want to stop fighting you need to stop supplying weapons it will be over within a few weeks that's it and then we can agree on some terms before you do that stop what's easier why would I call him what should I talk to him about or beg him for what and what messages get back you're going to deliver such and such weapons to Ukraine oh I'm afraid I'm afraid please don't what is there to talk about do you

1:07:17 think NATO is worried about this becoming a global war or a nuclear conflict at least that's what they're talking about and they're trying to intimidate their own population with an imaginary Russian threat this is an obvious fact and thinking people not Philistines but thinking people analysts those who are engaged in real politics just smart people understand perfectly well that this is a fake they're trying to fuel the Russian threat the threat I think you're referring to is a Russian invasion of Poland lvia expansionist behavior is can you imagine a scenario

1:08:03 where you sent Russian troops to Poland only in one case if Poland attacks Russia why because we have no interest in Poland lvia or anywhere else why would we do that we simply don't have any interest it's just threat mongering well the argument I know you know this is that well he invaded Ukraine he has territorial aims across the continent and you're saying unequivocally you don't it is absolutely out of the question you just don't have to be any

1:08:48 kind of analyst it goes against common sense to get involved in some kind of a global war and a global war will bring all Humanity to the brink of Destruction it's obvious there are certainly means of deterrence they have been scaring everyone with us all along tomorrow Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons tomorrow Russia will use that no the day after tomorrow so what in order to extort additional money from us taxpayers and European taxpayers in the confrontation with Russia in the Ukrainian theater a war the goal is to weaken Russia as much

1:09:35 as possible one of uh our senior United States senators from the state of New York Chuck Schumer said yesterday I believe that we have to continue to fund the Ukrainian effort or US soldiers citizen could wind up fighting there how do you assess that this is a provocation and a cheap provocation at that I do not understand why American soldiers should fight in Ukraine there are mercenaries from the United States there the bigger number of mercenaries comes from Poland with mercenaries from

1:10:21 the United States in second place and Mer mercenaries from Georgia in third place well if somebody has the desire to send regular troops that would certainly bring Humanity to the brink of very serious global conflict this is obvious do the United States need this what for thousands of miles away from your national territory don't you have anything better to do you have issues On the Border issues with migration issues with the national debt more than $33 trillion you have nothing better to do so you should fight in Ukraine wouldn't it be better to

1:11:07 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 and realizing this actually return to Common Sense respecting our country and its interests and look for certain Solutions it seems to me that this is much smarter and more rational who blew up nordstream you for sure I was busy that day n do you have do uh I did not blow up north stream uh thank you though you personally may have an Alibi

1:11:54 but the CIA has no such Alibi do you have evidence that NATO or CIA did [Music] it you know I won't get into details but people always say in such cases look for someone who is interested but in this case we should not only look for someone who is interested but also for someone who has capabilities because there may be many people interested but not all of them are capable of sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and carrying out this explosion these two components should be connected who is interested and who is capable of doing it but I'm confused I mean that's the biggest Act of industrial terrorism ever and it's the

1:12:41 largest emission of CO2 in in history okay so if you had evidence and presumably given your Security Services your inel services you would that NATO the US CIA the West did this why wouldn't you present it and win a propaganda victory in the war of propaganda it is very difficult to defeat the United States because the United States controls all the world's media and many European media the ultimate beneficiary of the biggest European media are American financial institutions don't you know that so it is possible to get involved in this work but it is cost prohibitive so to speak we can simply Shine the

1:13:28 spotlight on our sources of information and we will not achieve results it is clear to the whole world what happened and even American analysts talk about it directly it's true yes I but but here's a question you may able to answer you worked in Germany famously um the Germans clearly know that their NATO partner did this but they and it damaged their economy greatly it may never recover why are they being silent about it that's very confusing to me why wouldn't the Germans say something about it this also confuses me but today's German leadership is Guided by the interests of the collective West rather than its national interests otherwise it

1:14:16 is difficult to explain the logic of their action or inaction after all it is not only about northstream 1 which was blown up and the northstream 2 was damaged but one pipe is safe and sound and gas can be Supply to Europe through it but Germany does not open it we're ready please there's another route through Poland called yamal Europe which also allows for large flow Poland has closed it but Poland packs from the German hand it receives money from the pan European funds and Germany is the main donor to these pan European funds Germany feeds Poland to the certain extent and they closed their

1:15:02 route to Germany why I don't understand Ukraine to which the Germans Supply weapons and give money Germany is the second sponsor of the United States in terms of financial aid to Ukraine there are two gas routes through Ukraine they simply closed one route ukrainians open the second route and please get gas from Russia they do not open it why don't the Germans say look guys we give you money and weapons open up the valve please let the gas from Russia pass through for us we're buying liquefied gas at absorbent prices in Europe which brings the level of our

1:15:47 competitiveness and economy in general down to zero do you want us to give give you money let us have the decent existence make money for our economy because this is where the money we give you comes from they refuse to do so why ask them that is what is like in their heads those are highly incompetent people well maybe the world is breaking into two hemispheres one with cheap energy the other without and I want to ask you that if if we're now a multi-polar world obviously we are can you describe the blocks of alliances who who is in each side do you think listen you have said that the

1:16:33 world is breaken into two hemispheres a human brain is divided into two hemispheres one is responsible for one type of activities the other one is more about creativity and so on but it is still one and the same head the world should be a single whole security should be shared rather than a meant for the golden billion that is the only scenario where the world could be stable sustainable and predictable until then while the head is split in two parts it is an illness a serious adverse condition it is a period of severe disease that the world is going through now but I think that thanks to honest

1:17:20 journalism this work is a who work of the doctors this could somehow be remedied well let's just give one example the the US dollar which has kind of United the world uh in a lot of ways maybe not to your advantage but certainly ours is that going away as the reserve currency that the com the universally accepted currency how have sanctions do you think changed the Dollar's place in the world you know to use the dollar as a tool of foreign policy struggle is one of the biggest strategic mistakes made by the US political leadership the dollar is the Cornerstone

1:18:07 of the United States power I think everyone understands very well that no matter how many dollars are printed they are quickly dispersed all over the world inflation in the United States is minimal it's about three or 3.4% which is I think totally acceptable for the us but they won't stop printing what does the debt of $33 trillion tell us about it is about the emission nevertheless it is the main weapon used by the United States to

1:18:54 preserve its power across the world as soon as the political leadership decided to use the US dollar as a tool of political struggle a blow was dealt to this American power I would not like to use any strong language but it is a stupid thing to do and a grave mistake look at what is going on in the world even the United States allies are now downsizing their dollar reserves seeing this everyone starts looking for ways to protect themselves but the fact that the United States applies restrictive measures to certain countries such as placing restrictions on transactions freezing

1:19:41 assets Etc causes great concern and sends a signal to the whole world what did we have here until 2022 about 80 % of Russian foreign trade transactions were made in US Dollars and Euros US Dollars accounted for approximately 50% of our transactions with third countries while currently it is down to 133% it wasn't us who banned the use of the US dollar we had no such intention it decision of the United States to restrict our transactions in US Dollars I think it is complete

1:20:29 foolishness from the point of view of the interest of the United States itself and its taxpayers as it damages the US economy undermines the power of the United States across the world by the way our transactions in Yuan accounted for about 3% today 34% of our transactions are made in Rubles and about as much a little over 34% in Yuan why did the United States do this my only guess is self-conceit they probably thought it would lead to full collapse but nothing collapsed moreover other countries including oil producers are thinking of and already accepting payments for oil

1:21:15 in Yuan do you even realize what is going on or not does anyone in United States realized this what are you doing you cutting yourself off all experts say this ask any intelligent and thinking person in the United States what the dollar means for the US you're killing it with your own hands I think that's a I I think that's a fair assessment the question is what comes next and maybe you trade one colonial power for another much less sentimental forgiving colonial power I mean are is the the bricks for example in danger of being completely dominated by the Chinese the Chinese

1:22:00 economy uh in a way that's not good for their sovereignty do you worry about that we have heard those Boogyman stories before it is a Boogyman story we're neighbors with China you cannot choose neighbors just as you cannot choose close relatives we share a border of thousand kilom with them this is number one second we have a centuries long history of coexistence we're used to it third China's foreign policy philosophy is not aggressive its idea is to always look for compromise and we can see that the next point is as follows we are

1:22:49 always told the same Boogeyman story and here here it goes again through an euphemistic form but it is still the same Boogyman story The cooperation with China keeps increasing the pace at which China's cooperation with Europe is growing is higher and greater than that of the growth of Chinese Russian cooperation ask Europeans aren't they afraid they might be I don't know but they are still trying to access China's Market at all costs especially now that they are facing economic problems Chinese businesses are also exploring the European market do Chinese businesses have small presence in the United States yes the

1:23:35 political decisions are such that they are trying to limit their cooperation with China it is to your own detriment Mr Tucker that you are limiting cooperation with China you're hurting yourself it is a delicate matter and there are no Silver Bullet solution tions just as it is with the dollar so before introducing any illegitimate sanctions illegitimate in terms of the charter of the United Nations one should think very carefully for decision makers this appears to be a

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