Russian State TV Starts Airing Episodes of Tucker Carlson’s Twitter Show

Tucker Carlson/Twitter

A Russian state-owned and operated news channel began airing Tucker Carlson’s Twitter show dubbed in Russian over the weekend. The propaganda network, Russia 24, ran an odd promo last week for a Tucker Carlson program, which prompted the former Fox News host to deny any involvement with the network.

“This is completely absurd. Reporters are so dishonest and stupid. I’ve never even heard of this channel,” Carlson told Mediaite when asked about the ad, which promised the “American host is moving to another level. Here.”

Now it appears that all Russia 24 had in the offing was re-airing parts of Carlson’s Twitter show with Russian dubbing. Oddly, the first episode to air from Carlson’s online show had nothing to do with the anti-Ukraine rhetoric that has made him popular with Russian propagandists, but instead was some twenty minutes of his interview with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) about his impeachment trial for corruption.

Whether or not Russia 24 received any kind of permission to re-air Carlson’s episodes remains unclear as does the network’s future plans regarding Carlson’s content.

Carlson in recent years has become a fixture on Russian television as his pro-Russian, anti-Zelensky and anti-Biden rhetoric on Fox News had aligned closely with the Kremlin’s own talking points. Carlson and the Kremlin have both regularly slammed Zelensky as promoting “Nazism” in Ukraine and pushed a litany of conspiracy theories regarding the war, like the debunked accusation that the U.S. was funding bioweapons labs in Ukraine. Carlson was abruptly fired from Fox in April and reports subsequently surfaced that his position on the war had angered Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch.

In March 2022, a month into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin reportedly sent out a memo to its outlets and media allies. The memo read, “It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticises the actions of the United States [and] Nato, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the eastern countries and Nato towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally.”