Putin Complains Tucker Carlson Gave Him Softball Questions: ‘I Honestly Thought He Would Be Aggressive’

Tucker Carlson

Russian President Vladimir Putin complained on Wednesday about Tucker Carlson’s controversial interview with him and accused Carlson of throwing softball questions.

According to Politico, Putin told Russian interviewer Pavel Zarubin, “I honestly thought he would be aggressive and ask so-called sharp questions. And I wasn’t just ready for that, I wanted it, because it would have given me the opportunity to respond sharply in kind.”

Putin complained, “But he chose a different tactic.”

The Russian president went on to add:

He tried to interrupt me several times, but still, surprisingly for a Western journalist, he turned out to be patient and listened to my lengthy dialogues, especially those related to history, and didn’t give me reason to do what I was ready for. So frankly, I didn’t get complete satisfaction from this interview.

Carlson sparked controversy this month after he became the first Western journalist to interview Putin in Moscow since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

During the two-hour interview, Putin subjected Carlson to a lengthy monologue about Russian history and mocked the former Fox News host for being rejected from the CIA.

At the end of the interview, Carlson asked Putin if he could take jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich back to the United States with him.

“The guy’s obviously not a spy,” Carlson told Putin.

Carlson’s interview received more than a million likes on X, formerly known as Twitter, and more than 16 million views on YouTube.