Russia historians say the Tucker Carlson interview solidified one factor about Putin — he is off the rails

• Vladimir Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson showcased his delusions, two Russia specialists mentioned.

• Putin tried to negate Ukraine’s sovereignty by his model of Russian historical past.

• US senators are working to offer aid to Ukraine and Israel, however it could not survive the Home.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered an odd efficiency fueled by Russian propaganda and imperialist posturing in his interview with right-wing media host Tucker Carlson final week.

The 2-hour interview revealed little new details about the warfare in Ukraine — past that it’s prone to proceed — however did handle to spotlight Putin’s rising delusion, in line with two Russia historians.

“Putin’s efficiency was unusual,” mentioned Robert English, a professor on the College of Southern California who research Russia, the Soviet Union, and Jap Europe.

For practically 30 uninterrupted minutes, Putin rattled off his model of Russian historical past in an obvious try and show that Ukraine just isn’t a sovereign nation. Numerous historians and analysts have refuted Putin’s sovereignty claims for the reason that warfare started in February 2022.

The Russian president parroted in nice, slogging element lots of the erroneous talking points he is used over time to bolster his perception that Ukraine should be beneath Russian management.

“Putin looks like a delusional man who has misplaced contact with actuality, yammering on about Rurik and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,” mentioned Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke College’s Sanford Faculty of Public Coverage and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations.

“The primary query the place Carlson asks about outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine — as if they simply spontaneously combusted and Putin did not invade, beginning the warfare — actually set the tone,” Miles wrote in an e-mail to BI.

The interview, which streamed Thursday on Carlson’s web site and X, comes at a key moment in Ukraine’s struggle for ongoing US help.

Putin might have simply blamed the invasion on Russia’s concern of an increasing NATO presence within the area, English mentioned. If Putin had acquiesced even a bit — hinting at the opportunity of eventual reconciliation — he could have been capable of flip the tide even additional in opposition to continued US help to Ukraine.

“As a substitute, he confirmed that it wasn’t Russian insecurity, however Putin’s private imperialism, that motivated the warfare,” English mentioned. “And so these watching within the West could nicely conclude that he nonetheless needs to beat all of Ukraine, that he won’t ever respect its sovereignty, and so the West should preserve the weapons flowing to Kyiv.”

“He might have proven that he’s cheap and open to a good compromise,” English added. “As a substitute, he confirmed that he’s each imperious in addition to imperialistic, and so compromise with him could also be unattainable.”

Of their learn of the interview, the New Yorker’s Masha Gessen famous the hazard of Putin’s delusion.

“However the way in which Putin described the start of the Second World Conflict in his interview with Carlson means that, though he retains accusing Ukraine of fostering Nazism, in his thoughts, he may see himself as Hitler, however maybe a wilier one, one who could make inroads into the USA and create an alliance with its presumed future President,” Gessen wrote.

Former President Donald Trump made feedback over the weekend that added to the potential risks of Putin’s view. The GOP frontrunner mentioned the US should allow Russia to attack non-paying NATO countries and even “encourage them to do regardless of the hell they need.”

In the meantime, US senators are working to advance a invoice that would supply aid to Ukraine and Israel, however its prospects within the Home stay unsure.

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