President Vladimir Putin agreed to be interviewed by U.S. television host Tucker Carlson, as confirmed by the Kremlin. This marks his first engagement with an American journalist since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which will hit the two-year mark on February 24th. We have two faculty experts available for interviews on this story: Brian Taylor, professor of political science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs and author of the highly acclaimed book The Code of Putinism, and Tetiana Hranchak, a visiting assistant teaching professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs and Ukraine native. They shared their thoughts below. If you’d like to schedule an interview with either of them, please reach out to Vanessa Marquette, media relations specialist, at vrmarque@syr.edu.
Brian Taylor writes: “Two American journalists are currently in Russian jails for trying to conduct independent journalism in Russia. Russian journalists have been killed for trying to practice independent journalism, some are in jail, and many others have had to flee the country. Many Western journalists who work on and in Russia have sought an interview with Putin since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, to no avail. The fact that Putin is willing to talk to Tucker Carlson now means that Putin is looking for an opportunity to influence American domestic politics and he thinks Carlson will be a useful conduit for his message.”
Tetiana Hranchak writes: “This war is hybrid, and its informational component might be considered as a weapon. By using the media, in particular, the Tucker Carlson’s interview, Putin is trying to achieve at least three goals:
1. Spread distorted narratives about the war among western audience,
2. To create a picture of the disagreement of a conditional public, which still “have no idea” about the reasons of the war, with the official position of Washington, to fuel internal contradictions in American society, which could lead to a weakening or complete cessation of the aid for Ukraine,
3. To strengthen his own legitimacy in the western political discourse with the help of western mass media.
The question is how these goals are aligned with the interests of the American community.”
