This is the brief summary. For those who don't have the time to listen to the interview.
1) First of all, Putin needs to speak of the story of Kievan Rus, to be able to speak of Ukraine as nation and as country. He briefly describes how there was no difference between Russia and Ukraine, between Kiev and Moscow, because they were one single nation. In the Middle Ages the great cities of this civilization were Kiev and Novgorod, a city on the shores of the Volga river.
So, Volga, Dnjepr and Don: these are the rivers where the Russian nation arose.
It was Stalin who created Ukraine as national entity, and Ukrainian, a dialect of Russian became national language. Stalin gave Ukraine many territories, including Crimea, which had been Russian for many, many centuries.
2) Russia joining NATO question: After 1991, when Soviet Union collapsed, Russia expected to be welcomed among the club of the civilized nations. None of this happened.
Yeltsin was the most pro-American Russian president in the history of Russia. He shouted God bless America: he meant: let us in.
Despite the fact that USA had bombed Belgrade and Serbia, the spiritual companion of the Russian people; when Russia protested, the Americans said that the UN Charter on war had become obsolete.
When Putin became president in 2000, he tried to restore relations with the US, so he was visited by Clinton at the Kremlin.
Putin asked Clinton: do you think it's possible for Russia to join NATO? Clinton replied: I think it's interesting, I think so. But after he talked to his team, later, he said: no, no, it's not possible now.
So Putin understood that Russia wasn't welcomed in the club of the Western countries. For no reason. Considering the great efforts of rapprochement started by Yeltsin.
Besides, asked by Carlson, Putin said that if Clinton had said yes to joining the NATO, the process of rapprochement would have commenced and it would have eventually happened. But there was no sign of rapprochement from the USA.
3) Ukraine and NATO: Strangely in 2008 the gates of NATO were opened for Ukraine, by POTUS Bush. Ukraine, especially the South-East, has always had a pro-Russian electorate because of the overwhelming presence of Russian-speaking people. In Donbas Russians are the majority.
Even if Putin had asked to respect the buffer zone between NATO countries and the Community of Independent States (Ukraine included), the NATO ignored the request and expanded eastwards, phagocytizing the Baltics, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, etc..etc...
The USA intelligence literally started to colonize Ukraine. When Kučma the pro-Russian president won the elections, the opposition supported by the USA demanded a third round of elections because they didn't like the outcome. This is what Putin calls a coup.
Despite all those efforts to influence Ukraine's politics, Yanukovič came to power anyway after Yushenko.
Then there was the Maidan coup, with the pretext that Yanukovič was a pro-Russia and a pro-Putin president, and he didn't want a trade deal with the European Union.
The USA imposed on Yanukovič to respect the dissidents, and to let Maidan take the lead.
Backed by CIA, the Maidan parties persecuted and killed all those who were against the coup, including the pro-Russian people of Odessa and Donbass, like the Massacre of Odessa demonstrates.
The new government, of Poroshenko, started the war in Donbas using aircraft and artillery, and this war lasted 8 years.
Whereas, Crimea which has always been 99% Russian and Russian-speaking made a referendum and declared itself independent from Ukraine, and later joined the Russian Federation.
The Donbas war started in 2014, and that provoked the reaction of the EU.
4) The Donbas war and the Minsk agreements: The Minsk protocol was drafted by Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, in 2014, with mediation of France and Germany that were garantors of that protocol. The Protocol was signed in September 2014 also by the self-proclaimed Donbas republic, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Ukraine was asked to respect it. In 2015, a second Minsk agreement was signed as well.
During these eight years Putin tried to convince European leaders to try to stop this war, so that Russia wouldn't have had to invade Donbas to rescue the Russian-speaking people there.
The Minsk agreements had the purpose to rescue the Russians of Donbas and to create a buffer zone against the NATO expansion in the Eastern Part of Ukraine surrounding Crimea: so they were meant to safeguard both Donbas and Crimeans.
In 2022 Macron went to Kiev to try to convince Zelenskyy to respect and implement the agreements. Zelenskyy was willing to accept, but after Macron returned home, the Ukrainian president announced that he was not disposed to respect them.
That's how and that's why the invasion of Russia started: because, despite the desperate plea from the EU, represented by Macron, Zelenskyy (surely obeying some élites from overseas) refused to implement the Minsk agreements.
5)The reason of the invasion in 2022: Putin said it was necessary to rescue the Donbas civilians. The Kiev government targeted not only the separatists, but also civilians with aircraft and artillery. So the invasion was necessary to rescue and protect Russian-speaking civilians, living in Donbas since ever.
Denazification (denacifikacija) was another important goal of the the operation: Ukrainian Nationalists who want to wage war against the Russian speaking people of Ukraine, are the descendants of those who collaborated with the Nazis in 1940, letting them easily reach the Volga.
They have always seen Russians as the oppressors, despite the fact that many Russian presidents have tried to do their best for Ukraine.
The Russian troops reached Kiev with the intent to undo the Nazi government. But they were dissuaded from occupying the city, because the NATO and the West deceived Moscow, saying that if they had withdrawn, they would have signed the peace agreements in Istanbul.
The Russian troops believed them and did withdraw, but the negotiators in Istanbul ripped off the peace agreements between Russia and Ukraine, and so Putin was tricked. In the meantime, NATO countries, especially US sent their weapons and warfare that made Ukrainian soldiers regain territories.
6)The impossibility of a peace agreement: Zelenskyy prevents any peace operations from being carried out. The peace negotiations of Istanbul failed because someone orders him not to negotiate with Russia. He is prevented from seeking a peace agreement with Russia, himself because he passed a law that forbids any Ukrainian from seeking peace with Russia.
Putin makes Carlson understand that it's the US that is using Ukraine as the battlefield of a buffer zone. So Ukrainians are the sacrificial victims, the cannon fodder in this war between Russia and the NATO.
7)Russia's alleged expansionism: Carlson asks Putin whether he is interested in conquering Eastern Europe, the old USSR. Putin readily replies that Russians have zero interest in countries like Poland, Baltics, etc...
They want to live in peace with them. So they only way they can be at war with them is in the very unrealistic scenario where Poland or Latvia or other countries invade Russia.
Then he clarifies that it's the US that refused to welcome Russia into the NATO. Because the goal of the US is to weaken Russia as much as possible through a war. And its satellite countries (in Europe) are forced to obey its orders.
The Ukraine War is a provocation: a proxy war meant to destroy Russian economy and force Russia to become a satellite country of the US, just like all of Europe.
Putin is shocked that the average American cares about Ukraine when in the Americas there are so many problems, including the Mexican border and the mass immigration from Central America. They should be dealing with their business, instead of caring what Europeans do or don't.
8)Nordstream: Carlson asks the tremendous question: Who blew up Nordstream? Putin smiles and immediately answers: вы, vy, which means you guys, meaning you Americans did, for sure. Carlson is interested and want to know more details.
Putin said that he has no idea of who did it specifically and how the operation of sabotage was carried out. Nevertheless only the CIA and the NATO, together could have done something so risky and in plain sight, because it takes millions and millions of dollars to train the saboteurs and to enable them to survive, after the operation.
Of course those pipelines belong to Russia. Russia would have never destroyed its own assets because it's her who had to repair them, and she needs the billions to fund the Ukrainian war. So it's illogical.
9) What being a Christian leader means: Carlson then asks Putin: "You are a Christian leader. What does it mean this war to you?" Putin replies by mentioning that Ukraine is the cradle of the Russian Christian Civilization, because Prince Vladímir I Svjatoslavič was baptized in Kiev. So Christianity is very important to them, Orthodoxy is the fundament of our history and our identity.
Carlson asks him "How do you reconcile this Christian spirit with being a leader who has to kill? To wage a war against enemies? Since Christ said “turn the other cheek?”
Putin replies: "It's easy when it comes with protecting your fatherland, your family, your loved ones. We won't attack anyone, unless we are attacked, first. It's self-defense, after the Maidan coup: we try to protect our Russian compatriots in Donbas, who were brutally attacked by Ukrainian aircraft from 2014 onward"
10) Elon Musk. Elon Musk is brought up about AI and the internet. Putin says that the new empire of the 21st century is scientific progress and development. Elon Musk is very smart, but we need to regulate these things at international level.
11) Evan Gershkovich: Carlson asks Putin: "Will you release Wall Street journal Evan Gershkovich and give him to us Americans?". Putin looks weary, and says: "We have granted so many things and made so many concessions that we have run out of them, I guess. Nobody has ever reciprocated. We expect mutual respect, from the West. Gershkovich is considered a spy, according to the Russian law. He spied on us and on our security".
12) Peace negotiations: Carlson says he will ask Putin one more question: "Are you worried that what is happening in Ukraine can lead to something much larger? How motivated are you to come to terms with the other party?". Putin answers: "I have already said we are willing to negotiate. It is Ukraine and the West who don't want to negotiate, since Ukraine is a satellite state of the US. Ukraine was prevented from negotiating by the British Prime Minister, because Ukraine is a satellite state, of course."
Carlson looks confused and asks him: "if it's the US that gives orders to Zelenskyy, why don't you interact with Biden directly?". Putin replies: "If the Ukrainian president refuses to negotiate, it means it's Washington DC that instructed him to do that. So it's up to the US".
Carlson, surprised asks him, then: "So you do want a negotiated settlement to what is happening in Ukraine?". Putin readily points out: "We have already done that. We initiated the document in Istanbul and the Ukrainian delegation signed the provisions; nevertheless they didn't sign the entire document because PM Johnson prevented them from doing it."
Carlson: "Do you think its' too humiliating for NATO to accept Russia's conquest of Donbas and the other two regions?"
Putin: "I said that they are probably trying to achieve a peace agreement. Let them do it with dignity. They do want it but they are struggling to understand how they can do that, without announcing they were wrong.
1) First of all, Putin needs to speak of the story of Kievan Rus, to be able to speak of Ukraine as nation and as country. He briefly describes how there was no difference between Russia and Ukraine, between Kiev and Moscow, because they were one single nation. In the Middle Ages the great cities of this civilization were Kiev and Novgorod, a city on the shores of the Volga river.
So, Volga, Dnjepr and Don: these are the rivers where the Russian nation arose.
It was Stalin who created Ukraine as national entity, and Ukrainian, a dialect of Russian became national language. Stalin gave Ukraine many territories, including Crimea, which had been Russian for many, many centuries.
2) Russia joining NATO question: After 1991, when Soviet Union collapsed, Russia expected to be welcomed among the club of the civilized nations. None of this happened.
Yeltsin was the most pro-American Russian president in the history of Russia. He shouted God bless America: he meant: let us in.
Despite the fact that USA had bombed Belgrade and Serbia, the spiritual companion of the Russian people; when Russia protested, the Americans said that the UN Charter on war had become obsolete.
When Putin became president in 2000, he tried to restore relations with the US, so he was visited by Clinton at the Kremlin.
Putin asked Clinton: do you think it's possible for Russia to join NATO? Clinton replied: I think it's interesting, I think so. But after he talked to his team, later, he said: no, no, it's not possible now.
So Putin understood that Russia wasn't welcomed in the club of the Western countries. For no reason. Considering the great efforts of rapprochement started by Yeltsin.
Besides, asked by Carlson, Putin said that if Clinton had said yes to joining the NATO, the process of rapprochement would have commenced and it would have eventually happened. But there was no sign of rapprochement from the USA.
3) Ukraine and NATO: Strangely in 2008 the gates of NATO were opened for Ukraine, by POTUS Bush. Ukraine, especially the South-East, has always had a pro-Russian electorate because of the overwhelming presence of Russian-speaking people. In Donbas Russians are the majority.
Even if Putin had asked to respect the buffer zone between NATO countries and the Community of Independent States (Ukraine included), the NATO ignored the request and expanded eastwards, phagocytizing the Baltics, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, etc..etc...
The USA intelligence literally started to colonize Ukraine. When Kučma the pro-Russian president won the elections, the opposition supported by the USA demanded a third round of elections because they didn't like the outcome. This is what Putin calls a coup.
Despite all those efforts to influence Ukraine's politics, Yanukovič came to power anyway after Yushenko.
Then there was the Maidan coup, with the pretext that Yanukovič was a pro-Russia and a pro-Putin president, and he didn't want a trade deal with the European Union.
The USA imposed on Yanukovič to respect the dissidents, and to let Maidan take the lead.
Backed by CIA, the Maidan parties persecuted and killed all those who were against the coup, including the pro-Russian people of Odessa and Donbass, like the Massacre of Odessa demonstrates.
The new government, of Poroshenko, started the war in Donbas using aircraft and artillery, and this war lasted 8 years.
Whereas, Crimea which has always been 99% Russian and Russian-speaking made a referendum and declared itself independent from Ukraine, and later joined the Russian Federation.
The Donbas war started in 2014, and that provoked the reaction of the EU.
4) The Donbas war and the Minsk agreements: The Minsk protocol was drafted by Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, in 2014, with mediation of France and Germany that were garantors of that protocol. The Protocol was signed in September 2014 also by the self-proclaimed Donbas republic, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Ukraine was asked to respect it. In 2015, a second Minsk agreement was signed as well.
During these eight years Putin tried to convince European leaders to try to stop this war, so that Russia wouldn't have had to invade Donbas to rescue the Russian-speaking people there.
The Minsk agreements had the purpose to rescue the Russians of Donbas and to create a buffer zone against the NATO expansion in the Eastern Part of Ukraine surrounding Crimea: so they were meant to safeguard both Donbas and Crimeans.
In 2022 Macron went to Kiev to try to convince Zelenskyy to respect and implement the agreements. Zelenskyy was willing to accept, but after Macron returned home, the Ukrainian president announced that he was not disposed to respect them.
That's how and that's why the invasion of Russia started: because, despite the desperate plea from the EU, represented by Macron, Zelenskyy (surely obeying some élites from overseas) refused to implement the Minsk agreements.
5)The reason of the invasion in 2022: Putin said it was necessary to rescue the Donbas civilians. The Kiev government targeted not only the separatists, but also civilians with aircraft and artillery. So the invasion was necessary to rescue and protect Russian-speaking civilians, living in Donbas since ever.
Denazification (denacifikacija) was another important goal of the the operation: Ukrainian Nationalists who want to wage war against the Russian speaking people of Ukraine, are the descendants of those who collaborated with the Nazis in 1940, letting them easily reach the Volga.
They have always seen Russians as the oppressors, despite the fact that many Russian presidents have tried to do their best for Ukraine.
The Russian troops reached Kiev with the intent to undo the Nazi government. But they were dissuaded from occupying the city, because the NATO and the West deceived Moscow, saying that if they had withdrawn, they would have signed the peace agreements in Istanbul.
The Russian troops believed them and did withdraw, but the negotiators in Istanbul ripped off the peace agreements between Russia and Ukraine, and so Putin was tricked. In the meantime, NATO countries, especially US sent their weapons and warfare that made Ukrainian soldiers regain territories.
6)The impossibility of a peace agreement: Zelenskyy prevents any peace operations from being carried out. The peace negotiations of Istanbul failed because someone orders him not to negotiate with Russia. He is prevented from seeking a peace agreement with Russia, himself because he passed a law that forbids any Ukrainian from seeking peace with Russia.
Putin makes Carlson understand that it's the US that is using Ukraine as the battlefield of a buffer zone. So Ukrainians are the sacrificial victims, the cannon fodder in this war between Russia and the NATO.
7)Russia's alleged expansionism: Carlson asks Putin whether he is interested in conquering Eastern Europe, the old USSR. Putin readily replies that Russians have zero interest in countries like Poland, Baltics, etc...
They want to live in peace with them. So they only way they can be at war with them is in the very unrealistic scenario where Poland or Latvia or other countries invade Russia.
Then he clarifies that it's the US that refused to welcome Russia into the NATO. Because the goal of the US is to weaken Russia as much as possible through a war. And its satellite countries (in Europe) are forced to obey its orders.
The Ukraine War is a provocation: a proxy war meant to destroy Russian economy and force Russia to become a satellite country of the US, just like all of Europe.
Putin is shocked that the average American cares about Ukraine when in the Americas there are so many problems, including the Mexican border and the mass immigration from Central America. They should be dealing with their business, instead of caring what Europeans do or don't.
8)Nordstream: Carlson asks the tremendous question: Who blew up Nordstream? Putin smiles and immediately answers: вы, vy, which means you guys, meaning you Americans did, for sure. Carlson is interested and want to know more details.
Putin said that he has no idea of who did it specifically and how the operation of sabotage was carried out. Nevertheless only the CIA and the NATO, together could have done something so risky and in plain sight, because it takes millions and millions of dollars to train the saboteurs and to enable them to survive, after the operation.
Of course those pipelines belong to Russia. Russia would have never destroyed its own assets because it's her who had to repair them, and she needs the billions to fund the Ukrainian war. So it's illogical.
9) What being a Christian leader means: Carlson then asks Putin: "You are a Christian leader. What does it mean this war to you?" Putin replies by mentioning that Ukraine is the cradle of the Russian Christian Civilization, because Prince Vladímir I Svjatoslavič was baptized in Kiev. So Christianity is very important to them, Orthodoxy is the fundament of our history and our identity.
Carlson asks him "How do you reconcile this Christian spirit with being a leader who has to kill? To wage a war against enemies? Since Christ said “turn the other cheek?”
Putin replies: "It's easy when it comes with protecting your fatherland, your family, your loved ones. We won't attack anyone, unless we are attacked, first. It's self-defense, after the Maidan coup: we try to protect our Russian compatriots in Donbas, who were brutally attacked by Ukrainian aircraft from 2014 onward"
10) Elon Musk. Elon Musk is brought up about AI and the internet. Putin says that the new empire of the 21st century is scientific progress and development. Elon Musk is very smart, but we need to regulate these things at international level.
11) Evan Gershkovich: Carlson asks Putin: "Will you release Wall Street journal Evan Gershkovich and give him to us Americans?". Putin looks weary, and says: "We have granted so many things and made so many concessions that we have run out of them, I guess. Nobody has ever reciprocated. We expect mutual respect, from the West. Gershkovich is considered a spy, according to the Russian law. He spied on us and on our security".
12) Peace negotiations: Carlson says he will ask Putin one more question: "Are you worried that what is happening in Ukraine can lead to something much larger? How motivated are you to come to terms with the other party?". Putin answers: "I have already said we are willing to negotiate. It is Ukraine and the West who don't want to negotiate, since Ukraine is a satellite state of the US. Ukraine was prevented from negotiating by the British Prime Minister, because Ukraine is a satellite state, of course."
Carlson looks confused and asks him: "if it's the US that gives orders to Zelenskyy, why don't you interact with Biden directly?". Putin replies: "If the Ukrainian president refuses to negotiate, it means it's Washington DC that instructed him to do that. So it's up to the US".
Carlson, surprised asks him, then: "So you do want a negotiated settlement to what is happening in Ukraine?". Putin readily points out: "We have already done that. We initiated the document in Istanbul and the Ukrainian delegation signed the provisions; nevertheless they didn't sign the entire document because PM Johnson prevented them from doing it."
Carlson: "Do you think its' too humiliating for NATO to accept Russia's conquest of Donbas and the other two regions?"
Putin: "I said that they are probably trying to achieve a peace agreement. Let them do it with dignity. They do want it but they are struggling to understand how they can do that, without announcing they were wrong.
