Tucker Carlson interviews Vladimir Putin as it happened: Russian President claims West is afraid of strong China

So after two hours, what’s the reaction in the US to that interview?

The Washington Post says it should have been a big win for Putin and Carlson. A chance for the Russian president to justify his invasion and for Carlson to once again be relevant after being fired from Fox News. But the interview got too bogged down in a “tedious recounting of Russian and Ukrainian history” by Putin, and Carlson “a master of combative interviews” when he was on Fox News was much of a “bystander for much of his own interview”. He also failed to ask the Russian leader about several “challenging topics, from Russian atrocities in Ukraine to Putin’s attacks on internal dissent.”

The New York Times analysis says that the two-hour interview “was not exactly gripping video”. “Putin rolled right over Mr Carlson’s opening questions to deliver a nearly half-hour lecture on the history of Russia and Ukraine going back to the year 832, followed by his typical litany of grievances about the West,” Peter Baker writes for the Times. “Mr Carlson pressed Mr Putin to release Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia a year ago on espionage charges that he and his employer have vehemently denied, but barely challenged the Russian leader and let him talk at length uninterrupted.

That concludes our coverage of the Carlson interview of Putin. Thank you for reading.

The Wall Street Journal has issued a statement following Putin’s comments to Carlson that he is open to a prisoner exchange.

The WSJ says any portrayal that Gershkovich is a criminal is wrong, that he is a journalist and that “journalism is not a crime”.

“We’re encouraged to see Russia’s desire for a deal that brings Evan home, and we hope this will lead to a rapid release and return to his family and our newsroom.”

Carlson asks if, “as a sign of decency”, Putin would release a detained American journalist.

We told you earlier Putin was singing the praises of honest journalism (likely he was referring to Carlson here), but the president continues to lock up Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges.

“We have done so many gestures of goodwill out of decency that I think we have run out of them. We have never seen anyone reciprocate to us in a similar manner,” Putin says.

“However, in theory, we can say that we do not rule out that we can do that if our partners take reciprocal steps.”

It’s one of the few moments in the two-hour interview that Carlson pushes back against Putin. He challenges him on why a “kid” who is obviously not a spy should be locked up just for receiving information Russia doesn’t want him to have.

Putin still says he was committing espionage, but admits it “doesn’t make sense” to keep him in Russia. It seems like a prisoner swap would be the only option for Putin.

While the Putin interview has been going on, US President Joe Biden has made a snap announcement that he will shortly address the nation.

No reason for the address has been given by the White House, but it follows the US Department of Justice report into his mishandling of classified documents that was released earlier today.

The report said Biden would not be charged over the document case but has publicly raised questions about his age and his memory.

You can watch the live stream below.

Apologies if you, like this blogger, are watching the two-hour long interview. It’s been a fairly dry affair so far, but we are starting to get to the juice now.

While Putin says he can’t remember the last time he spoke with Biden, he does say he warned the US president that his support of Ukraine would be a historic mistake.

“I believe that you are making a huge mistake of historic proportions by supporting everything that is happening there, in Ukraine, by pushing Russia away,” he says he told Biden.

Carlson asks why Putin doesn’t call Biden and work this all out? If only it were that easy.

“I will tell you what we are saying on this matter and what we are conveying to the US leadership,” Putin says.

“If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons, it will be over in a few weeks, that’s it.”

By over, he means Russia would be successful in its invasion.