The Kremlin said Wednesday “many” foreign news outlets had requested to interview President Vladimir Putin, contradicting talk show host Tucker Carlson’s claim he was the only Western reporter to ask.
The former Fox News host, who visited Moscow for an interview with Putin this week, said no Western journalist had “bothered” to request access to the Kremlin leader since Moscow’s Ukraine offensive began.
“We receive many requests for interviews with the president,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked whether Carlson was the only person who requested a sit-down with Putin.
“But when it comes to countries of the collective West, we are talking about large online media outlets that can’t boast of trying to at least look objective,” he said in a daily briefing.
Carlson’s position “contrasts with that of the traditional Anglo-Saxon media,” Peskov said.
CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour and the BBC’s Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg were among those who refuted Carlson’s claim on social media.
Carlson, whose radical conservative opinions have garnered a vast right-wing following, did not say when the interview will be broadcast but mentioned it will be free to watch.
Carlson’s access to Putin represents a huge contrast with restraints on other American journalists in Russia, where two US citizens — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe’s Alsu Kurmasheva — are being held in detention.
