Prime minister insists Canadians 'won't be fooled' by Putin's propaganda
CBC
Fri, February 9, 2024 at 12:18 PM MST·2 min read
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked during a press conference on Friday about Russian President Vladimir Putin using the Hunka affair to mock Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Canadian officials. (The Canadian Press/Nick Iwanyshyn - image credit)


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadians shouldn't fall for Vladimir Putin's propaganda after the Russian president appeared in an interview with U.S. media personality Tucker Carlson.

Putin used the interview to mock Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Canadian officials for applauding Yaroslav Hunka during Zelenskyy's visit to Parliament in September.

Hunka was introduced in the House as a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran who fought against the Soviet Union in the Second World War. It was later revealed that Hunka was part of a division of Ukrainian volunteers under Nazi command.

Trudeau was asked during a press conference Friday about Putin using the diplomatic embarrassment to mock Canada and its ally.

"[Putin] will, of course, use whatever propaganda he can engage in, but I can tell you Canadians will not be fooled," the prime minister said.

Putin has claimed repeatedly he is waging war on Ukraine to "de-Nazify" the country and has used the Hunka affair in an attempt to justify his actions in the past.

During his interview with Carlson, which was posted on the social media platform X, Putin pointed to the Hunka incident to support his claims.

"The president of Ukraine stood up with the entire Parliament of Canada and applauded this man. How can this be imagined?" Putin said through a translator.

Western allies, including Canada, have pushed back against those claims, calling Russia's full-scale invasion a blatant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.

Trudeau said Putin's comments on the Hunka incident were an attempt to "distract" from his real motivations for launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"Putin chose to invade a neighbouring sovereign country, violating the rights, the sovereignty, the territorial integrity of Ukraine and violating the rules-based order that underpins the safety, the security of all of us living in free democracies around the world," he said.



Tucker Carlson's claim that no Western journalists have tried to interview Putin is false
Madison Czopek
Sat, February 10, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and U.S. conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson.

Tucker Carlson

Statement: Since Russia invaded Ukraine, “not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview Putin.”

When former Fox News anchor and current web show host Tucker Carlson announced he would be interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin, he leveled an accusation of journalistic carelessness.

"Since the day the war began in Ukraine, American media outlets have spoken to scores of people from Ukraine and they’ve done scores of interviews with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy," Carlson said, noting that he’d requested an interview with Zelenskyy, too. "At the same time, our politicians and media outlets have been doing this — promoting a foreign leader like he’s a new consumer brand — not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin."

Carlson’s claim that journalists have not made any effort to interview Putin prompted some journalists who have covered the war since Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainian invasion, to describe the situation very differently.

"Interesting to hear @TuckerCarlson claim that ‘no western journalist has bothered to interview’ Putin since the invasion of Ukraine," BBC News’ Russia editor Steve Rosenberg wrote Feb. 6 on X, formerly Twitter. "We’ve lodged several requests with the Kremlin in the last 18 months. Always a ‘no’ for us."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov disputed Carlson’s claim, too. "Mr. Carlson is wrong," Peskov said in a Feb. 7 press briefing. "We receive many requests for interviews with the president."

Peskov said the Kremlin regularly declines interview requests from large Western news outlets, but it granted Carlson’s request because "his position is different" from the major "Anglo-Saxon media," The Washington Post reported.

This is not the first time Peskov has described the many requests the Kremlin receives from journalists seeking to talk to Putin. In September 2023, he said on his daily call with journalists, "We receive dozens of requests every day from international media, including American media, asking Putin for an interview." Those requests were declined, Peskov said, according to The Washington Post, because "hardly anyone is able to soberly perceive Putin’s analysis" of the war because of what he called rampant anti-Russia sentiment.
Journalists have repeatedly contacted Putin for stories

Journalists who have repeatedly, unsuccessfully asked to interview Putin challenged Carlson’s statement.

"Does Tucker really think we journalists haven’t been trying to interview President Putin every day since his full scale invasion of Ukraine?" CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour wrote Feb. 6 on X. "It’s absurd — we’ll continue to ask for an interview, just as we have for years now."PolitiFact has also tried to get comments from Putin and the Kremlin, most notably in 2022, when we named "Putin’s lies to wage war and conceal horror in Ukraine" our Lie of the Year. We did not hear back.

Journalists from The Atlantic, Financial Times and some Russian journalists also pushed back on Carlson’s claim.

Anne Applebaum, a staff writer at The Atlantic who studies disinformation and propaganda, said in an X post, "Many journalists have interviewed Putin, who also makes frequent, widely covered speeches."Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is an American, has been detained in Russia for nearly a year after being arrested during a reporting trip, accused of spying — charges The Wall Street Journal said it "vehemently denies" and that the Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned. Gershkovich is not the only journalist detained in Russia.

John Watson, an American University journalism professor who studies journalism ethics, told PolitiFact "it’s Journalism 101" to reach out to the leaders of both nations when reporting on something like the Russia-Ukraine war.

"Every news story has at least two sides; professional responsibility requires outreach to both," he said. If someone declines to speak with a reporter, that journalist has failed to provide the full story, "but as a matter of ethics, the effort to get the full story is what counts."

Jane Kirtley, professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said it’s extremely common for political figures to decline interviews or refuse to provide statements, particularly "in authoritarian or autocratic countries, where concepts of freedom of the press are very different or nonexistent."

In many cases, it would be "unethical to allow a news source to kill or unreasonably delay a news report by refusing to comment," Watson said.

Kirtley also said Western journalists have tried to interview Putin, both before the 2022 invasion and since.

"Very few have succeeded," Kirtley said, "and when they did, I think it was mostly when Putin thought it was to his advantage."
PolitiFact's ruling

Carlson claimed that "not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview Putin" since Russia invaded Ukraine.

This was disputed by the Kremlin’s spokesperson and numerous Western journalists. Journalists across the world have "bothered" to seek interviews with Putin. The Kremlin declines.

We rate Carlson’s claim that no one made efforts to interview Putin Pants on Fire!
Our sources

Email interview with John Watson, a journalism professor at American University, Feb. 8, 2024


Email interview with Jane Kirtley, professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota's Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Feb. 8, 2024


Tucker Carlson post on X, Feb. 6, 2024


Anne Applebaum’s post on X, Feb. 6, 2024


Christiane Amanpour’s post on X, Feb. 6, 2024


Steve Rosenberg’s post on X, Feb. 6, 2024


Max Seddon’s post on X, Feb. 6, 2024


Newsweek, Putin Spokesman Disputes Tucker Carlson's Interviews Claim, Feb. 7, 2024


The Washington Post, Putin interview with Tucker Carlson shows Kremlin outreach to Trump’s GOP, Feb. 7, 2024


Die Weltwoche, "They’re all afraid," Sept. 21, 2023


The Washington Post, Tucker Carlson finds a new booster: Russian TV, Sept. 25, 2023


Deadline, BBC Russia Editor Shares Theory As To Why Putin Lets Him Remain In Moscow, July 16, 2023


The Atlantic, The American Face of Authoritarian Propaganda, Sept. 21, 2023


CNN, Tucker Carlson is in Russia to interview Putin. He’s already doing the bidding of the Kremlin, Feb. 7, 2024


Voice of America, Journalists Criticize Tucker Carlson Over Putin Interview, Feb. 7, 2024


The Wall Street Journal, White House Condemns Russia’s Detention of Wall Street Journal Reporter, March 30, 2023


Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ condemns Russia’s detention extension for US journalist Evan Gershkovich, Jan. 26, 2024

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Carlson is wrong; many Western journalists tried to interview Putin


Tucker Carlson Releases 2-Hour Interview With Vladimir Putin

Nick Visser
Thu, February 8, 2024 

Tucker Carlson aired his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

The interview ― Putin’s first formal sit-down with a Western media figure since he began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine ― stretched more than two hours. Putin spent the first 30 minutes explaining the history of Russia and Ukraine at the end of World War II before calling American efforts to further fund Ukrainian defense a “cheap provocation” by the United States.

Putin said he remained open to negotiations with Ukraine to end the conflict but claimed the U.S. was using the country as a proxy and stymying efforts to find a resolution.

“We’re willing to negotiate,” the Russian president said. “It is the Western side, and Ukraine is obviously a satellite state of the U.S. It is evident.”

Putin also suggested, without evidence, that the CIA was responsible for the destruction of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in 2022. The pipelines linked Russia to Western Europe, and their sabotage launched a confounding investigation into who was responsible for the explosions.

Investigators have so far been unable to identify a responsible party.

“You personally may have an alibi, but the CIA has no such alibi,” Putin told Carlson in the interview after being asked who blew up the pipelines. “I won’t get into details, but people always say in such cases look for someone who is interested.”


Carlson announced the interview earlier this week amid days of speculation that he had traveled to Moscow. The former Fox News host claimed that “not a single Western journalist” had bothered to speak with Putin but that he was doing so because “Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in.”

The interview immediately sparked condemnation from Democratic lawmakers and other media outlets who cast it as a means for Putin to reach a growing far-right faction in the Republican Party. Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) called Carlson a “traitor” while others said the decision to interview Putin was “unbelievable.”

The Kremlin has dramatically cracked down on the Western media’s ability to cover Russia from inside the country, saying news outlets have “stupefied” their readers with propaganda. Despite Carlson’s claims, many major outlets have attempted to speak with the Russian president, but the Kremlin has rebuffed those attempts for years.


Russia has also imprisoned Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, for more than 10 months while he awaits trial on charges of espionage. Both the Journal and the U.S. government have flatly rejected the espionage allegations.

Carlson asked about Gershkovich’s detention and if the Kremlin would be willing to release him to his media team to be brought back to the U.S. “as a sign of your decency.”

“We have done so many gestures of goodwill out of decency that I think we have run out of them,” Putin replied, although he appeared open to an unspecified reciprocal swap with the U.S. “We have never seen anyone reciprocate to us in a similar manner. However, in theory, we can say that we do not rule out that we can do that if our partners take reciprocal steps.”

Carlson continued to press for more information before Putin described Gershkovich’s behavior as espionage and said the reporter was “caught red-handed.” He went on to claim, without evidence, that the reporter was “not just a journalist” but someone who had obtained “confidential information.”

“I do not rule out that the person you refer to, Mr. Gershkovich, may return to his motherland,” Putin said. “We are ready to talk. … But we have to come to an agreement.”

The Journal has vehemently rejected any suggestion that Gershkovich was working in any capacity beyond that of a reporter, declaring his imprisonment part of the fierce crackdown on the media since the Ukraine invasion began.

“The concept of a free press ― the underpinning of a free society ― has been singularly challenged,” Emma Tucker, the Journal’s editor in chief, told readers in December. She described the act as an extension of how Putin’s “clampdown on independent media extended to the foreign press.”

Carlson has long been sympathetic to Putin and harshly critical of U.S. funding for Ukraine. Dmitri Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said Carlson “contrasts the position of the traditional Anglo-Saxon media” in a statement this week, adding that Russia had “no desire to communicate” with most Western media. Peskov described such outlets as failing to be impartial in their coverage.

Lawmakers in Washington have struggled to pass a new round of funding for the besieged nation this week, which could be included in a massive $95 billion national security bill that also includes support for Israel.

Republicans, however, have increasingly lined up against further aid to Kyiv.