Thank you for all the great feedback regarding Tucker’s interview with Putin. Please keep it coming. I have prepared a critique of the interview and have tied it specifically to points made by Tucker and Putin in the speech…so you can see WHY I concluded what I did. Here’s the first part.
(1) TUCKER: “And to American ears that sounds paranoid.”
Tucker started the interview with an introduction about how Putin was blabbering on for a long time about Russian history - and it annoyed Tucker - but he and his team decided to show it anyway because Putin seemed “sincere.”
I found that odd.
Then Tucker framed Putin at the outset in his first question as “paranoid” for believing that NATO was positioning themselves in Ukraine to attack Russia.
First of all, the history lesson from Putin was excellent and I didn’t feel it was coercive or pointless - although Putin DID leave out important points that I will address later.
Second, it’s common knowledge that NATO has advanced toward Russia for decades - contrary to promises not to. There is nothing “paranoid” about it.
IMHO, this was a classic CIA brainwashing technique deployed by Tucker right at the outset. Not good. That made me question what the purpose of his interview really was and who he really is. Was it to interview Putin in good faith or frame him as aggressive and paranoid? Let’s see…
(2) PUTIN: “Are we having a talk show or serious conversation? You were initially trained in history, as far as I know?”
Putin wants us to know that Tucker’s roots are important, as well as his training.
Tucker Carlson was raised by his father from the time he was six years old after his mother left and moved to France. He never saw her again. Carlson attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in history in 1991. After college, Tucker tried to join the Central Intelligence Agency, but his application was allegedly denied, after which he decided to pursue a career in journalism with the encouragement of his father. Tucker’s father was a very important man in Washington DC - tied to Bush/Cheney in politics - he was also a journalist, a politician, an Ambassador, the head of Public Broadcasting and the VOA and he later married into wealth as well.
(3) PUTIN: “Where does Ukraine come from? The Russian state started to exist as a centralized state in 862…because the townspeople of Novgorod invited Rurik to reign.”
Putin mentioned specific dates and names of towns - meaning he wants us to investigate them.
The area of Novgorod (where Russia began) was populated by various East Slavic tribes before 862. The East Slavic Tribes (Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians) formed the majority of the population of the medieval state of Russia called Kievan Rus' - which they all claim as their cultural ancestor.
Putin wants us to know that the townspeople of Novgorod INVITED Prince Rurik - a Norse Viking Prince - to reign over them. But he left out that Novgorod had a history of choosing leaders which were only allowed to stay if the Russian leaders approved of them.
Prior to the emergence of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century CE, the lands between the Baltic Sea and Black Sea were primarily populated by eastern Slavic tribes.
The Rus', also known as Russes, were a people in early medieval Eastern Europe. They were originally Norsemen, mainly originating from present-day Sweden, who settled and ruled along the river-routes between the Baltic and the Black Seas from around the 8th to 11th centuries AD. In the 9th century, they formed the state of Kievan Rusʹ, where the ruling Norsemen along with local Finnic tribes gradually assimilated into the East Slavic population, with Old East Slavic becoming the common spoken language.
Kievan Rus' was a loose federation encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including East Slavic, Norse, Baltic, and Finnic, it was ruled by the Rurik dynasty, founded by the Varangian (Viking) prince Rurik. The modern nations of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestors, with Belarus and Russia deriving their names from it.
Around the same time, the territories of Kievan Rus’ were also continuously influenced by the Khazars to the southeast of Kiev - who claim this area as their ancestral homeland as well.
Who were the Khazars? There is much historical dispute but here’s what I believe.
The Khazars were a semi-nomadic, Turkic-speaking people who established a major trading empire in what is now Southern Ukraine and are believed to have converted to Judaism in the eighth century.
Around the 8th century, Judaism began to spread amongst the Khazars, as a result of Jewish settlers. Originally, Khazars were known as Turks in Kievan Rus’ just as Hungarians were known as Turks in Byzantium. The ruling elite of the Khazars was said to have converted to progressive Rabbinic Judaism in the 8th century, and became the majority of what we call today Ashkenazi Jews.
In 965 AD, Sviatoslav I, the Grand Prince of Kiev, launched a campaign against the Khazars, defeated them, and brought Khazarian independence to an end.
Khazaria had long served as a buffer state between the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Caliphates. This is similar to the way that Ukraine is used today as a buffer state between Russia & NATO.
Christians encouraged attacks against Khazarian Turks and Jews in early Russia and wanted to convert all of Kievan Rus’ to Christianity. In the 10th century Prince Vladimir I, who was converted by missionaries from Byzantium, adopted Christianity as the official religion for Russia. NOTE: Putin is named after Vladimir I.
Wishing to emulate the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and its cathedral Hagia Sophia - dedicated to Christ as “Holy Wisdom” - Vladimir’s son Yaroslav expanded Kyiv and built a magnificent new church to function as the city’s main cathedral, which he likewise dedicated to St. Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) in imitation of Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia.
As you can see, the history of Russia is central to 9th through 10th-century state formation, and thus national origins, in Eastern Europe. Why is this important? Because Jews, Turks, Christians, Slavs and Norsemen (Vikings) have all claimed ownership of the area called Ukraine - which was originally a bunch of tribes and ALL became part of Russia.
People say - why is that important? Well, look how America is divided on whether the United States of America is owned by Native Americans or the Pilgrims who settled it? Look at how American political policy is divided on paying reparations and honoring the flag and removing statues. We are being drawn into civil war over these differences.
The claims of ownership in the area that is now called Ukraine literally drive the foreign policy carried out TODAY by the Globalist elites who run our Government (like Victoria Nuland) and want to run the world. It’s PERSONAL for many of them. They are fighting wars for their ancestors!
These claims of ownership have driven pogroms, invasion, civil wars, assassinations, treaties & alliances like NATO, coups, and much much more for hundreds of years in the modern day area we now call Ukraine. It’s important! And they want the US to pay for it!
As Trump has said many times - Europe wants to drag us into their long-standing feuds with each other! They want us to defend them and they want us to pay for it with blood and treasure.
The next date that Putin brought up was 882. Why is that important? I’ll cover that in Part Two of this essay…
History often repeats itself so that’s why it’s good to know it!