ISW: Putin used his interview with Tucker Carlson to spread lies, distort history, and potray Russia as victim
The Institute for the Study of War analyzed an interview by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, with American TV personality Tucker Carlson.
Experts concluded that the Russian dictator used it to spread falsehoods, distort history, and portray Russia as a victim rather than an aggressor, as it truly is, Rubryka reports.
"Putin also attempted to use the interview to absurdly reframe Russia as the wronged party and not the initiator of Russia's unprovoked war of conquest against Ukraine. Putin falsely claimed that Ukrainian 'neo-Nazis' started the war in Ukraine in 2014 and that Russia's full-scale invasion is an attempt to bring that war to an end," said ISW. "Putin repeated tired Russian rhetoric presenting Russia's annexation of Crimea and intervention in Donbas in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as a defensive campaign aimed at protecting Russian people and the Russia nation."
Analysts stressed that this ongoing information operation aims to conceal the obvious fact that Russia initiated an aggressive war against its neighbor in 2022 to confuse the West's memory of what really happened.
ISW noted that in this interview, the Russian dictator "to justify Russia's invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 as responses to Ukraine's and the West's actions in order to defend his long-standing calls for regime change in Kyiv and Ukraine's 'demilitarization,' 'denazification,' and 'neutrality.'"
"Putin falsely claimed that a US-backed 'coup' in Ukraine in 2014 forced Russia to invade Crimea and begin military operations in Donbas in 2014.[9] Putin falsely claimed that Ukraine initiated a military operation in the Donbas starting in 2014 and that Ukraine failed to implement the Minsk Agreements establishing the armistice that Putin broke in February 2022," ISW said.
Analysts also pointed out that Putin accused NATO of allegedly exploiting Ukraine to build military bases in Ukraine under the guise of preparing Ukrainian troops.
"There have not been and still are no NATO military bases in Ukraine. These narratives are aimed at buttressing Putin's long-standing calls for Ukraine's 'demilitarization,' which are likely aimed at stripping Ukraine of the means to defend itself and allowing Russia to impose its will upon Ukraine through force whenever the Kremlin so chooses," said the Institute for the Study of War.
In this interview, Putin defined "denazification" as the prohibition of all neo-Nazi movements in Ukraine and the removal of people allegedly supporting Nazi ideology. Putin specifically singled out the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. ISW believes that such statements by the Russian dictator are further evidence that Putin would like to remove the current Ukrainian leadership and replace it with one acceptable to the Kremlin.
Putin also continued to call for the "neutrality" of Ukraine.
Analysts also noted that the Russian president continued to spread pseudo-history, attempting to deny Ukrainian statehood and nationhood.
"Putin reiterated long-standing Russian information operations to deny the existence of Ukrainian statehood and identity. Putin claimed that Ukrainians fundamentally do not exist as a nation and that Ukrainians are truly Russians whom various political actors reinvented as Ukrainians to erode Russia's ability to control Russia's borderlands with other Eastern and Central European powers. Putin rewrote centuries of history to this effect," said ISW.
Analysts said Putin regularly denied Ukrainian sovereignty, statehood, and identity to present Russia's full-scale invasion as an attempt to allegedly return "historically Russian lands" to Russia and as "humanitarian efforts to protect ethnic Russians and Russian speakers," whom Russia calls "compatriots abroad."
The Institute for the Study of War added that Putin also regularly and deliberately abuses the definition of "ethnic Russian," mistakenly including Ukrainians in it to advance the broader concept of the "Russian world" to justify Russia's maximalist claims to Ukraine and its people, as well as its broader imperial ambitions.
Ahead of the Russian dictator's visit to Turkey, the European Union reminded Ankara of the International Criminal Court and the Rome Statute.
"No Putin rewriting of history justifies Russia's invasion of Ukraine," ISW said.
Putin once again voiced his quasi-realist worldview about weakening the West and dismantling NATO as a prerequisite for creating a multipolar world led by Russia. He again presented NATO's expansion and existence as a threat to Russia and any future world order under Russian and Chinese leadership.
"Putin is increasingly invoking a purposefully broad, vague, and pseudo-realist conception of Russian sovereignty to normalize wars of conquest and justify Russian goals to impose Putin's will in Ukraine and beyond. Putin has long made demands of NATO that would recreate the alliance into a structure that could not resist future Russian military aggression, whether that be campaigns of conquest or efforts to establish Russian control over countries the Kremlin deems to be within Russia's sphere of influence," said the Institute for the Study of War.
The Russian dictator also attempted to use this interview to spread lies that Russia allegedly is interested in ending the war in Ukraine through negotiations.
Analysts noted that throughout the conversation, when discussing negotiations, Putin demonstrated that Russia is not interested in meaningful and legitimate negotiations and that he still seeks to destroy Ukraine as a state.
The Russian dictator also demonstrated his "comprehensive hostility to the West and blamed the West for supposedly forcing Russia to attack Ukraine."
"The Kremlin has periodically intensified this information operation, feigning interest in negotiations to seize on actual Western interest in a negotiated settlement to undermine Western support for Ukraine and degrade Western efforts to send more security assistance to Ukraine.[6] Putin and the Kremlin have intensified rhetoric in recent weeks indicating that Russia continues to pursue maximalist objectives in Ukraine that ISW assesses would amount to full Ukrainian and Western capitulation," analysts said.
Earlier, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) analyzed statements by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, regarding the idea of a "demilitarized zone." According to the Russian dictator, it will remove Russian territory from under the firing range of Ukraine.
ISW also wrote that the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, announced that over the next six years, he wants to integrate the occupied Ukrainian territories into Russia.
