Tucker Carlson Comes Full Circle With Show on Russia State TV
Bess Levin Vanity Fair
In this photograph contributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to US talk show host Tucker Carlson at the Kremlin in Moscow on Feb. 6, 2024. (photo: AFP)
It’s called Tucker. Rossiya 24.
An episode was aired Monday night, for example, featuring Carlson discussing conspiracy theories about Lyme disease being used as a bioweapon under the title “ticks–nuclear weapons for the poor.” The same episode, minus the Russian voice-over, was available to American social media users on May 10.
The website of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company features several other episodes of the supposedly new show, all of them featuring praise for Moscow, criticism of Ukraine, or grim predictions concerning the fate of the US. In a description of the program, the site notes that Carlson “has actively criticized US authorities for helping Ukraine since the start of the [war],” and that he was added to a well-known database of “enemies of Ukraine” last summer.
Carlson claims to have no part in the airing of his show in Mother Russia, telling a CNN reporter on Tuesday: “It’s all fake, obviously, like most stories in American news media. Of course I have no partnership with Russia. The first I’d heard anything about this was [this] morning.”