OPINION | Putin's Rare Interview with Tucker Carlson Draws Parallels with Stalin's Stance on Ukraine and Artsakh

The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, has granted a rare interview to American journalist Tucker Carlson.

In a two-hour sit-down interview, Putin predominantly discusses the Russia/Ukraine war.

Here at The Armenian Report, we closely examined the interview for any statements from Putin that may be relevant to Armenia, Artsakh, or the U.S. media.

Ironically, the Russian leader provided a historical background on Stalin. Putin describes Ukraine as an "artificial state shaped at Stalin’s will," referring to it as "Stalin’s regime" and condemning it for "numerous violations of human rights and violations of the rights of other states." As Armenians, we can quickly draw parallels to Putin’s statements, considering that it was due to Stalin’s regime that the Republic of Artsakh was given to the artificial state known today as Azerbaijan. What makes Putin’s statement ironic is that during the 2020 Artsakh War and the 2023 mass exodus of 120,000 Armenians from Artsakh, also known as Nagorno Karabakh, the forced displacement of Armenians occurred under the watchful eye of Putin’s Russian peacekeepers. So, as Armenians, we can't help but wonder if Putin is a hypocrite or a liar as he utilizes Carlson’s platform to share his propaganda.

"In 1922 when the USSR was being established, the Bolsheviks started building the USSR and established the Soviet Ukraine, which had never existed before. Stalin insisted that those republics be included in the USSR as autonomous entities. For some inexplicable reason, Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, insisted that they be entitled to withdraw from the USSR. And again, for some unknown reasons, he transferred to that newly established Soviet Republic of Ukraine some of the lands, together with people living there, even though those lands had never been called Ukraine, yet they were made part of that Soviet Republic of Ukraine. Those lands included the Black Sea region, which was received under Catherine the Great and had no historical connection with Ukraine whatsoever. Even if we go as far back as 1654 when these lands returned to the Russian Empire. That territory was the size of 3 to 4 regions of modern Ukraine, with no Black Sea region. That was completely out of the question. The Soviet Union was given a great deal of territory that had never belonged to it, including the Black Sea region. At some point when Russia received them as an outcome of the Russo-Turkish wars, they were called New Russia or another Russia. But that does not matter. What matters is that Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, established Ukraine that way. For decades, the Ukrainian Soviet Republic developed as part of the USSR. And for unknown reasons, again, the Bolsheviks were engaged in Ukrainization. It was not merely because the Soviet leadership was composed to a great extent of those originating from Ukraine. Rather, it was explained by the general policy of indigenization pursued by the Soviet Union. The same things were done in other Soviet republics. This involved promoting national languages and national cultures, which is not bad in principle. That is how Soviet Ukraine was created. After World War 2, Ukraine received, in addition to the lands that had belonged to Poland before the war, part of the lands that had previously belonged to Hungary and Romania. So Romania and Hungary had some of their lands taken away and given to the Soviet Ukraine, and they still remain part of Ukraine. So in this sense, we have every reason to affirm that Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped at Stalin's will. But given Stalin's time, the so-called Stalin's regime, which, as many claim, saw numerous violations of human rights and violations of the rights of other states, one can say that they could claim back those lands of theirs while having no right to do that. It is at least understandable," Putin said.

Putin also refers to the power of U.S. media. He himself agrees that it’s very difficult to defeat U.S. media. But today, Putin took home a huge win as he defeated U.S. media and received a welcome to share his propaganda with the Western world.

"In the war of propaganda, it is very difficult to defeat the United States because the United States controls all the world's media and many European media. The ultimate beneficiary of the biggest European media are American financial institutions. Don't you know that?" concluded Putin.