The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, assured this Friday that he has no “territorial claim” on the European continent and has no intention of sending troops to other countries. He has also asked the United States to stop delivering weapons to Ukraine and that his country is ready to negotiate. This is what the president expressed in an interview of more than two hours granted to the controversial and far-right Tucker Carlson, former presenter of the American television network Fox News, in Moscow.

Is he first Western journalist to interview Russian president since the Russian invasion in February 2022. Vladimir Putin has been able to speak at length and almost without interruptions about Carlson, who has turned the interview into a monologue in which the presenter has tried to force harmony between the two.

The Russian president has spoken mostly about the war in Ukraine, ensuring that an undetermined number of ““American mercenaries” and that they are the most numerous after the Poles and ahead of the Georgians. Putin has warned against the idea of ​​sending regular US soldiers because “That would bring humanity to the brink of a very serious global conflict.“, in response to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer’s call to step up aid to Ukraine.

“You have problems at the borders with immigration, problems with the national debt of more than 33 trillion dollars… And you have nothing better to do? (…)Wouldn’t it be better to negotiate with Russia to reach an agreement?“?” Putin asked. At another point in the interview he says that his country is ready to negotiate about Ukraine, but the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky “has signed a decree prohibiting anyone from negotiating with Russia (because) he obeys instructions from Western countries.

He says he will not invade other countries

On the other hand, he emphasized that I would only send troops against other countries if Russia was attacked from there, and has reiterated that Moscow “has no interest in Poland, Latvia, or anywhere,” and that it only acts based on threats. “They talk about it and try to intimidate their population with an imaginary Russian threat. It is an obvious fact. And intelligent people (…) understand perfectly well that it is a farce. The Russian threat is being inflated,” added the Russian president.

After months of statements by senior Russian officials about the possibility of using nuclear weapons in case Russia was seen as a threat, Now Putin expresses that this possibility is a “horror story for ordinary people” to “extract additional funds from them in the confrontation against Russia.”

In fact, he believes that Western countries should reach an agreement with the Kremlin because it is “more intelligent and rational,” and that they have never refused to negotiate, but rather it has been the “West” that has “publicly” refused to engage in talks with Russia because they will not be defeated “on the battlefield.” “For some reason, everyone had the illusion that Russia could be defeated on the battlefield either by arrogance or by sincere feeling, but not by great wisdom,” the Russian president remarked.

The relationship with the US

The Russian president has ruled out Your Government’s relationship with the United States depends on a change in the presidency of the North American country, and has rather to do with “the idea of ​​domination” that the US has over the world.

Putin emphasizes that when it comes to the United States “it is not about who the leader is or the personality of a specific person, but about the elites themselves: it is the idea of ​​domination at all costs based on the dominant forces of the American society.” He acknowledges, for example, that he had a good relationship with George Bush Jr, “and also (I have had) that personal relationship with (Donald) Trump”, he adds, but he downplays the importance of people.

He then reflects on the United States: “It is a complex country. Conservative on the one hand, rapidly changing on the other… it is not easy to understand,” he insists, before entering into a discussion on the complexity of its electoral system: ” Who makes the decisions in elections?It can be understood that each State has its laws“, that it regulates itself?”

It was expected that in this interview Carlson ask more about Trumpa politician who is very close to him, but Putin avoided making further references to Trump and thus did not give – as was feared to happen – messages that could be seen as interference in the upcoming US elections in November.