(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin says he was surprised by a lack of sharp questions from U.S. television host Tucker Carlson in an interview that made headlines around the world last week.
Putin told a Russian TV interviewer, Pavel Zarubin, that he had wanted Carlson to behave more aggressively, which would have given him the right to reply just as pointedly.
“To be honest, I thought that he would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions. I was not just prepared for this, I wanted it, because it would give me the opportunity to respond in the same way,” Putin said in comments broadcast on Wednesday.
In his first interview with an American journalist since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, Putin subjected Carlson to a half-hour lecture on history.
He told Zarubin he was surprised that Carlson had not interrupted him more.
“Frankly, I did not get full satisfaction from this interview,” Putin said.
The Kremlin said Putin had agreed to the Carlson interview because the approach of the former Fox News host differed from the “one-sided” reporting of the Ukraine conflict by many Western news outlets.
(Writing by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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