Tucker Carlson Interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a more than two-hour interview to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that was released online Thursday, covering a variety of topics, from Ukraine to the Russian economy, but breaking little new ground.

Putin told Carlson that Russia has not achieved its war aims in its widely condemned invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and he began the interview with a roughly 20-minute-long, mostly uninterrupted, speech about history that included the days of Catherine the Great, the empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796.

ormer Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday released his controversial interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who took the opportunity—his first interview with a western journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago—to defend Russia’s war, arguing Moscow has a historic claim to the eastern European country, as Carlson faces heavy pushback for giving Putin the platform.

Vladimir Putin began his much-anticipated interview on Thursday night by offering a more than 30-minute, counterfactual history lesson to a bemused Tucker Carlson.

The former Fox New host’s interjections (how is this relevant, Mr President?) were swiftly shot down by the Russian leader: “Are we going to have a serious talk or a show?”

Putin’s show, it seemed. Beyond the foray into the Russian president’s version of the eighteenth century, here are the five key and most surprising moments of the more than two-hour sit down.