Putin on war against Ukraine: We regret not starting it earlier

Russian President Vladimir Putin regrets not attacking Ukraine openly earlier, but he doesn't regret starting the war.

Source: Vladimir Putin, in an interview for Russia 1 TV channel, Radio Liberty reports

Quote from Putin: "The only thing we can regret is that we did not take intense action earlier."

Details: This is how Putin commented on the course of the war in Ukraine in an interview with Pavel Zarubin, Russia 1 TV channel host, which was published late on Wednesday. He was apparently referring to the full-scale invasion of 2022, not the hybrid war of 2014. 

The conversation itself mainly concerned Putin's conversation with American media personality Tucker Carlson on 6 February.

Commenting on the outcome of the conversation and the viewers' reaction to it, the Russian President called Carlson a "dangerous person" who had specifically chosen this tactic to avoid hearing "sharp answers" during the conversation.

Putin said he was preparing for completely different questions and was going to answer "sharply", which would have given the interview the necessary "specificity", but as a result, he "did not get full satisfaction" from it.

Responding to Zarubin's remark about Carlson's alleged arrest in the United States, Putin said that "it would be good" because then "the liberal democratic dictatorship, which is clearly represented in today's ruling class in America, would show its true face".

When asked which of the US presidents was better for him, current President Biden or his predecessor Donald Trump, Putin replied: "Biden. He is a more predictable person."

Putin also said that once Carlson's crew had turned off the cameras, they started talking about the "demonisation" of Russia in connection with the massive Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century, and the Russian president said that these pogroms took place mostly on the territory of modern Ukraine. In fact, Jewish pogroms took place throughout the Russian Empire.

Radio Liberty notes that Putin's two-hour interview with Carlson did not gain much interest among Russians. The Moscow Times, citing the research company Mediascope, reported that it only ranked 19th in the all-Russian rating of the most popular TV programmes for the week of 4-11 February. The rating of Putin's interview (2.9%) was only slightly ahead of the shows Psychics.Revenge (2.8%) and Polye Chudes (Field of Miracles) (2.7%).

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