The peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were almost “finalized”, but after the withdrawal of Moscow’s troops from Kiev, “the other side obeyed the orders of European countries and the United States to fight Russia to the end.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said this in an interview with US journalist, former Fox news anchor, Tucker Carlson. Putin also assured: “The invasion of Poland or Latvia is out of the question.” On the conflict: “Russia’s defeat in Ukraine is impossible, impossible by definition, it will never happen. And NATO must accept Moscow’s territorial gains in Ukraine.”
Valdimir Putin addressed the American Congress: “I want to say to the US leadership: if you really want the war to end, stop supplying weapons to Ukraine.”
“We have no interest in expanding the war – Putin explained – only in one case would I send troops, if Poland attacked Russia. We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. It is absolutely out of the question.” And he added: “It was the CIA that blew up North Stream.”
Vladimir Putin said that eighteen months ago he was ready to sign an end to the war with Ukraine, but that the then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson scuttled the agreement. In the interview, the Russian president said that the negotiations had been held in Istanbul and that Ukraine had signed the agreement but then withdrew its signature under pressure from Johnson, for whom “it was better to fight Russia”. Putin claimed that the person signing the preliminaries of the agreement would be Davyd Arakhamia, the head of the ruling Servant of the People party and advisor to Volodymyr Zelensky. “It’s very sad for me – said Putin – because, as Arakhamia also thought, we could have stopped these hostilities a year and a half ago. Where is Johnson now? And the war continues”.
During the meeting, Putin opened up the possibility of freeing Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal journalist arrested in March and then accused of espionage. “An agreement can be found for his release – he declared – there is no taboo on the issue. We are willing to resolve it, but there are some terms that need to be discussed through special channels. I believe an agreement can be reached.”
On Biden he responded sarcastically: “I don’t remember when the last time I spoke to him was.” And he said: “I had a good relationship with Trump, it’s not a question of leadership in relations between the USA and Russia it’s a question of mentality. I had a great relationship with Bush. I know that in the United States he was portrayed as a kind of country boy who didn’t understand anything. I assure you that this is not the case. I think he made many mistakes towards Russia, but he put pressure on the Europeans. He was no worse than any other American, Russian or European politician and he understood what he was doing better than the others.”