Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson has announced from Moscow the upcoming release of an interview with Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
In a video post on X from outside Moscow's Red Square, the former Fox News anchor explained why he had returned to Russia, nine months after an interview with President Vladimir Putin that was widely criticized for its lack of tough questions.
"We came back to Moscow yesterday to interview the foreign minister of Russia," Carlson said, as he went on to condemn the Biden administration's handling of Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"We are, unbeknownst to most Americans, in a hot war with Russia," Carlson said, as he took aim at Biden for his decision to allow Ukraine to use long-range ATACMS weapons to hit Russian territory.
He said the Biden administration's policy had "driven the U.S. ever-closer to a nuclear conflict with Russia" in a comment which social media users noted repeated Kremlin rhetoric about the war that it started.
Next to the three-minute clip, the X account Republicans Against Trump posted "as usual, Carlson spread pro-Kremlin propaganda, falsely accusing the United States of killing Russian soldiers and claiming that 'We're closer to nuclear war than any time in history.'"
Kyle Orton posted on X: "Tucker Carlson back in #Russia, trying to incite panic about "world war three" so the U.S. will surrender Ukraine to Moscow, and giving the Kremlin a chance to get its message to Americans, this time from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov."
Newsweek contacted the Tucker Carlson Network for comment about the interview. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that the interview lasted around an hour and a half, was wide-ranging and would be released in a couple of days.
A still image of the interview was posted on the X account of the Russian embassy in Kenya.
"The emphasis was placed on the modern, current history of our difficult relations with the United States, the impact of all this on world geopolitics, the possibilities of the future state of affairs," she said, according to Tass. "Ukraine and other issues were raised."
Following Carlson's last trip to Russia, Putin told state-television he had expected a tougher ride from the American anchor and he had hoped that he would be asked "so-called sharp questions."
A video of Carlson visiting a Moscow supermarket in which he praised relatively low grocery prices and drew the conclusion that life in Russia was more affordable than in the U.S. prompted mockery online.
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