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Last week, Tucker Carlson traveled to Rusia to interview President Vladimir Putin. This sent the left into hysterics – some of whom have called for the journalist to face sanctions, or worse.

Prior to the interview – which can be seen right now in its entirety at tuckercarlson.com, Carlson explained that it's his job as a journalist "to inform people," as "most Americans are not informed" as to what's happening in Ukraine.

To that end, let's get into it.

Tucker starts the interview by asking Putin why he invaded Ukraine, "and the answer we got shocked us."

Putin proceeded to delve into the history of Ukraine, going back to the middle-ages. Tucker pushed back, saying "I'm not sure why it's relevant to what happened two years ago," to which Putin continued with the history lesson.

"But why didn't you make this case for the first 22 years as president, that Ukraine wasn't a real country?" Tucker asked.

"The Soviet Union was given a great deal of territory that had never belonged to it, including the Black Sea region. At some point when Russia received them as an outcome of the Russo Turkish wars, they were called New Russia or another Russia. But that does not matter. What matters is that Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, established Ukraine that way," Putin replied. "For decades, the Ukrainian Soviet Republic developed as part of the USSR. And for unknown reasons, again, the Bolsheviks were engaged in Ukrainization."

NATO Expansion

Getting to the meat of the Ukraine war, Putin told Carlson that "The former Russian leadership assumed that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and therefore there were no longer any ideological dividing lines. Russia even agreed voluntarily and proactively to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and believed that this would be understood by the so-called civilized West as an invitation for cooperation and association."

More:

• On the Nord Stream explosion: "People always say in such cases, look for someone who is interested. But in this case, we should not only look for someone who is interested, but also for someone who has capabilities… Who is interested and who is capable of doing it?"
• On presenting evidence of NATO's involvement: "In the war of propaganda, it is very difficult to defeat the United States because the United States controls all the world's media… We can simply shine the spotlight on our sources of information and we will not achieve results."
• On Germany's silence regarding Nord Stream: "Today's German leadership is guided by the interests of the collective West rather than its national interests."
• On global alliances and security: "Security should be shared rather than meant for the golden billion. That is the only scenario where the world could be stable, sustainable, and predictable."
• On the use of the US dollar as a political tool: "To use the dollar as a tool of foreign policy struggle is one of the biggest strategic mistakes made by the US political leadership."
• On the impact of sanctions and the shift away from the US dollar: "Even the United States allies are now downsizing their dollar reserves… It wasn't us who banned the use of the US dollar. It was the decision of the United States to restrict our transactions in U.S. dollars."
• On the relationship with China: "China's foreign policy philosophy is not aggressive. Its idea is to always look for compromise."
• On potential for change in US-Russia relations: "It is not about the personality of the leader. It is about the elites' mindset, leader deal. If the idea of domination at any cost, based also on forceful actions, dominates the American society, nothing will change."
• On the nature of power in the US: "It is very difficult for us to sort it all out. Who makes decisions in the elections? Each state regulates itself… There are two parties that are dominant: the Republicans and the Democrats."
• On Christianity and violence: "It is very easy when it comes to protecting oneself and one's family, one's homeland. We won't attack anyone… And we were protecting our people, ourselves, our homeland and our future."

Developing…