President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia saved returning to 1 message time and again in his meandering, two-hour interview with the previous Fox Information host Tucker Carlson: Russia desires to barter a peace deal in Ukraine.
However the day after the long-anticipated interview, that message appeared misplaced within the muddle.
The Russian chief’s discursive historic diatribes, delving into all the things from the Rurik dynasty to the Golden Horde, dominated commentary concerning the interview on-line and overshadowed the message he supposed to ship to People.
In Russia on Friday, consultants and even a few of Mr. Putin’s allies have been additionally puzzling over why he gave quick shrift to his principal ideological commonality with Mr. Carlson’s followers: opposition to L.G.B.T.Q. rights and different liberal social causes.
Margarita Simonyan, head of the Russian state broadcaster, RT, lamented that Mr. Putin uncared for to market Russia as a “a protected haven for people who find themselves not able to ship their kids to be raised by L.G.B.T. individuals.”
“That is the one factor on which Russia can and will now construct an ideology externally,” Ms. Simonyan stated, blaming Mr. Carlson for not asking the precise questions. “Simply as the united statesS.R. as soon as constructed it on the concepts of social equality.”
As a substitute, Mr. Putin spent a lot of the interview subjecting a baffled Mr. Carlson to an irredentist teach-in on 1,000 years of Japanese European historical past, leaving the previous Fox Information host, by his personal admission, “shocked.”
The end result was a way the Russian chief missed an opportunity.
“I assume that he simply didn’t attempt very onerous,” Grigorii Golosov, a professor of political science on the European College at St. Petersburg, stated in a telephone interview. “If his objective was actually to clarify himself — and that’s what it appears to have been — then it’s unlikely that he reached that objective.”
Mr. Golosov stated that Mr. Putin’s principal tactical goal was to attempt to compel the West to make a positive deal to finish the struggle — one that will cement Russia’s management of the Ukrainian territory it has already captured and, maybe, result in a extra Russia-friendly authorities in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
“Putin feels that that is the perfect second to drive the West into what he believes is the pure manner out of this case,” Mr. Golosov stated. “And which means direct talks with Russia with out the participation of Ukraine about methods to finish the battle on Russia’s phrases.”
Between the historic diatribes, that intent was evident.
Mr. Putin introduced negotiations, on his phrases, as a manner out, now that the West had lastly realized Russia was not going to undergo a “strategic defeat” on the battlefield in Ukraine.
“It’s by no means going to occur,” Mr. Putin stated. “It appears to me that now those that are in energy within the West have come to appreciate this as effectively. In that case, if the belief has set in, they should assume what to do subsequent. We’re prepared for this dialogue.”
At one other level, he requested, “Wouldn’t it’s higher to come back to an settlement with Russia?”
His pitch comes at a very difficult second for Ukraine.
Kyiv is dealing with ammunition and personnel shortages, vital opposition to extra support in Washington and the prospect of a Russia-friendly former president, Donald J. Trump, returning to the White Home. A Western-backed counteroffensive designed to retake territory final yr failed, and the army management is within the midst of a chaotic shake-up.
Mr. Putin supplied a substitute for doubling down on assist for Ukraine.
“He was fairly clearly pitching to the Republican proper, attempting to increase the variety of votes in opposition to support to Ukraine, attempting to develop or nurture assist on this nation for a negotiated resolution on his phrases,” stated Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, a political danger consultancy. That stated, he added, it clearly wasn’t Mr. Putin’s “most interesting efficiency.”
In Ukraine, the place officers have been deeply skeptical of Mr. Putin’s signaling of a need for talks in current months — as Russian missile barrages streak into cities throughout the nation — the suggestion was dismissed as unserious.
“Carlson’s interview with Putin is a two-hour marathon of delusions and fakes,” the Heart for Strategic Communications, a Ukrainian authorities group, stated in an announcement.
Ukrainian officers and commentators have stated they see in Mr. Putin’s overtures not a willingness to compromise, however somewhat an effort to undermine assist in Congress for army help, by suggesting the struggle may finish quickly by negotiations.
Within the interview, Mr. Putin introduced the message of a attainable settlement on to “the lots of Trump’s citizens” on X, Maria Zolkina, a political analyst, wrote in a publish on Fb, suggesting it was geared toward swaying American insurance policies on Ukraine by resonating with Republicans opposed to assist.
The argument that the struggle may finish by concessions to Russia, she stated, “matches proper in with Trump’s narrative.”
Mr. Putin may see this yr as his second to chop a deal that will enable him to regroup and pursue larger goals in Ukraine afterward. Whereas Russia has seized the initiative on the battlefield, it nonetheless faces vital limitations, in addition to closely fortified Ukrainian entrance strains. Consequently, the Russian army is unlikely to brush throughout Ukrainian territory and seize any new, massive cities within the instant future.
The content material of Mr. Putin’s historic diatribes — designed to painting Ukraine as a faux nation with no separate id — didn’t sign a Russia keen to compromise.
The Ukrainian authorities has famous Mr. Putin has by no means backed away from his maximalist calls for, decoding the objective of “demilitarizing” and “de-Nazifying” Ukraine as halting Western army help and putting in a pro-Russian authorities in Kyiv.
“We’ve seen the film earlier than concerning his view of historical past and his utter avoidance of the truth that Ukraine turned an internationally acknowledged nation with sovereign borders in 1991,” stated Mr. Kupchan, the Eurasia Group chairman. “He genuinely thinks that Ukraine was his, is his and can all the time be his.”
Andrew E. Kramer, Milana Mazaeva and Neil MacFarquhar contributed to this report.
