Tucker Carlson is an American journalist and former Fox News host who frequently appears in Russian propaganda media and echoes Kremlin narratives.
From the very first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Carlson has opposed the provision of American aid to Ukraine. He has also referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a dictator and claimed that Zelenskyy, with U.S. support, is attempting to overthrow the Russian government. Carlson has tried to portray Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a “religious war,” shifting blame away from Russia and toward the United States — a narrative that, in certain cases, has taken on characteristics of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI). Carlson’s manipulative interpretations have been covered primarily by Russian propaganda outlets. In the Georgian context, beyond Kremlin-aligned platforms like Alt-Info and Georgia and World, such anti-US narratives have also been localized by pro-government actors, including experts and media.
Notably, Tucker Carlson’s videos are translated into various languages and spread not only via Facebook but across other social media platforms as well. For example, КарлсонТВ [Carlson TV] is available not only on YouTube — where it has over a million subscribers — but also on Telegram, VKontakte, Sponsr.ru, and other Russian platforms.
Currently, Carlson’s platform primarily consists of online podcast series, which are regularly amplified by Russian state media due to ideological alignment. Carlson has also been listed as a member of the Council of Independent Media Experts under Russia’s “People’s Unity Club.” Other members of this council include Scott Ritter, Jeffrey Sachs, Larry Johnson, and Ricardo Sanchez — “Western experts” who like Carlson, promote narratives favorable to the Kremlin. The presidium of the “People’s Unity Club” includes figures such as Aleksandr Dugin, Yevgeny Primakov, and Nikolai Azarov.
Tucker Carlson is the first Western journalist to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin following Russia’s full-scale military intervention in Ukraine. Carlson later announced an upcoming interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though the Ukrainian President’s press secretary denied this claim. A few months later, the former Fox News host conducted another interview — this time with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
