What did Putin even talk about?

And why his interview with Tucker Carlson makes total sense

The Putin-Carlson interview is widely dismissed as “bizarre”. Which implies it is absolutely great.

Why?

Because it failed.

Tucker aimed to sell Putin to the American audience. For that to happen, he had to make him relatable. And to make him relatable, he had to fit him into the American internal discourse. He had to present Putin, his agenda, rationales and motivations in American terms. In other words, Tucker had to misrepresent him.

Tucker diligently, repeatedly tried to perform exactly that. He was openly suggesting Putin what to say and almost forcefully putting the (false, inauthentic) talkpoints into the Putin’s mouth. Tucker did everything he could to make Putin repeat them, and be seen as relatable. Yet, he failed. Putin did nothing of that.

Putin refused to play Tucker’s game. Instead of appealing to America, Putin was genuinely expressing himself. Being Russian, he expressed himself in terms of the Russian rather than American discourse. Unsurprisingly, this made his interview unrelatable, not to say incomprehensible to the American audience.

And that is exactly what makes it great.

Putin is not an American. He was not born in America. He did not grow up in America. He never really spent much time in America. Putin’s initial upbringing, his formative experiences, his administrative and political career, all took place far away from the American borders, in a completely different country.

It would be weird for Putin (who is not an American, never lived in America, and whose formative experiences have been very much un-American) to be relatable for Americans. Were he relatable, that would almost certainly mean he is not being genuine. He is trying to sell, and therefore, makes a special effort to present a relatable image. Which has nothing to do with reality.

And vice versa. Putin being unrelatable, incomprehensible and ultimately unsellable in America implies he is almost certainly being himself. Failing to sell Putin, Tucker has unwillingly presented a correct and truthful presentation of who he is, what he believes in and what he stands for. Most importantly, he presented a correct and truthful representation of the Russian public imagination.

This makes the Tucker’s endeavour a propagandist’s failure and an absolute treasure from the analyst’s standpoint.

Tucker shocked Americans by presenting them the Other.