Tucker Carlson: Denazification is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard

American scientist and blogger of Russian origin Lex Friedman published a podcast with journalist Tucker Carlson, who recorded an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in early February.

In the conversation, Friedman asked Carlson what he thought about the “denazification” that Putin used as a reason for invading Ukraine. Here's what Carlson said in response:

I thought that was one of the stupidest things I'd ever heard. I didn’t understand what this meant: denazification. I hate all this talk because there's nothing real in it, it's just ad hominem. It is a way of associating someone with an evil regime that no longer exists. But in fact, Nazism, whatever it may be, is inseparable from the German nation. It was a nationalist movement in Germany. There were no other Nazis, right? I am extremely against Nazism. I'm just saying that in 2024 there will be no Nazi movement. It's a way of calling people evil.

Putin does not like Ukrainian nationalists. Putin hates nationalism in general. Of course, because he has 80 different republics, and he is afraid of nationalist movements. Because of this, he waged a war in Chechnya... I am for nationalism, I am for American nationalism, so I do not agree with Putin on this. But to call them [Ukrainians] Nazis - I think this is childish.

• “Denazification” is one of the official goals of the invasion of Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin mentioned on a par with “demilitarization.” Several months after the war began, as The Project reported , Russian authorities sharply reduced the use of “denazification” because, according to closed opinion polls, Russians do not understand and cannot properly explain the term. In March 2022, the Financial Times wrote that Moscow, during peace negotiations with Kiev, abandoned its demand for the “denazification” of Ukraine. At the same time, Vladimir Putin continued to call “denazification” one of the goals of the war.
• In early February, Tucker Carlson released an interview with Vladimir Putin, for which the American journalist came to Moscow. Carlson's visit was widely covered by Russian propaganda. During the interview, Putin gave Carlson a lecture in which he outlined his own version of the history of Russia and Ukraine, and gave standard answers on other topics.