Podcaster Lex Friedman said he will travel to Russia to interview Putin. Before that, he spoke with Zelensky

American podcaster Lex Friedman, who interviewed Vladimir Zelensky in early January, said that he would travel to Russia to talk with Vladimir Putin.

“There is probably a lot to be said about this war. I would say that I interviewed Zelensky and I will go to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin. I understand the risks, I accept the risks and my goal is simply to achieve peace, to make my small contribution to achieving peace,” Friedman said on the podcast of American host Joe Rogan.

According to Friedman, since the start of the war in 2022, there have been three opportunities to make peace. The first - in March-April 2022, when Ukrainian forces defended Kyiv, the second - in the fall of the same year after a successful counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkov region, and the third has come now.

Friedman added that Trump is the person who can lead both countries to peace because he is respected by world leaders. “I think both Zelensky and Putin are afraid of Trump. And this is a great candidate to make peace because they all believe that Trump can do some crazy shit,” Friedman said.

In the podcast, Friedman did not specify when he plans to travel to Russia or whether he has any arrangements for an interview. The Kremlin has not yet commented on Friedman’s words about the interview with Putin.

• Friedman is an American of Soviet origin (Alexey Fedotov). In 2018, he launched a podcast that has become one of the most popular in the English-language media space. At first, Friedman's podcast was focused on the topics of IT and artificial intelligence, but in recent years the journalist began inviting guests from various fields, including politicians. Friedman interviewed Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rapper Ye, better known as Kanye West, and in early January 2025 spoke with Vladimir Zelensky.