On February 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an exended interview to the famous American journalist Tucker Carlson. This interview became a real breaking news of international politics. It has already been viewed by over hundreds of millions people all around the world.

Since it would be impossible to present the whole interview in the newspaper pages, here are the contents of its main points:

History of the emergence of Ukraine

• In 1922, when the USSR was being established, the Bolsheviks established the Soviet Ukraine, which had never existed before.
• Lenin transferred to that newly established Soviet Republic of Ukraine some of the lands together with people living there, even though those lands had never been called Ukraine; and yet they were made part of the newly established Soviet Republic of Ukraine. Those lands included the Black Sea region, which was attained under Catherine the Great [as a result of Russian-Turkey wars] and had no historical connection with Ukraine whatsoever.
• Under the well-known Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Western Ukraine was to be given to the then Soviet Union. Thus Russia, which was then named the USSR, regained its historical lands.
• For decades, the Ukrainian Soviet Republic developed as a part of the USSR, and the Bolsheviks initiated Ukrainianization.
• In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. And everything that Russia had generously bestowed on Ukraine was ”dragged away“ by the latter.

NATO’s expansion to the East

• After the collapse of the Soviet Union our borders should be along the borders of former Union’s republics. But we never agreed to NATO’s expansion and moreover we never agreed that Ukraine would be in NATO. We did not agree to NATO bases there without any discussion with us.
• We were promised, “no NATO to the East, not an inch to the East’, as we were told. And then what? They said, ”Well, it’s not enshrined on paper, so we’ll expand.“ So there were five waves of expansion, to the Baltic States, the whole of Eastern Europe, and so on. In 2008 at the summit in Bucharest they declared that the doors for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO were open.
• Sovereign Ukraine, which gained its independence as a result of the Declaration of Independence, and, by the way, it says that Ukraine is a neutral state, and in 2008 suddenly the doors or gates to NATO were open to it.
• They [NATO countries] are trying to intimidate their own population with an imaginary Russian threat.

Causes of the Ukrainian conflict

• When did the developments in Ukraine start? Since the coup d’etat and the hostilities in Donbass began, that’s when they started [in February 2014]. And we are protecting our people, ourselves, our homeland and our future.
• In 2014, there was a coup, they started persecuting those who did not accept the coup, and it was indeed a coup, they created a threat to Russian speaking population in Crimea which we had to take under our protection.
• They [Ukraine] launched a large-scale military operation, then another one. When they failed, they started to prepare the next one. All this against the background of military development of this territory and opening of NATO’s doors.
• We have repeatedly proposed to seek a solution to the problems that arose in Ukraine after the 2014 coup d’etat through peaceful means. But no one listened to us. And moreover, the Ukrainian leaders who were under the complete US control, suddenly declared that they would not comply with the Minsk agreements, they disliked everything there, and continued military activity in that territory.
• Former leaders of Ukraine, Germany and France said openly to the whole world that although they indeed signed the Minsk Agreements, they never intended to implement them.

Nazism in Ukraine

• After gaining independence, Ukraine began to search, as some Western analysts say, its identity. And it came up with nothing better than to build this identity upon some false heroes who had collaborated with Hitler.
• Ukrainians are part of the one Russian people. They say, ”No, we are a separate people.“ Okay, fine. If they consider themselves a separate people, they have the right to do so, but not on the basis of Nazism, the Nazi ideology.
• Ukraine announced that the Russians were [and a law was adopted] a non-titular nationality, while passing laws that limit the rights of non-titular nationalities in Ukraine. Ukraine, having received all these southeastern territories as a gift from the Russian people, suddenly announced that the Russians were a non-titular nationality in that territory. Is it normal? All this put together led to the decision to put on end to the war that neo-Nazis started in Ukraine in 2014.

Istanbul’s Agreements

• We prepared a huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He affixed his signature to some of the provisions, not to all of it.
• As soon as we pulled back our troops from Kiev, our Ukrainian negotiators immediately threw all our agreements reached in Istanbul into the bin and got prepared for a longstanding armed confrontation with the help of the United States and its satellites in Europe.
• During the negotiations we did agree that – we have it all in writing – neo-Nazism would not be cultivated in Ukraine, including that it would be prohibited at the legislative level.
• After we withdrew our troops from Kiev the other side [Ukraine] threw away all these agreements and obeyed the instructions of Western countries, European countries and the United States to fight Russia to the bitter end.

Negotiations with Ukraine

• President of Ukraine issued a decree prohibiting negotiations with us. Let him cancel that decree and that’s it. We have never refused negotiations indeed.
• Up until now there has been the uproar and screaming about inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield. Now they are apparently coming to realize that it is difficult to achieve, if possible at all. In my opinion, it is impossible by definition, it is never going to happen. It seems to me that now those who are in power in the West have come to realize this as well. If so, if the realization has set in, they have to think what to do next. We are ready for this dialogue.

For the full text of the interview, please follow:  ethiopia.mid.ru/en/press_center/embassy_s_news/interview_to_tucker_carlson

Press-Service of the Russian Embassy in Ethiopia