President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia saved returning to 1 message time and again in his meandering, two-hour interview with the previous Fox Information host Tucker Carlson: Russia desires to barter a peace deal in Ukraine.
However the day after the long-anticipated interview, that message appeared misplaced within the muddle.
The Russian chief’s discursive historic diatribes, delving into all the pieces from the Rurik dynasty to the Golden Horde, dominated commentary in regards to the interview on-line and overshadowed the message he meant to ship to People.
In Russia on Friday, specialists and even a few of Mr. Putin’s allies have been additionally puzzling over why he gave quick shrift to his primary ideological commonality with Mr. Carlson’s followers: opposition to L.G.B.T.Q. rights and different liberal social causes.
Margarita Simonyan, head of the Russian state broadcaster, RT, lamented that Mr. Putin uncared for to market Russia as a “a secure haven for people who find themselves not able to ship their youngsters to be raised by L.G.B.T. folks.”
“That is the one factor on which Russia can and may now construct an ideology externally,” Ms. Simonyan stated, blaming Mr. Carlson for not asking the suitable questions. “Simply as the usS.R. as soon as constructed it on the concepts of social equality.”
As an alternative, Mr. Putin spent a lot of the interview subjecting a baffled Mr. Carlson to an irredentist teach-in on 1,000 years of Jap European historical past, leaving the previous Fox Information host, by his personal admission, “shocked.”
The end result was a way the Russian chief missed an opportunity.
“I assume that he simply didn’t attempt very arduous,” Grigorii Golosov, a professor of political science on the European College at St. Petersburg, stated in a telephone interview. “If his objective was actually to clarify himself — and that’s what it appears to have been — then it’s unlikely that he reached that objective.”
Mr. Golosov stated that Mr. Putin’s primary tactical goal was to attempt to compel the West to make a positive deal to finish the struggle — one that might cement Russia’s management of the Ukrainian territory it has already captured and, maybe, result in a extra Russia-friendly authorities in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
“Putin feels that that is the perfect second to drive the West into what he believes is the pure manner out of this example,” Mr. Golosov stated. “And meaning direct talks with Russia with out the participation of Ukraine about tips on how to finish the battle on Russia’s phrases.”
Between the historic diatribes, that intent was evident.
Mr. Putin introduced negotiations, on his phrases, as a manner out, now that the West had lastly realized Russia was not going to endure a “strategic defeat” on the battlefield in Ukraine.
“It’s by no means going to occur,” Mr. Putin stated. “It appears to me that now those that are in energy within the West have come to comprehend this as properly. If that’s the case, if the conclusion has set in, they must assume what to do subsequent. We’re prepared for this dialogue.”
At one other level, he requested, “Wouldn’t it’s higher to come back to an settlement with Russia?”
His pitch comes at a very difficult second for Ukraine.
Kyiv is dealing with ammunition and personnel shortages, important opposition to extra assist in Washington and the prospect of a Russia-friendly former president, Donald J. Trump, returning to the White Home. A Western-backed counteroffensive designed to retake territory final yr failed, and the navy management is within the midst of a chaotic shake-up.
Mr. Putin provided a substitute for doubling down on assist for Ukraine.
“He was fairly clearly pitching to the Republican proper, making an attempt to increase the variety of votes towards assist to Ukraine, making an attempt to develop or nurture assist on this nation for a negotiated answer on his phrases,” stated Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, a political threat consultancy. That stated, he added, it clearly wasn’t Mr. Putin’s “most interesting efficiency.”
In Ukraine, the place officers have been deeply skeptical of Mr. Putin’s signaling of a want for talks in latest months — as Russian missile barrages streak into cities throughout the nation — the suggestion was dismissed as unserious.
“Carlson’s interview with Putin is a two-hour marathon of delusions and fakes,” the Middle for Strategic Communications, a Ukrainian authorities group, stated in a press release.
Ukrainian officers and commentators have stated they see in Mr. Putin’s overtures not a willingness to compromise, however quite an effort to undermine assist in Congress for navy help, by suggesting the struggle may finish quickly by negotiations.
Within the interview, Mr. Putin introduced the message of a doable settlement on to “the plenty of Trump’s voters” on X, Maria Zolkina, a political analyst, wrote in a put up on Fb, suggesting it was aimed toward swaying American insurance policies on Ukraine by resonating with Republicans opposed to help.
The argument that the struggle may finish by concessions to Russia, she stated, “suits proper in with Trump’s narrative.”
Mr. Putin may see this yr as his second to chop a deal that might permit him to regroup and pursue greater goals in Ukraine afterward. Whereas Russia has seized the initiative on the battlefield, it nonetheless faces important limitations, in addition to closely fortified Ukrainian entrance strains. Because of this, the Russian navy is unlikely to brush throughout Ukrainian territory and seize any new, massive cities within the instant future.
The content material of Mr. Putin’s historic diatribes — designed to painting Ukraine as a faux nation with no separate id — didn’t sign a Russia keen to compromise.
The Ukrainian authorities has famous Mr. Putin has by no means backed away from his maximalist calls for, decoding the objective of “demilitarizing” and “de-Nazifying” Ukraine as halting Western navy help and putting in a pro-Russian authorities in Kyiv.
“We now have seen the film earlier than concerning his view of historical past and his utter avoidance of the truth that Ukraine turned an internationally acknowledged nation with sovereign borders in 1991,” stated Mr. Kupchan, the Eurasia Group chairman. “He genuinely thinks that Ukraine was his, is his and can at all times be his.”
Andrew E. Kramer, Milana Mazaeva and Neil MacFarquhar contributed to this report.