President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia saved returning to at least one message time and again in his meandering, two-hour interview with the previous Fox Information host Tucker Carlson: Russia needs to barter a peace deal in Ukraine, albeit on the Kremlin’s phrases.
That message appeared aimed on the American proper and Republicans in Congress, with an eye fixed to undermining assist for assist to Ukraine. In that case, the day after the long-anticipated interview, it 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.
In Russia on Friday, specialists and even a few of Mr. Putin’s allies had been additionally puzzling over why he gave quick shrift to his fundamental 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 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 will now construct an ideology externally,” Ms. Simonyan mentioned, blaming Mr. Carlson for not asking the correct questions. “Simply as the united statesS.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 Japanese 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 strive very onerous,” Grigorii Golosov, a professor of political science on the European College at St. Petersburg, mentioned in a telephone interview. “If his aim was actually to elucidate himself — and that’s what it appears to have been — then it’s unlikely that he reached that aim.”
Mr. Golosov mentioned that Mr. Putin’s fundamental tactical goal was to attempt to compel the West to make a good deal to finish the battle — 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 easiest second to power the West into what he believes is the pure manner out of this case,” Mr. Golosov mentioned. “And meaning direct talks with Russia with out the participation of Ukraine about methods to finish the battle on Russia’s phrases.”
Between the historic diatribes, that intent was evident.
Mr. Putin offered negotiations, on his phrases, as a manner out, now that the West had lastly realized Russia was not going to undergo a “strategic defeat” on the battlefield in Ukraine.
“It’s by no means going to occur,” Mr. Putin mentioned. “It appears to me that now those that are in energy within the West have come to understand this as effectively. In that 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 return to an settlement with Russia?”
His pitch comes at a very difficult second for Ukraine.
Kyiv is going through 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 an alternative choice to doubling down on assist for Ukraine.
“He was fairly clearly pitching to the Republican proper, attempting to increase the variety of votes towards assist to Ukraine, attempting to develop or nurture assist on this nation for a negotiated resolution on his phrases,” mentioned Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, a political danger consultancy. That mentioned, 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 need for talks in current 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, mentioned in an announcement.
Ukrainian officers and commentators have mentioned they see in Mr. Putin’s overtures not a willingness to compromise, however slightly an effort to undermine assist in Congress for navy help, by suggesting the battle would possibly finish quickly by means of negotiations.
Within the interview, Mr. Putin introduced the message of a potential settlement on to “the lots of Trump’s citizens” on X, Maria Zolkina, a political analyst, wrote in a submit on Fb, suggesting it was geared toward swaying American insurance policies on Ukraine by resonating with Republicans opposed to help.
The argument that the battle may finish by means of concessions to Russia, she mentioned, “suits proper in with Trump’s narrative.”
Mr. Putin may see this yr as his second to chop a deal that might enable him to regroup and pursue larger goals in Ukraine in a while. Whereas Russia has seized the initiative on the battlefield, it nonetheless faces important limitations, in addition to closely fortified Ukrainian entrance traces. Consequently, the Russian navy is unlikely to brush throughout Ukrainian territory and seize any new, large cities within the quick future.
The content material of Mr. Putin’s historic diatribes — designed to painting Ukraine as a pretend 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, deciphering the aim of “demilitarizing” and “de-Nazifying” Ukraine as halting Western navy help and putting in a pro-Russian authorities in Kyiv.
“We’ve seen the film earlier than relating to his view of historical past and his utter avoidance of the truth that Ukraine grew to become an internationally acknowledged nation with sovereign borders in 1991,” mentioned 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.
