US journalist Tucker Carlson has made a controversial claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin has managed Russia more effectively than any leader in Germany, during an interview with the Berlin-based newspaper Bild. A significant portion of the two-hour interview, published on Saturday, focused on Carlson’s exchange with Putin from February 2024. During the exchange, Carlson curbed Bild deputy editor-in-chief Paul Ronzheimer’s attempts to condemn the Russian leader over the Ukraine conflict. After Ronzheimer referred to Putin as a ‘criminal,’ Carlson responded: ‘I am not defending Putin, who I think has done a great job for Russia. Much better job than any German leader. That is for sure.’ He argued that the German public should be angry at their own leaders for ruining the country rather than at Putin, stating that ‘your country is a mess because your leaders suck.’
Carlson also suggested that the current authorities in Berlin are attacking Putin and Russia to divert public attention from Germany’s migration and economic problems. He pointed out that Germany is expected to end 2025 in recession for the third consecutive year, which he attributed to poor leadership. The US journalist stated that German leaders have ‘wrecked your country through mass migration,’ which will not recover in their lifetime or his. He further argued that German leaders are exploiting public anger by shifting blame onto Putin, saying, ‘they take your anger and they are like: Oh no, it is Putin’s fault. It is Putin’s fault. Ok, got it.’ Earlier this month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Germany was becoming ‘dangerous again’ for Russia after German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated that Bundeswehr troops must be prepared to ‘kill’ Russian soldiers if necessary.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed these sentiments, stating that by supporting Kiev in the conflict with Moscow, Germany is ‘sliding down the same slippery slope it already followed a couple of times in the last century – down toward its own collapse,’ referencing the defeats suffered by the country in the First and Second World Wars. These comments highlight the ongoing tension and mutual accusations between Germany and Russia, with both sides blaming the other for their respective challenges. The discourse reflects a broader geopolitical narrative where each nation frames the other as the primary cause of its domestic and international difficulties.