Russian TV Has a New Propaganda Star: Tucker Carlson

Tucker Carlson’s show on YouTube and X is now regularly airing on Russia’s state-run channel Rossiya 24, though the show’s producer says they’re not involved.

“Any use of our content on that channel is without legal permission,” said Dean Thompson, the head of programming and production at the Tucker Carlson Network.

Carlson’s many conspiracy theories—from Lyme disease being a bioweapon against the poor to the rise of “wokeness” in the United States—have already aired in the country. And it’s not really a surprise why.

Carlson has long espoused pro-Russian views, downplaying the country’s conflict with Ukraine and minimizing Russia’s invasion as a mere “border dispute.” He even touted a conspiracy theory of a U.S.-led effort to supply Ukraine with chemical weapons.

Carlson has also made no secret of his love for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, traveling all the way to Moscow earlier this year for a widely panned softball interview. Despite Putin’s mockery of Carlson during and after the interview, Carlson still defended Putin’s killing of dissidents, words that eventually came back to hurt the conservative pundit when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in Russian custody days later.

Putin and the Russian government evidently see value in Carlson to keep him on a national TV channel in a country where independent media outlets are highly restricted and subject to bans and being declared “foreign agents” or “undesirable organizations.”

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., even top Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell have blasted Carlson, pointing to him as the reason why many Republicans were against aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia. Can Carlson make up for his diminished U.S. audience with a Russian one? Even if he does, it’ll be difficult to profit from it, considering the massive Western sanctions against Russia.

This story has been updated.