VLADIMIR Putin boasted about Russia's 'unstoppable' weapons, threatened World War 3 and blamed Boris Johnson for the war in Ukraine in a rambling interview with Tucker Carlson.
The shameless Russian tyrant spoke for two hours - his first interview with Western media since his troops invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Carlson, 54, who has long been adored by Russian state media, treated the world last night to what he claims to be an "unedited" interview with the Russian president.
The news host sold it as a means for the American public to see the “truth” of the Ukraine war after two years of what he blasted as "one-sided" narratives fed by Western media.
However, instead Putin sat down to weave yet another baseless web of lies, launching a lengthy tirade about Russian history, before laying into Boris Johnson, President Biden and all of the West for "threat-mongering".
If the controversial US TV pundit attempted to interject, Putin swiftly cut him down, arguing: "Are we going to have a serious talk or a show?”
In successive monologues, the Kremlin boss attempted to justify his actions over the last two years and pedalled his usual lies, blaming Ukraine for starting the war and accusing Nato of escalating it.
Key moments of the interview:
Putin seized the huge PR opportunity to blast the US and the rest of the West's arming of Ukraine as a "cheap provocation" towards Russia.
He then warned that if US troops hit the ground in Ukraine, then it would push the world to the edge of World War 3.
He told Carlson: “If somebody has the desire to send regular troops [to Ukraine], that would certainly bring humanity to the brink of a very serious global conflict."
Despite his ongoing threats towards Nato, Putin alleged that he has no intention of invading the Baltics or Poland.
"We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don't have any interest."
Instead, he accused American and European leaders of merely "threat-mongering", saying "they have been scaring everyone with us all along".
He even went as far as to claim that the war in Ukraine had been concocted by the leaders of these countries to "extort" money from their taxpayers to weaken Russia.
Putin then alleged that the US, the UK, and Nato have been using the war in Ukraine as a means of conditioning Western citizens against Russia.
Putin talked of extremely powerful weapons, including so-called 'unstoppable' missiles.
He vowed to "create such strike systems that will certainly overcome missile defence systems".
He added: "We created hypersonic systems with intercontinental range, and we continue to develop them.
"We are now ahead of everyone, the United States and the other countries in terms of the development of hypersonic strike systems.
"And we are improving them every day."
Bizarrely, Putin dragged former Prime Minister Boris Johnson into the discussion and baselessly accused him of orchestrating the ongoing fighting in Ukraine.
Putin said: "It's very sad to me... we could have stopped these hostilities with war a year and a half ago already."
Putin ranted that negotiations to end the war had been underway 18 months ago, and that Johnson was personally responsible for its failure.
The former PM has previously dismissed these claims as "total nonsense" and stated he only expressed "concerns" about the potential peace agreement.
When Carlson raised the issue, Putin said: “Prime Minister Johnson came to talk us out of it and we missed that chance. Well, you missed it.”
He added: “The fact that they obey the demand or persuasion of Mr Johnson, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, seems ridiculous.
“Where is Mr Johnson now? And the war continues.”
Carlson responded: “That’s a good question. Where do you think he is, and why did he do that?”
Putin claimed he “did not understand it”.
“Because of arrogance, because of a pure heart, but not because of a great mind,” he said.
There was some hope for wrongly jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich after Putin suggested he could be released.
The US journalist was arrested on trumped up and unsubstantiated charges of espionage last March and has been languishing behind bars in a notorious Moscow prison.
When Gershkovich was brought up by Carlson, Putin grimaced before arguing he had already made many gestures out of "goodwill".
He said: "We have done so many gestures of goodwill out of decency that we have run out of them. We have never seen anyone reciprocate to us in a similar manner."
However, he did signal that back-channel conversations were ongoing with Washington over his release "as special services are in contact with one another”.
“They are talking about the matter in question, he said, adding: “I believe an agreement can be reached”.
Over 1,000 independent Russian journalists have fled the country so far to escape Putin’s sweeping censorship laws that criminalise any critical coverage of the war.
Since war broke out, at least 302,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the front line.
A further 70,000 Ukrainian troops and at least 10,000 civilians have also been killed, although it is feared that number is likely far higher.
Unashamedly, Putin denied having started the war in 2022, claiming instead that the last two years have been his attempts to stop Ukraine's war against him.
Putin added that he had been unable to achieve his aims because one of them is de-nazification.
"This means the prohibition of all kinds of neo-Nazi movements," he said.
"I say that the 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."
From the very onset of the war, the Kremlin has issued warped claims accusing Ukraine of being under a Nazi regime - while it continues to deny having any involvement in civilian attacks.
UKRAINIAN officials believe there have been more than 100,000 cases of war crimes committed by Russian forces since February 2022.
On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.
The UN Commission of Inquiry on the war against Ukraine found that Putin's cronies were responsible for the abduction and deportation of tens of thousands of children.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have also been found responsible for the torture and murder of thousands of Ukrainian civilians - alongside countless rapes.
The Russian despot has denied targeting civilians, but further inquiries into the war found that there have been purposeful missile strikes on civilian refugees, multiple shootings at civilian vehicles, and cases where civilians have been used as human shields.
Ukrainian forces have also alleged that Russia has been using filtration camps, which they describe as "modern day concentration camps", where masses of Ukrainians have been subjected to electric torture, beatings, stabbings and shootings.
In the annexed regions, there have also been cases of Ukrainian civilians forced into joining the pro-Russian separatist forces.
The interview took an even stranger turn when Putin decided to divert the focus to Elon Musk.
"There are reports that Elon Musk has already had the chip implanted in the human brain in the USA," Putin said.
The dictator added: "I think there's no stopping Elon Musk.
"He will do as he sees fit. Nevertheless, you'll need to find some common ground with him.
"Search for ways to persuade him. I think he's a smart person. I truly believe he is. So you'll need to reach an agreement with him because this process needs to be formalized and subjected to certain rules."
He went on to compare AI to nuclear war, stressing that humanity "has to consider what is going to happen due to the newest development in genetics or in AI."
"One can make an approximate prediction of what will happen," Putin said.
"Once mankind felt an existential threat coming from nuclear weapons - all nuclear nations began to come to terms with one another, since they realized the negligent use of nuclear weaponry could drive humanity to extinction.
"It is impossible to stop research in genetics or AI today, just as it was impossible to stop the use of gunpowder back in the day.
"But as soon as we realize that the threat comes from unbridled and uncontrolled development of AI or genetics or any other field, the time will come to reach an international agreement on how to regulate these things."
A STAGGERING 10,000 Ukrainian civilians deaths have been recorded since Putin launched his brutal invasion in February 2022.
This estimate includes more than 560 children.
Ukraine is also thought to have lost at least 70,000 soldiers in the fight against Russia.
174 civilian citizens from other countries have also been killed during Putin's offensive - three of which were from the UK.
Tens of journalists have also been killed - although the exact figure is yet to be determined.
Meanwhile, it has been estimated that Russia has only lost 79 civilians.
Putin has lost over 300,000 soldiers in bloody meat-grinder battles since the start of his war.
Just ten months into his own war, Putin had already lost 100,000 Russian men.
