Tucker Carlson Being Spotted in Moscow Sparks Frenzied Speculation

The reported appearance of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in the Russian capital has sparked intense speculation over the purpose of the conservative media personality's visit to Moscow.

Carlson arrived in Moscow on February 1, and was spotted attending the Bolshoi Theater in the capital, according to Russian outlet Mash.

Questions quickly swirled over why the TV anchor would have traveled to Moscow, and whether he intended to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin during the visit.

"Democrats and their propagandists in the media are spasming at the prospect of Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin," Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

"We have a free press in this country and its people like Tucker Carlson who we depend on to speak the truth!" she wrote.

Referencing Greene's comments on Sunday, Russia's state-backed news agency, Tass, reported that Kremlin press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, had said in 2023 that the world would have to "wait and see" whether Putin would speak with Carlson.

Carlson said in late September 2023 that he had attempted to interview the Russian leader, but that the U.S. government had blocked the move. "I tried to interview Vladimir Putin, and the U.S. government stopped me," Carlson told Swiss magazine, Die Weltwoche.

Newsweek has reached out to Carlson for comment via email.

Carlson abruptly left Fox News in April 2023, and has since set up his own streaming service and hosted shows on social media.

Carlson has become a popular figure among Russian state media commentators, and has been accused of echoing Russian state propaganda.

Shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, progressive outlet Mother Jones published what it said was a Kremlin memo urging state-linked outlets to use more footage of Carlson in their broadcasts.

"It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally," one Russian-language memo said, according to Mother Jones.

Margarita Simonyan, a top Kremlin propagandist who heads up the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, said in August 2023 that Carlson had requested an interview with the Kremlin chief, adding the former Fox News host was "doing a great job."

Russian state television promoted Carlson's new content in September 2023, although the anchor told the Financial Times that he "had never seen this," adding: "I have no clue what it's about."