‘That Took a Lot of Guts’: Putin Grows Agitated as Tucker Carlson Repeatedly Presses Him About Jailed US Journalist

On Tuesday, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking a wide range of questions over the course of over two hours.

It appears that he saved the most contentious part of the interview — perhaps wisely — for last.

About 15 minutes shy of the end of their meeting, Carlson started a new line of questioning, one that appeared to make the Russian strongman visibly uncomfortable, and he received a fair amount of praise on social media for doing it.

“I appreciate all the time you’ve given us,” Carlson started. “I just got to ask you one last question, and that’s about someone who’s very famous in the United States, probably not here: Evan Gershkovitz, who’s the Wall Street Journal reporter. He’s 32 and he’s been in prison for almost a year.”

Carlson wasted no time, however, in asking for what he wanted: the release of Gershkovitz into Carlson’s custody, to be returned to the United States, “as a sign of [Putin’s] decency.”

Listening to the translation of Tucker’s ask, Putin sighed and furrowed his brow, then answered: “We have done so many gestures of goodwill out of decency that I think we have run out of them.”

Putin claimed that no other country had ever released a Russian prisoner in a similar manner, but then allowed that, “In theory, we can say that we can do that if our partners take reciprocal steps.”

The Russian president said that “special services” — i.e., intelligence and diplomatic personnel from both the U.S. and Russia — were already having discussions about repatriating Gershkovitz and that he believed the two sides would eventually make a deal.

That, apparently, wasn’t enough for Carlson, who said Gershkovitz should receive different treatment.

“He’s a kid,” Carlson said, “and maybe he was breaking your law in some way, but he’s not a super spy and everybody knows that. … So maybe he’s in a different category.”

Putin shifted in his seat before, unsurprisingly, disagreeing with Carlson’s description of Gershkovitz and smiling while he claimed the journalist had been caught “red-handed.”More From Western Journal: