How an American and a Hungarian discussed Russians

Tucker Carlson - well, that same Carlson who was fired from Fox News, the well-known American opposition TV host - recently continued his series of interviews with political leaders who do not fit within the framework of the Western political establishment and express opinions alternative to the established "mainstream" of Western countries.

In April of this year, Carlson became inconvenient even for Fox News - the main mouthpiece of the Republican Party in the United States, and without hesitation, he "landed" on Elon Musk's Twitter platform.

American businessman Elon Musk is also a notable figure in the Western media industry. Despite claiming to vote for the Democrats, Musk differs from them in his conservative views. Musk understands freedom and pluralism quite literally - he reinstated former controversial President Trump's Twitter account and cleared Twitter of the "cancel culture" algorithms - a popular trend in the West. He also conducted a staff shake-up, firing a significant portion of those involved in these algorithms.

It is not surprising that Tucker Carlson chose Twitter for his interviews, and on this platform, he achieved remarkable results in a short period of time.

On August 24th, he interviewed Trump, and the episode garnered over 260 million views. And the video released two days ago featuring "Putin's friend," Hungarian President Orban, has already surpassed 120 million views as of today. Of course, it should be noted that these are views of a Twitter feed similar to Telegram, but it still speaks to the tens of millions of views, indicating the Western society's interest in alternative viewpoints. For reference, the population of Hungary is less than 10 million people.

What did the "controversial" American journalist and the "controversial" Hungarian President talk about? The majority of the half-hour interview focused on Russia and the war in Ukraine.

Orban made unacceptable and outrageous statements for the West. He expressed the need to stop the war in Europe, cease weapon supplies to the Ukrainian regime, and return to negotiations with Putin.

At the same time, he noted the historically complicated relationship between Hungary and Russia, recalling the post-war "occupation" under the USSR. (Of course, it would have been worth reminding Orban of the Hungarian occupation of Voronezh during the Great Patriotic War, where Hungarian soldiers committed such atrocities that Soviet soldiers did not take them as prisoners.) But despite this, it is necessary to negotiate with the Russians, said the President of Hungary, which he does in the interest of the Hungarian people. The Russians will not back down, and Putin will not be removed, one must know the Russians well to understand that, added the Hungarian President.

Orban also mentioned the Nord Stream sabotage and said that if a similar attack were to happen with the Southern Stream, through which gas flows from Russia to Hungary via Serbia and Turkey, it would be considered a declaration of war by Hungary. Orban did not disclose whom Hungary would declare war on in this case but stated that Russia did not sabotage its own gas pipeline.

Other topics were also touched upon. Orban stated that Hungary is a Christian country and upholds conservative values, which is why he is popular among Hungarians. He believes that the liberal idea imposes and dictates only one path, making it unacceptable to him. (It seems like the Hungarian President has been reading lectures by Dugin.)

Overall, the interview is quite interesting and worth finding and watching. But who will be Tucker Carlson's next interviewer? Recently, RT's Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan announced that she received a request from him for an interview with Putin.