⚡️ President Vladimir Putin answered questions from Tucker Carlson, a journalist and founder of Tucker Carlson Network.

Key talking points:

💬 After 1991, when Russia expected that it would be welcomed into the brotherly family of ”civilized nations,“ nothing like this happened. You tricked us (I'm talking about the US), the promise was that NATO would not expand eastward, but it happened five times, there were five waves of expansion.

• I proposed that the US, Russia and Europe jointly create a missile defense system that, we believe, if created unilaterally, threatens our security. <...> In the end they just told us to get lost. Our proposal was declined, that’s a fact.

• In 2008 the doors of NATO were opened for Ukraine. In 2014, there was a coup, they started persecuting those who did not accept the coup, and it was indeed a coup, they created a threat to Crimea which we had to take under our protection. They launched a war in Donbass in 2014 with the use of aircraft and artillery against civilians. This is when it started.

❗️ And what triggered the latest events? Firstly, the current Ukrainian leadership declared that it would not implement the Minsk Agreements. <...> A year or a year and a half ago, former leaders of Germany and France said openly to the whole world that they indeed signed the Minsk Agreements but they never intended to implement them. They simply led us by the nose.

•After we withdrew our troops from Kiev, the other side (Ukraine) threw away all these agreements and obeyed the instructions of Western countries, European countries and the US to fight Russia to the bitter end.

❓ Wouldn't it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement, already understanding the situation that is developing today, realizing that Russia will fight for its interests to the end. And, realizing this, actually return to common sense, start respecting our country and its interests and look for certain solutions. It seems to me that this is much smarter and more rational.

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