Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been filmed visiting Moscow in recent days as rumors swirl over whether he plans to interview President Vladimir Putin.
Photographs of the conservative media personality in the Russian capital first emerged over the weekend when he was seen attending a concert at the Bolshoi Theater.
A reporter from the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia caught up with Carlson on Monday to ask him about his trip to Russia.
“I just wanted to see Moscow. I read so much about it. So I wanted to talk to people and look around and then see how it’s doing,” Carlson said.
“It’s doing very well,” he added.
The Izvestia reporter appeared to have secretly recorded the interaction and it was not immediately clear if Carlson was aware that he was on camera.
When asked whether he planned to interview Putin, Carlson responded: “We’ll see.”
The conservative pundit told Swiss media in September that he planned to interview Putin but the U.S. government “stopped” him from doing so.
Carlson has spoken favorably about the Russian leader both before and after the invasion of Ukraine, while also criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky along with Kyiv’s Western allies.
The Kremlin on Monday declined to comment on the possibility of Carlson interviewing Putin, telling reporters that it had “nothing to announce at this moment.”
“We’ll inform you if we decide to plan anything,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Carlson arrived in Moscow last Thursday, according to the Telegram news channel Mash, which is believed to have links to Russia’s security services.