MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and US journalist Tucker Carlson had a brief talk in an ad hoc, "off-the-record" format after the American journalist conducted a formal interview with the Russian leader in the Kremlin last week, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
"They did have a brief conversation at the end of the interview on their feet, and it was a brief one indeed," Peskov told journalists in response to a question as to whether that brief conversation had been recorded.
The US journalist said earlier that he had chatted with the Russian president after their interview, but that it was not on the record; Carlson declined to disclose what they spoke about. In addition, Carlson noted that Putin was ready to strike a compromise deal on the Ukrainian conflict within the context of diplomacy.
Putin’s interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson on February 8 in Moscow lasted for two hours and six minutes. The Russian leader responded to about 60 questions, including the interviewer’s follow-up queries.
The much-anticipated interview was published in the early morning of February 9. A significant part of the two-hour conversation was devoted to the Ukrainian conflict and Russia's relations with the United States, NATO and the West in general. Within the first 24 hours of its release, the video of the interview was viewed more than 100 mln times on social network X alone.