Historian debunks Putin's 'calamitous' history knowledge during Carlson interview

Vladimir Putin's now widely debated interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been the talk of the international media over the past few days and historian Tom Holland has now taken apart some of the Russian leader's inaccurate historical beliefs.

Putin used most of the two-hour chat with Carlson to spread Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine, which included a bizarre elongated section where Putin reeled off his knowledge of centuries and centuries of Russian history, going as far back as 862 to, in his words, "the establishment of the Russian state."

Speaking on The Rest is History podcast, historian Tom Holland called Putin's obsession with history "pretty calamitous" and that the "world would be in a much better state" is Putin had no interest in history.

Holland continued by saying that Putin has created a myth for himself that Ukraine has always been a part of Russia and used the analogy of the British government laying a claim to Ireland because Saint Patrick came from Britain. "It's that level of strangeness," Holland adds.

He added that Putin's belief that "religious and ethnic identity are not the same in the 21st century as they would have been in the early Middle Ages" is "bizarre."

Putin's claim that Poland was collaborationist at the start of World War II was "egregious" and it was the Soviet Union that collaborated with Nazi Germany in the partition of Poland. This ignorance of basic facts by Putin was as Holland puts it being "sacrificed on the altar of his passionately held sense of what history should be like but isn't."

Historian Debunks Putin's Historical Inaccuracies in Tucker Carlson Interview | Tom Hollandwww.youtube.com

In response to Putin's interview, speaking to broadcasters in the South West, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was “clearly ridiculous” to blame the West for the war.

“Russia conducted an illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. I’m proud that the UK has stood strongly with Ukraine from the beginning.

“I was there earlier this year, the first foreign leader to visit. It was my first visit of the year to announce significant military support to Ukraine and also a broader security relationship with them.

“We can’t let this type of behaviour go unchecked. It impacts all of our security. We’ve already seen the impact it had on everyone’s energy bills. And that’s why we’re working closely, not just with the US but with allies around the world, to give Ukraine the support it needs for as long as it takes to repel the Russian invasion.”

Additional reporting by PA.

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