(Reuters) – U.S. conservative media personality Tucker Carlson said on Wednesday that he was back in Russia to interview Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Carlson, a vocal supporter of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in February, his first interview with an American journalist since before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Appearing outside the Kremlin in a video on his website, Carlson said on Wednesday he would ask Lavrov whether the U.S. and Russia are heading towards a potentially nuclear conflict and whether Moscow thinks Trump will end the war in Ukraine.
The talk-show host said the interview with Lavrov would air “very soon,” without specifying a date.
U.S. media commentators broadly criticized Carlson’s handling of the Putin interview, saying Carlson let the Kremlin leader control the agenda and failed to press him on important topics such as allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.
Carlson did not say where the Lavrov interview would air. The two-hour-long Putin interview was broadcast on Carlson’s internet platform and social media site X.
Trump, who has criticized U.S. support for Kyiv under President Joe Biden, promised during his election campaign he would end the Ukraine war quickly, without detailing his plans. The president-elect has said he would name retired U.S. Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg as special envoy to Ukraine.
Kellogg has proposed freezing battle lines and forcing both Kyiv and Moscow to negotiate, Reuters has reported.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)