Putin's Tucker Carlson interview seems timed to inflict maximum damage on US support for Ukraine

• Vladimir Putin gave his first interview with a Western media figure since invading Ukraine.
• It was with Tucker Carlson, who has long been more sympathetic to Putin than most of the US media.

As Tucker Carlson was hyping his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US support for Ukraine hit a new low.

Wednesday saw another congressional attempt to get more aid to Ukraine unceremoniously collapse — keeping a proposed $66 billion injection of aid out of reach.

The timing doesn't feel like a coincidence.

The interview with Putin, due to drop on Thursday evening, gives the Russian president a golden opportunity to erode further the likelihood that the US will pass any more funding for Ukraine.

The Biden administration tried to pass a bill that would, in one stroke, satisfy three aims: get aid to Ukraine and Israel and also enhance security at the US southern border.

The latter was meant to placate the Republican Party, meeting their demands for action at the border. But the party's hardliners still rejected it, and with it, the best chance of getting further support to Ukraine.

Without US support, Ukraine's struggles against Russia are intensifying.

It's a moment Putin has long been waiting for: Analysts have long believed that Putin has been waging a war of attrition, betting that he had more staying power than Ukraine's Western allies.

In Carlson, Putin has found an interviewer likely to be receptive to his views.

Carlson has been accused of echoing Russian propaganda and misinformation on Ukraine and has questioned why the US should be spending billions to help the country defend itself.

During his time in Russia, Carlson has already been accused of pushing falsehoods. Even the Kremlin said he was wrong to claim no other Western journalist had even tried to interview Putin.

Putin's officials said they'd just turned everybody else down.

Many took issue with Carlson's omission of other reporters whose efforts were met not with an invitation to Moscow but with a prison cell.

The Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe's Alsu Kurmasheva have been locked up for months. Many Russian journalists have fled the country for fear they, too, will be punished.

Carlson is already a celebrated figure among pro-Kremlin propagandists in Russia, with clips from his shows broadcast frequently on state TV. The BBC noted that his every move in Russia had been widely reported on.

Though Carlson is a diminished figure after his days as Fox News' highest-rated host, he still has a huge audience among the Republicans Putin is seeking to reach out to.

Putin and other Kremlin figures have long tailored their propaganda to appeal to the Republican right, seeking to portray Russia as a bastion of Christian conservative ideals.

Carlson's skepticism about Ukraine aid has also been championed by former President Donald Trump, the GOP 2024 frontrunner, and his supporters in Congress. It's fast spreading among Republican voters who previously agreed with US support for Ukraine.

With the GOP holding the fate of future Ukraine aid, Carlson is handing Putin an opportunity to address the party's supporters directly on Thursday.