Russian state TV is repeatedly airing clips of Tucker Carlson and Rep. Madison Cawthorn talking about the war in Ukraine

• Russian state media has repeatedly aired clips of Fox News host Tucker Carlson's show.
• The Kremlin's media arms have also cited Rep. Madison Cawthorn calling the Ukrainian president a "thug."

Russian state media has seized on recent comments by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn as a way to further push their propaganda about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

NBC News Foreign Correspondent Raf Sanchez tweeted clips of Russian networks replaying footage of recent Carlson monologues. He also showed a clip of state hosts showing a video of Cawthorn calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "thug."

—Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) March 17, 2022

An expert who studies Russian propaganda recently told Insider that the Kremlin and its allies have a very clear political motivation in mind.

"I think we've begun to see, but we'll see even more, a shift toward Russia trying to do elite capture to seize on certain segments, especially the American far-right, and to use them as proxies to convey their messages," said Emerson Brooking, senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Mother Jones previously reported on a leaked Kremlin memo that called for Russian state media to feature Fox News host Tucker Carlson "as much as possible."

A Fox News spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

In one of the featured clips, Carlson asks, "Is Ukraine really a sovereign country?" Such a line is almost verbatim what Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his allies have said about Ukraine, trying to twist history in an effort to argue that Ukraine has no right to exist.

A spokesperson for Cawthorn, a far-right freshman from North Carolina, later clarified that the lawmaker did not mean to imply that he does not support Ukraine in the war. More senior Republican lawmakers roundly criticized Cawthorn for his comments. Cawthorn's office previously said that the lawmaker's comments were misunderstood, a view a spokesperson repeated on Thursday.

"Russian disinformation twists words, removes context, and uses selective sound bites to further their political agenda," Cawthorn spokesman Luke Ball said in a statement to Insider. Ball also likened Russian state media to the US "mainstream media."

Brooking pointed out that Carlson has tried to change his tone in the wake of a war that has led to horrific images of women and children being killed.

But Brooking cautioned, "there are there plenty of elements of the American far-right out there that certainly, Russian interests could look to help support or amplify."

Insider's Grace Panetta contributed to this report.