Russian media heaped praise on President Vladimir Putin on Friday after his interview with right-wing US talk show host Tucker Carlson.
Many articles, particularly in state and pro-Kremlin outlets, focused on the reach and potential impact of the 127-minute interview released in prime time in the US on Thursday evening.
Carlson had conducted the interview with the Russian president in Moscow on Tuesday. The interview was put on Carlson's website and the platform X, formerly Twitter.
The clip was viewed more than 60 million times, according to a report on the state television channel's website.
The clip was liked more than 475,000 times, noted Izvestia, a pro-Kremlin newspaper. The outlet quoted a high-ranking official in the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine who said Western attempts to hinder the sharing of information had failed.
Another featured mainly praise for the interview from comments shared on X, in an article called "I am close to applying for Russian citizenship," that ran in tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Political observers had expected the Kremlin to use Putin's first interview with a Western talk show host since the start of the war for propaganda purposes.
"Judging by the timing, the main purpose of the interview is to deny the scandal of Nadezhdin's registration," wrote political scientist Abbas Galyamov.
He was referring to Boris Nadezhdin, who wanted to stand in next month's presidential elections as an opponent of the war. He has an unexpectedly large number of supporters but his excluded from the raise just hours before the interview was published.
Gallyamov also slammed Carlson's uncritical acceptance of Putin's assertions in the Russian president's first in-depth conversation with a US interviewer since the start of his war on Ukraine almost two years ago.
