#1 - Putin is "very wounded" by the rejection of the West.

? "That's the whole point of NATO, I guess, is to contain Russia. And Putin is wounded by this."

#2 - "Russia is not an expansionist power."

? "You have to be an idiot to think that. Russia is too big already. It's the biggest landmass in the world. They only have 150,000,000 people."

? They've Got more than enough natural resources. They're swimming in natural resources. They don't have enough people, in their view. So, the idea that they want to take over Poland, why would you want to do that?

In Tucker Carlson interview: "Can you imagine a scenario where you send Russian troops to Poland?"

Vladimir Putin: "Only one case: if Poland attacks Russia. Why? Because we have no interest in Poland, Latvia, or anywhere else.

Russia just want secure borders."

? "He was willing to admit that he wants a peace deal in Ukraine and sort of give it away and just say that out loud. He said it a couple of different times. Again, maybe he's lying in ways I didn't perceive, but he kept saying it, and I don't know why he would say it if he didn't mean it."

? "As a matter of fact, there is evidence, overwhelming, that there was a peace deal, or part of a peace deal with the beginning of peace talks, a settlement of some sort on the table a year and a half ago that the former prime minister of Great Britain, Boris Johnson, scuttled on behalf of the Biden administration and convinced Zelensky and the Ukrainian government not to enter into these talks. I mean, that's kind of an established fact. The Israelis were there. They revealed this. That happened."

#4 - Demands for Russia torelinquish Crimea are insane.

? "U.S. officials have said on the record and have said to me and are telling a bunch of people that part of the terms have to be Russia giving up Crimea!"

? "Putin would go to war, nuclear war, if it came down to Crimea."

? "If you really think that a condition of peace is that Putin is going to give up Crimea, then you're like a lunatic!"

#5 - The U.S. has a poor track record with regime change.

? "U.S is run by nutcases. The President and that poisonous mor@n Victoria Nuland. 'Oh, we're going to dep0se Putin.' Well, then what happens?"

? "What happened in Libya when U.S deposed and allowed, you know, Qaddafi to be murdered? What happened in Iraq when U.S brought Saddam to justice? Those countries fell apart, and they never been rebuilt again."

? "In Afghanistan, U.S took out the central government, and they came back. It's still run by the Taliban. So, U.S track record of knocking out the leader, which is very easy to do, is spotty at best. Things don't always get better. And to do that to Russia, the largest landmass in the world with the largest nuclear arsenal, you're on drugs if you think that's a good idea."

Putin Confirms: The United States Is Not Run By Its Elected Officials

TUCKER: "So, twice you've described US presidents making decisions and then being undercut by their agency heads. So, it sounds like you're describing a system that's not run by the people who are elected in your telling."

PUTIN: "That's right. That's right."

TUCKER ASKS: "Who blew up Nord Stream?"

PUTIN JOKES: "You [Tucker Carlson], for sure."

TUCKER: "I was busy that day. I did not blow up Nord Stream. Thank you, though."

PUTIN: "You personally may have an alibi, but the CIA has nosuch alibi."

TUCKER: "Do you have evidence that NATO or the CIA did it?"

PUTIN: "You know, I won't get into details, but people always say in such cases, look for someone who is interested. But in this case, we should not only look for someone who is interested, but also for someone who has capabilities because there may be many people interested, but not all of them are capable of sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and carrying out this explosion. These two components should be connected. Who is interested, and who is capable of doing it?"