In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll reintroduce an American political commentator and pro-Kremlin propagandist, Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson). He’s best known for his promotion of crazy conspiracy theories and for his support of authoritarian regimes around the world.

Tucker’s career spans decades, but he’s also been very active in recent years, so a lot has happened since our previous soup on him, which can be found here:

Tucker Carlson

Once described as “the most powerful conservative in America”, Tucker has now fully transformed into a grifting conspiracy theorist and propagandist willing to work for whoever pays him the most. It’s unclear whether Tucker truly believes his endless conspiracy theories or…

…just peddles them for attention, but he sure loves spreading them. That’s why he fits perfectly into MAGA’s post-truth society, where emotions — and money — trump facts. Yet after all these years, two things remain constant: his love for Putin and his hate for Ukraine.

Carlson was cheering for Putin already back in 2017, claiming that he doesn’t consider Russia a serious threat to the US. He’s said that Putin doesn’t hate America as much as the liberals do, and suggested that “there is no reason to hate Putin.”

Tucker was the one who brought the “bioweapons labs in Ukraine” conspiracy theory into the mainstream. He invited guests like Glenn Greenwald to his show on Fox, and good old Glenn was more than happy to speculate on the subject — one that had been debunked long before.

Tucker was sacked by Fox News in April 2023, shortly after the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox was settled for $787.5 million. Dominion’s legal team released some damning text messages that revealed Tucker hates Daddy Trump “passionately.”

Soon after, Tucker launched his own show on Twitter, called Tucker on Twitter. In the first episode, Tucker claimed that the US had found an alien starship with its pilot, that Zelenskyy is persecuting Christians, that the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam was…

… done by Ukrainian forces, that the Black Lives Matter riots were organized by an unknown entity, and that the truth behind 9/11 was “still classified.” Tucker’s shitshow was heavily promoted by Elon Musk, along with Tulsi Gabbard’s and Don Lemon’s shows.

In February 2024, Carlson traveled to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin. During the interview, the Russian dictator belittled and ridiculed Tucker between his strongly revised “history lessons” and justifications for Russia’s genocidal war on Ukraine:

Carlson-Putin interview

During his trip to Russia, Tucker also produced some of the most overt & ridiculous pro-Russian propaganda, visiting the French supermarket chain Auchan & praising basic food products like bread. According to Carlson, “Moscow is so much nicer than any city in my country.”

In May 2024, Tucker launched a new weekly commentary podcast, The Tucker Carlson Show. It quickly became one of the most popular podcasts on Spotify in the US, and is today the #1 hotspot for anything conspiracy-theory-related.

Tucker has hosted many of the worst vatniks on his show, including pathological liar Douglas Macgregor, crooked lawyer paid by Russian oligarchs Robert Amsterdam, neo-Nazi Darryl Cooper, Kremlintarian Dave Smith, fellow conspiracy theorist and alleged rapist Russell Brand, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Soviet Union nostalgic Sergey Lavrov, and pathetic manchild accused of abusing women in three different countries, Andrew Tate.

Possibly due to his love for a certain Russian dictator, Tucker’s been spreading the most unhinged & extreme anti-Ukraine narratives out there. Most of these narratives are of course complete bullshit — but that hasn’t stopped anti-Ukraine propagandists from rallying around them.

For example, in the midst of the war in Ukraine, he said about Zelenskyy that “He is a dictator. He is a dangerous authoritarian who has used a hundred billion in U.S. tax dollars to erect a one-party police state in Ukraine”. He’s also called him “sweaty and rat-like”.

He’s accused Ukraine of persecuting Christians, banning opposition parties and selling Western weapons to cartels — all baseless or distorted claims debunked by multiple investigations.

In this first soup, we’ll examine religious persecution in Russia and Ukraine, how the KGB/FSB has used religion as a tool of espionage and propaganda, and how Russia is erasing Ukrainian culture by destroying the country’s churches.

2/22 pic.twitter.com/w0NBf0B1QA

— Pekka Kallioniemi (@P_Kallioniemi) March 18, 2025

The accusation of Ukraine persecuting Christians allegedly originates from US-based lawyer, Robert Amsterdam receiving the story, and a big pile of money, from Russian oligarch/Orthodox priest Vadym Novynskyi. More here:

Russian Orthodox Church

Tucker has also interviewed the grandmaster of Russian red fascism and genocidal imperialism, Aleksandr Dugin. While still working for Fox, he questioned why Dugin’s books were not on Amazon (he was so familiar with his works that he mispronounced his name) and later went on to interview the madman on his own show.

Aleksandr Dugin

These narratives serve only one purpose: to weaken Western support for Ukraine, and Tucker’s coverage has actually mirrored Russian state media so closely that RT could air it unedited. Due to this, Tucker has become one of Moscow’s most useful Western mouthpieces.

Of course nothing good could be expected from someone like that. A lot of what Tucker says also has an antisemitic undertone: using words like “rat-like” to describe Jewish Zelenskyy, comparing Charlie Kirk’s killing to the crucifixion of Jesus and blaming “hummus eaters” in Jerusalem on plotting to silence him. Tucker burst out in hysterical laughter at his own pathetic, antisemitic joke — at a solemn memorial.

Even Tucker’s usual right-wing audience has started questioning his sanity and choices of guests at this point. Jeffrey Sachs in particular has been a regular guest, and together they’ve been downplaying Assad’s mass murders while accusing Israel of “causing 53 million deaths” with a straight face.

Tucker referred to Bashar al-Assad, the mass-murdering former Syrian dictator, as merely “some ophthalmologist from London”, whitewashing his war crimes such as using chemical weapons against civilians, torturing political prisoners and bombing Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk.

Tucker has even started praising Sharia Law and feudalism (with Auron MacIntyre), and had Dave Cullum on his show saying America should have sided with Hitler. He also claims he was mauled by a demon and spreads rhetoric about “Antichrist’s Newest Manifestation” and how to avoid the “Mark of the Beast”.

Throughout his career, Tucker has shed skins like a snake, from bow-tied political pundit to far-right crusader to full-blown anti-American conspiracy theorist. Every reinvention serves one purpose: keeping himself rich, relevant and at the center of the outrage machine.

The 2nd edition of “Vatnik Soup — The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” is officially out!

You can order your copy here:

The Book | Vatnik Soup