In the days since Tucker Carlson’s surprise firing from Fox News, I’ve been wondering what Russian state television thought of his sudden ouster. Carlson, after all, was their favorite and most frequently-cited American TV star. Upon learning of his dismissal, Olga Skabeeva, who co-hosts a popular political talk show on the Kremlin-controlled Rossiya1, referred to Carlson as “our pet.” He was adamantly against U.S. support for Ukraine and, on the eve of Russia’s invasion, infamously challenged his viewers to ask themselves why Americans should hate Vladimir Putin. So I fired up my VPN and decided to find out. 

Of course, the reaction was largely what I expected: Kremlin media is rending its clothes for Carlson, celebrating his ostensible journalistic integrity and portraying his dismissal as an indictment of liberal media groupthink. Naturally, the reasons that it’s citing for his exit are not only at odds with all the reporting that’s emerged here in the U.S.; they also line up neatly with conspiracy theories one often hears on the American far right—and the far left.