Russian media claims Tucker Carlson acting as 'carrier pigeon' between Putin and Trump

Tucker Carlson has been acting as a secret back-channel messenger between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, according to the Russian president's acolytes.

The former Fox News host returned to Moscow this week for a second time to interview Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and pushed the Kremlin narrative that the U.S. should stay out of the war in Ukraine to avoid setting off a global nuclear crisis, but some Kremlin insiders believe Carlson had other business, reported The Daily Beast.

"While the former Fox host is positioning himself as a dove of peace, toiling to prevent a nuclear war, Putin’s acolytes say he is also acting as a carrier pigeon for the Russian president and privately delivering his messages to Trump," wrote Julia Davis, who monitors Russian state-run media.

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"Full Contact" host Vladimir Solovyov told commentator Malek Dudakov that he believes Carlson, who regularly spends time with Trump, was delivering a message to Moscow.

“Yes, we currently see quite a few similar emissaries," Dudakov agreed, according to Davis' translation. "It seems Viktor Orbán is again planning to meet with Trump, and after that, he may come to Russia once again. There are people who are willing to pass messages back and forth, indirectly.”

Dudakov speculated that Trump and Putin were exchanging messages on the president-elect’s alleged 24-hour peace plan, but Solovyov implied that the Russian president would dictate the terms of that agreement.

“Trump will understand what his plan is only after he personally meets with Putin,” the host said, according to Davis.

Carlson framed his interview with Lavrov around the threat of nuclear confrontation, which RT and other state-run Russian networks have also sought to play up, and the American broadcaster did not challenge his false claim on the origins of the war.

“We are not talking about exterminating anybody’s population," Lavrov insisted. "We did not start this war... we don’t have any intention to exterminate the Ukrainian people. They are brothers and sisters to the Russian people.”

The former Fox News host implied the U.S. was waging war against Russia by supplying weapons to Ukraine, and Davis said he seemed genuinely surprised when Lavrov disagreed, but a description of the interview on Carlson's website claimed: “Russia’s longtime foreign minister describes the war with the United States and how to end it.”