Conservatives are promoting the claim that Russia foiled a Ukrainian assassination plot against former Fox News host Tucker Carlson during his recent trip to Russia, despite the narrative being traced back to pro-Kremlin sources.
The allegation arose this week after a YouTube video began circulating online in which the alleged assassin admitted to planting an explosive device under Carlson’s vehicle in an underground car park in Moscow. Carlson had been in the country to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The alleged assassin, supposedly named Vasiliev Pyotr Alexeievich, reportedly admitted to Russian law enforcement that he had been recruited by Ukrainian intelligence to carry out the hit.
The sensational claim was quickly spread by some of the biggest names on the right, including right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
Although he admitted that the story had not been verified, Kirk went on to claim that he had previously predicted that such an attempt would be made on Carlson’s life.
“I speculated then that Tucker Carlson was at the top of their hit list,” Kirk wrote. “Did Ukraine just attempt to make good on this threat?”
Despite the story’s explosion across social media, Carlson, who is no stranger to pushing unfounded claims himself, has not publicly commented on the matter.
Carlson has drawn mainstream ire for his interview of Putin and his challenges to the U.S. funding the war in Ukraine.
Regardless, a quick examination of the story appears to raise more questions than answers. For starters, the video of the alleged confession was first uploaded to a recently created YouTube channel with less than 500 followers.
As noted by BBC journalist Olga Robinson, the video, which is alleged to have been released by Russian authorities, has no watermark tying it to any official agency.
The video, Robinson continued, has also oddly received little to no attention in Russia itself. The footage has been spread primarily among pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and right-wing Americans on X.
Robinson further noted that she was unable to find any trace of the so-called assassin’s digital footprint anywhere online.
Not only that, the YouTube video only began going viral after it was shared by the Intel Drop, a blog known for sharing conspiratorial and pro-Russian content.
But the story comes shortly after a bombshell report from the New York Times detailed how the U.S. intelligence community has been aiding Ukranian surveillance against Russia for more than a decade. Since the war began, the CIA also aided in lethal activity against Russians on Ukrainian soil.
The revelation led some to believe that the CIA was ultimately responsible for the attempted hit against Carlson.
For now, little evidence exists to verify the legitimacy of Russia’s claims. It remains unclear whether the story will have any significant effect on U.S.-Ukraine relations outside of right-wing circles, who have long decreed the U.S. funding effort.
