Reviewers and commentators eviscerated Tucker Carlson’s two-hour interview with Vladimir Putin. Any journalistic pretenses Carlson may have had before the interview were shattered. In Leninist terms, he was a “useful idiot” and a straight man to the Kremlin’s strong man.

Putin’s rambling 40-minute excursion on why Ukraine was part of Russia was dismissed by the West. His repeated rationale for invading to reunite Ukraine and Russia, protect Russian-speaking Ukrainians and destroy the stain of Nazism remained incredible. And he continued to blame the U.S. and NATO for causing the current crisis with Moscow.

That said, strip away the boilerplate and rhetoric. What could be learned from watching Putin’s two-hour polemic? Several points emerge.

First, while Putin insisted that Russia always took the high ground of diplomacy, tolerating all of the West’s errors and misjudgments, the disrespect of ignoring Russia and its interests was clearly the most riling issue to him. The need and indeed the desire for respect and recognition were visceral.

Ironically, while he admitted to liking George W. Bush and had good things to say about the former president, most provocations towards Russia fell under the........

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