Putin says it is 'impossible' to defeat Russia, insists he has no intention of expanding the war

 In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Putin said Western leaders have now accepted that the policy of strategically defeating Russia is invalid. Speaking in a rare interview of more than two hours broadcast on Friday, Putin said: Until now, there has been noise about the need to defeat Russia strategically on the battlefield. But now it seems they have realized that it is difficult to reach that goal. Putin called on the US to "make a deal" with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. The interview with Carlson, which came ahead of the second anniversary of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, was Putin's first interview with a Western media figure since 2019. Putin said that he has no intention of invading Poland or Latvia militarily, but he will send his troops if Poland attacks Russia Putin spent much of the interview expressing his displeasure with Ukraine's move, saying that Russia was close to reaching a ceasefire during talks in Istanbul in April 2022. The Nord Stream pipeline However, he said, Ukraine withdrew from the agreement as soon as Russian troops withdrew from Kiev. When asked about the results of the US elections scheduled for November, Putin showed little change. Putin also blamed the US intelligence agency, the CIA, for being involved in the explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline, cutting off the main route of Russian gas transportation to Europe and fueling geopolitical tensions. Putin also insisted that they were promised that the military alliance of the western powers, NATO, would not expand its scope to Eastern Europe. However, he has said that NATO has violated that promise and created the current turmoil in Europe.