Putin Details Proposal Made to Bush of Joint Russia-US-Europe Missile Defense System

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that he had once proposed to then-US President George W. Bush the possibility of establishing a joint Russia-US-Europe missile defense system.

"I had a very serious conversation with President Bush and his team. I proposed that the United States, Russia and Europe jointly create the missile defense system," Putin said during the highly-anticipated interview that aired on Thursday.

The joint system in question was reported on in mid 2007, with reports then detailing that the former US president acknowledged the proposal as being "very innovative."

⚡️Putin said in an interview with Carlson that he wants to achieve a solution to the situation in Ukraine through negotiations.

Russia and Ukraine will come to an agreement sooner or later, the president noted. pic.twitter.com/Q53d9EzS2w

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) February 8, 2024

The proposal was then reported during a two-day summit in Maine and came not long after an initial plan was presented for the potential use of a radar based out of Azerbaijan. The US under the Bush administration had voiced its desire to set up a defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, which was not favored by Russia.

The follow-up proposition by Putin, which also included the use of a radar system in southern Russia, was ultimately put on ice while a team of military and diplomatic experts carried out their own study on the matter.

❗️ Putin stressed that it's been Western countries who destroyed relations with Russia, and it’s up to them to restore them.

“They have driven the situation to the point where we are at. It is not us who have done that. It is our partners, opponents who have done that. Well, now… pic.twitter.com/bhN5MDjmi6

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) February 9, 2024

However, the following year, not many advances had been made on the subject, with both leaders easing then tense US-Russian ties but ultimately unable to close a deal on the joint initiative.

❗️ Russian President Vladimir Putin told Tucker Carlson during an interview, that it's difficult to defeat the United States in a war of propaganda because of their relative control over all of the world's media, including European media.

"In the war of propaganda, it is very… pic.twitter.com/cI8MV5kVIn

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) February 8, 2024

The Carlson interview also saw the Russian president note how the Russian Federation has surpassed not only the US but other countries in its creation of hypersonic strike systems, which have reported daily improvements.

"We created hypersonic systems with intercontinental range, and we continue to develop them. We are now ahead of everyone, the United States and the other countries in terms of the development of hypersonic strike systems," Putin said. "And we are improving them every day."

Putin's interview with Carlson has since managed to gain more than 30 million views on X social network as the number of Carlson's subscribers on the platform has increased by almost 150,000, and is approaching 12 million against the background of the interview.

On Thursday night, Carlson had 11,815,030 subscribers to his X page, but the number exceeded 11,960,000 subscribers three hours after the interview was published. The number of the journalist's subscribers has been increasing steadily after the announcement of the interview.