Fact Check: Is Tucker Carlson on Ukraine “kill list” over Putin interview?

Tucker Carlson’s upcoming interview with Vladimir Putin, due to be broadcast on February 8, has led to suggestions that the former Fox News host could face prosecution and European sanctions over his conversation with the Russian president.

Carlson confirmed speculation that he was in Moscow to interview Putin in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday in which he said: “Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in and we have the right to tell them about it.”

As news of the interview spread, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed that Carlson had been put on a Ukrainian “kill list” for speaking to Putin.

The Claim

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by Alex Jones, posted on February 7, 2024, viewed 707,400 times, said “BREAKING: Tucker Carlson Added To Ukrainian ‘Kill List’ After Interviewing Putin.”

The post included a video in which Jones quoted an Infowars story that said: “Tucker Carlson is now included in Ukraine’s “kill list” in response to interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

“The ‘Myrotvorets’ kill list believed to be the product of the Ukraine Center for Countering Disinformation appears to have added Carlson on Tuesday shortly after he confirmed securing an interview with Putin,” it continued.

“The Ukraine kill list was reportedly created by President Volodymyr Zelensky himself, with the backing of the American CIA and NATO.”

Jones referred to the claim during the video as “serious business.”

The Facts

The claim is inaccurate.

The Mirotvorets list was launched in December 2014 by Ukrainians to detail who they believe are “enemies of Ukraine” that “have signs of crimes against the national security of Ukraine, peace, human security, and the international law.”

Newsweek debunked a similar “kill list” claim when Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters was added in 2022.

The list is part of the “Center for Research of Elements of Crimes against the National Security of Ukraine, Peace, Humanity, and the International Law,” an NGO that keeps an open-sourced database of persons that it deems to have promoted anti-Ukrainian narratives or acted to destabilize Ukraine’s national security.

Former Ukrainian Deputy Internal Affairs Minister Anton Gerashchenko, referred to in a Times of London interview as the co-founder of the project, has said it is independent of the Ukrainian government and doesn’t receive state funding.

A report by Al-Jazeera in 2019 claimed that the death of two pro-Russian Ukrainians in April 2015—politician Oleg Kalashnikov and publicist Oles Buzina, shot dead in Kyiv—took place only days after Mirotvorets published their personal details.

However, no direct link has been found or proved in court. Kalashnikov and Buzina were well-known for their pro-Russian and anti-government views before they were added to the list.

Responding to Al-Jazeera’s report, Gerashchenko said: “We are not a punitive body, we are an inquiry office.”

There are said to be as many as 200,000 people on the list, including Russian-installed officials who have been targets of reported attacks and assassinations since Russia invaded Ukraine.

There is no evidence that those officials were targeted because of the list, nor is there any other evidence that shows the list has been used as a “kill list” for individuals.

Further, Carlson’s page was not added after the Putin interview. He has been on the website since mid-2023 and there is no incitement or encouragement of violence toward him.

According to a Google translation, the website refers to him as “An accomplice of the Russian occupiers and terrorists,” an “Anti-Ukrainian propagandist,” and has participated in “anti-Ukrainian propaganda events of Russia [aggressor country] against Ukraine.”

Newsweek has contacted a representative for Carlson via email for comment.

There are no calls for violence elsewhere. The About Us page of the site says: “The Peacemaker Center carries out its activities in strict accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine and international regulations ratified by our state.”

Crucially, not only is there no evidence that the list encourages violence, let alone that it acts as a Ukrainian “kill list,” Carlson was added to it last year, not upon news of his interview with Putin.

Carlson has repeatedly drawn criticism for his analysis of the war in Ukraine, being seen as sympathetic to Moscow—a sentiment that has been reciprocated. After Carlson was unceremoniously let go from Fox News, one Kremlin mouthpiece described him as a “voice of reason” who was “welcome in Russia.”

The Ruling

False.

The claim that the Mirotvorets list, which Alex Jones and Infowars refer to as a “kill list,” is inaccurate, as is the claim that Tucker Carlson was added to it following reports he had interviewed Vladimir Putin.

The list does not advocate violence toward those on it, which is part of an NGO, non-state-funded effort by Ukrainian activists to list “enemies of Ukraine.”

Carlson has been listed on the site since mid-2023.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team