megyn kelly
What a difference an editor makes. NBC chopped and snipped away at Kelly's Putin interview, publishing all of 20 minutes of the 1.5 hour interview, rendering it almost unrecognizable.

Witness the power of alternative media - it can beat the giants. Russia Insight YouTube channel put the full, unedited 1.5 hours on their channel, and it got twice as many views (300k) as the 20 minutes that NBC put up. (170k)

Here is a Russian TV report on the interview, which shows again and again how Putin clearly dominated the conversation, ridiculing Kelly's RussiaGate delusions.


Full transcript follows below:

Anchor:

It appears we weren't that far from the truth when, a week ago, we assumed the United States would never admit the fallacy of its previous policy toward Moscow. However, now it can embark on a new, productive dialogue with Russia.

In response to a question from a TASS correspondent, US Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Shannon confirmed that the State Department is now ready to agree on a new date and venue for the next round of talks on strategic stability and the elimination of roadblocks to improved bilateral relations.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov will represent Russia. According to him, the last meeting in Geneva was postponed at the very last moment because of "the rude behavior of the United States". Now, the Americans are ready to talk, at least at the senior diplomat level.

Of course, this shift was caused by Putin's recent statement about the new Russian wonder-missiles with their unpredictable trajectories. Of course, we'd like Washington's desire to negotiate with Moscow not to be forced but simply sincere. Well, it turned out the way it did, and it seems to be working out.

One can assume that the Americans were surprised by the statement, judging by Megyn Kelly's reaction. Today, her full interview with Putin aired. It was recorded on the day of the statement, so she had to quickly recompose her questions in order to begin with the missiles. A couple of words about Megyn Kelly. Many probably remember her moderating the closing plenary session of last year's St. Petersburg Economic Forum. At that time, your humble narrator held the opening session, and we inevitably met with her and even walked around Palace Square. I learned a lot about her back then - a few things that'll be good to keep in mind.

So, she is very American. She manages to stay very well-groomed, fresh, and smart, even after transatlantic flights. Which is nice because I sometimes fail to do that. Of course, she's very decisive. She had a falling out with Trump. She quit the right-wing, conservative-leaning Fox News, and joined the liberal-leaning NBC. She is also very American because previously, she used to talk about Russia without ever visiting it. Again, kudos to her, she came to see everything with her own eyes. Now, she has fought her way to Putin again.

Although, as my Western friends told me, there's an opinion in the US that Kelly has become friends with Putin. Currently, it might come off as a grave accusation in the West. Kelly proved that Putin isn't her friend, pal, buddy, or whatever by bombarding him with the toughest questions. Yes, later she called him the smartest person in any room. But the headline of her interview that appeared on American TV... Well, here it is. The title is... "Confronting Putin."

Denis Davydov with the details.

........

Megyn Kelly's interview is preceded by a story about the state of Russian-American relations. Standing on Red Square, she compares them to the cold Moscow March. She arrived at the Kremlin on the same day of Putin's Address to the Federal Assembly, so Megyn Kelly's curiosity is understandable. She started with the questions about Moscow's new superweapon. It seems that she doesn't want to believe that everything said about Russian missiles is true.
- About the weapon that you announced today: Have you actually tested it and it works?

President Putin: I mentioned several systems today, which one do you mean? Do you mean the heavy intercontinental ballistic missile?

- Yes, the one that you claimed renders defense systems useless.
Kelly is perhaps not the only one to get confused by the missile specifications, because, until now, ballistic missiles with a predictable trajectory were the default choice. New Avangard and Kinzhal systems allow intercontinental missiles to dodge and maneuver in three dimensions.
President Putin: "Every system I mentioned today is capable of penetrating anti-missile defenses. We're creating a brand new heavy missile which will replace a missile that we call Voyevoda, and you have dubbed it, God forgive me, "Satan." We will replace it with a new and more powerful missile. It is a ballistic missile. All the other missiles are not ballistic. We have created a set of new strategic weapons that do not follow ballistic trajectories, and anti-missile defense systems are powerless against them. This means that the US taxpayers' money has been wasted".
In his interview, Putin says several times that since 2001, Russia has been forced to develop its weapons after the US terminated the INF Agreement. It's our response to Washington trying to curb our nuclear potential. A response that has been expected for a while.
President Putin: "Actually, we kept going on about it for 15 years. To preserve the strategic balance so that you would not be able to zero out our nuclear deterrence forces, we will develop strike systems that will be able to deal with your anti-missile systems. We said this plainly and openly, without any aggression".
Even before the interview officially aired, the US Senate responded to the nuclear missile part of Putin's address. A group of American senators led by Bernie Sanders, a left-wing Democrat whose campaign for the presidency was memorably interrupted by Hillary Clinton, sent a letter to Secretary of State Tillerson. The senators called for negotiations with Russia to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. But, as Putin has already explained, the negotiations will be conducted under new conditions.
President Putin: "The START-3 Treaty will expire soon. We are ready to continue this dialogue. However, today, when we have weapons that can breach all anti-ballistic missile systems, we no longer consider the reduction of missiles and warheads to be highly critical. We will show you from a distance what this will look like".
Putin also reminds the interviewer that he is a commander-in-chief that used to serve in the KGB.
- Do you like the fact that you were in the KGB? Are you proud of that fact?

- I don't feel strongly about it one way or another, but I found it useful when I moved on to the civilian sector. Establishing contacts, motivating people to act and bringing them together.
The Western media is trying to create their own peculiar image of Putin. Foreign audiences often receive rare footage of the off-the-record Putin as he goes fishing or horseback riding. For them, it's yet another mystery of the Russian soul: Why is he bare-chested?
- What's that about?

- Well, I have breaks. I have lots of photos of me in the office, working with documents but nobody is interested in them. I have seen "photos" of me riding a bear. I have not ridden a bear yet, but there are such photos already.
Finishing the first interview in Moscow, which was recorded late at night in the Kremlin, Megyn Kelly asked a standard question and received a peculiar answer. She asked Vladimir Putin about his greatest achievement as president and the biggest mistake he made in this position.
President Putin: "You know, they're both related. The number of people living below the poverty line has decreased by half. And regarding the things we must still work on, the number of people living below the poverty line remains way too high. Back in the early 2000s, our population shrank by nearly a million people a year. Can you imagine the scale of such a disaster? We have reversed this trend. Our life expectancy is growing at the highest rate. At the beginning of our journey, inflation was about 30 percent, but now it is 2.2 percent".
The conversation continued the next day in the westernmost region of Russia, where Vladimir Putin was on a business trip, but Megyn Kelly stubbornly searched for hidden meanings. Kaliningrad is closest to our overseas neighbors. Is the Kremlin sending a signal? The US media are trumpeting about the 13 Russians who managed to interfere in the US democratic elections.
President Putin: I know that they do not represent the Russian state or the Russian government. And I have no idea what they did. Our American colleagues should give us specific data with proof. We are ready to consider it and talk about it.

- That would be great. Will you extradite them to the United States?

- Never. Just like the United States, Russia does not extradite its citizens anywhere. Have you ever extradited any of your citizens? Are you hoping that we will extradite people to you whereas you will not? That's not how it's done.
But Megyn Kelly was relentless. Like most of her compatriots, for some reason, she is inclined to believe that US sovereignty extends to the entire planet. If American prosecutors decide something, the whole world is to obey. The journalist insisted that our Themis should punish those who allegedly interfered in their election.
President Putin: If they did not violate Russian law, there is nothing to prosecute them for in Russia. Will anyone believe that Russia, a country located thousands of kilometers away could use two or three Russians, as you have said, to meddle in and affect the outcome of your elections? Don't you think that it sounds ridiculous? A conversation on air cannot be grounds for an investigation.

- The intelligence agencies, now a special prosecutor with a criminal indictment - that is not enough for you to look into it?

- Absolutely not. If you do not have legal training, I can assure you that an official inquiry to the Prosecutor-General's Office of the Russian Federation is required for this. We propose holding official talks and you refuse. So what do you want? For us to open investigations just because Congress said so?
Putin explains how mutual accusations could have been avoided. Long before the election of Trump, he proposed to Barack Obama to conclude a kind of gentlemen's agreement on how countries will behave in cyberspace, following the example of the START treaties. The White House was not interested in the Kremlin's initiative.
President Putin: "Please listen to me and take to your viewers and listeners what I am about to say. We are holding discussions with our American friends and partners, people who represent the government. We tell them: 'But you are constantly interfering in our political life.' Would you believe it, they are not even denying it. They said, 'Yes, we do interfere, but we are entitled to do so because we are spreading democracy and you are not, and so you cannot do it.' Do you think this is a civilized and modern approach to international affairs?"
Putin's last remark about the US having an exclusive right to do anything was later cut out. Still, Kelly partially fulfilled Putin's request and didn't cut the part about the US' interference in Russian elections.
- You believe that America interfered in Russian elections?

President Putin: It does so constantly.
Such a conversation also couldn't miss the usual question to Putin: Does he have a successor?
President Putin: "I have been thinking about this since 2000. Thinking is not a crime. Whether I like or hate someone, other candidates will run for president and the citizens of the Russian Federation will make the final decision".
The citizens of the United States are very interested in the interview with Vladimir Putin. It's confirmed by the time the program aired. American television showed it during prime time on a Friday night.