Washington, 9 February 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said an invasion of the NATO states of Poland and Latvia is "absolutely out of the question" - with one exception.

When right-wing US talk show host Tucker Carlson asked whether he could imagine a scenario in which he would send Russian troops to Poland, Putin replied in an interview broadcast in prime time in the US on Thursday evening: "Only in one case: if Poland attacks Russia."

"We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don't have any interest," Putin said.

It was contrary to common sense to get involved in "some kind of a global war," Putin continued.

He accused the NATO states of intimidating their own populations with the pretence of an "imaginary Russian threat."

Carlson had conducted the interview with the Russian President in Moscow on Tuesday. The 127-minute interview was published overnight on Thursday night on Carlson's website and the platform X, formerly Twitter.

It is Putin's first in-depth conversation with a US interviewer since the start of his war against Ukraine almost two years ago. Carlson had previously announced the interview as a major media event.

When asked, the communications director of the US National Security Council, John Kirby, warned that nothing said in the interview should be taken at face value.

"Remember, you’re listening to Vladimir Putin. And you shouldn’t take at face value anything he has to say," he said in answer to a journalist's question at a White House briefing on Thursday.

Photo: print screen