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Just a few days before the announcement of the death of Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny, Tucker Carlson defended his interview with President Vladimir Putin, saying that “leadership requires killing people”.

The death of Mr Navalny was announced on Friday, 16 February.

On Monday, 12 February, the former Fox News host appeared at the World Government Summit in Dubai. He was interviewed by Egyptian journalist Emad El Din Adeeb, who asked: “Comparing the culture, the competence between Vladimir Putin and [US President Joe] Biden, how do you see the two men now running the world?”

“If this were boxing the fight would be called by the medic,” Carlson said, according to watchdog Media Matters.

“So, and I say that as an American, and I don’t have another passport, I don’t plan to ever leave my country, my family’s been there hundreds of years and I love it and I am a patriotic American and I grieve when I see that the president is non compos mentis,” he added, using a Latin phrase meaning “of unsound mind”.

“The most radicalizing thing I would just say for me in the eight days I spent in Moscow was not simply the leader of the country who of course is impressive, it’s the largest landmass in the world and it’s wildly diverse, linguistically, culturally, religiously, it’s hard to run a country like that for 24 years, whether you like it or not,” Carlson argued. “So an incapable person couldn’t do that, he is very capable and many of you know him and you know that.

“What was radicalizing, very shocking and very disturbing for me was the city of Moscow, where I’d never been, the biggest city in Europe, 13 million people. And it is so much nicer than any city in my country, I had no idea,” he claimed.

“You should challenge in the roles of an interview, and you’re a master in your business,” Mr Adeeb said. “It’s not for me to give you a lecture about that, but you should challenge some ideas. For instance, you didn’t talk about freedom of speech in Russia, you did not talk about [Alexei] Navalny, about assassinations, about restrictions on opposition in the coming elections.”

“I didn’t talk about the things that every other American media outlet talks about,” Mr Carlson said.

Asked why, he said: “Because those are covered and because I have spent my life talking to people who run countries in various countries and have concluded the following: that every leader kills people, including my leader. Every leader kills people, some kill more than others. Leadership requires killing people, sorry, that’s why I wouldn’t want to be a leader.

“That press restriction is universal in the United States, I know because I’ve lived it. Ask my former – I’ve had a lot of jobs.

“And I’ve done this for 34 years and I know how it works and there’s more censorship in Russia than there is in the United States but there is a great deal in the United States.

“And so at a certain point, it’s like people can decide whether they think, what countries they think are better, what systems they think are better. I just want to know what he thinks, that was the whole point.”

Following the announcement of Mr Navalny’s death in a Russian prison, Carlson faced widespread criticism for his comments defending Mr Putin.

Meghan McCain, a former co-host of The View, said: “Don’t forget that Putin’s favorite useful idiot Kremlin propagandist Tucker Carlson didn’t give a s*** about Navalny’s life when asked about him a few days ago.”

Liz Cheney, a former House Republican leader who was ousted for her strong criticisms of former President Donald Trump, called out Carlson and Ohio Republican Senator JD Vance.

Regarding the death of the opposition leader, she said on X: “This is what Putin’s Russia is, @TuckerCarlson. And you are Putin’s useful idiot. Same with you ⁦@JDVance1⁩ and other Putin-wing Republicans who are working to defeat Ukraine in its struggle for freedom.”

The US-born British businessman Bill Browder, whose friend Sergei Magnitsky was killed in a Russian prison after he uncovered a state-sanctioned tax fraud, predicted a cover-up over the death of Mr Navalny. He wrote on X: “Navalny was fine yesterday. We should expect a full Magnitsky style cover-up from the Russian government in short order. I can almost predict the language they will use: ‘natural causes’, ‘no sign of violence’ ‘unexpected death’ etc.”

“Putin killed Navalny. I call on @TuckerCarlson and @elonmusk for comment,” Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian opposition leader and former oligarch living in exile in London – and who was himself jailed after falling out with Mr Putin – said on X.

“Alexei Navalny was murdered by Vladimir Putin Trump, Tucker Carlson, Ron Johnson, Tommy Tuberville and the other Russian w***** loose in our land made it possible It is time we held them all accountable,” broadcaster Keith Olbermann wrote.

Former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens, now of the Lincoln Project, said: “The world will be pointing to the murder of Navalny and trying to shame Trump’s party for supporting Putin.

“It won’t work. Trump wants Putin’s power. He is in court demanding immunity to murder opponents. Violence is at the core of Trumpism.

“As Tucker Carlson makes clear, Trump supporters look at Russia and ask, ‘Why can’t America be Russia?’ They hate the America we love. They must be defeated.”

“Navalny is dead. Tucker Carlson interviewed his murderer last weekend and never even asked. Tommy Tuberville and all the other Republican Putin lobbyists in Congress must condemn their master. Pass the damn bill,” podcaster Fred Wellman said in reference to the Ukraine aid stalled in Congress.

“Hey @TuckerCarlson, while you’re hanging out in Russia, please go ask Alexei Navalny if ‘Russians have it so much better than Americans.’ Oh…I’m sorry, you can’t. Navalny is dead. Putin killed him,” former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh wrote.

“After poisoning, imprisoning and torturing his leading opposition leader Navalny, Putin has murdered him. Tucker never mentioned him to Putin and Trump has never uttered his name. Putin fans in America are all scum. Every last one of you,” former Republican attorney Ron Filipkowski, who left the party after the Capitol riot, wrote.