"One of the ways you understand a society is through its infrastructure," said Tucker Carlson as he stood in front of a Moscow subway station in a video he posted after his two-hour interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In contrast to America's public transit, Moscow's "is perfectly clean and orderly," explained Carlson. "How do you explain that? We're not even going to guess. That's not our job. We're only going to ask the question."

On the latest episode of Just Asking Questions, journalist and Fifth Column podcast co-host Michael Moynihan joins Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe to dissect Carlson's interview with Putin and analyze his subsequent behavior, from releasing videos praising Russia's subway stations and grocery stores to his explanation at the World Government Summit that his reason for not challenging Putin to defend his political repression is that it's not interesting because "every leader kills people."

They also discuss the recent death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison, Moynihan's experience reporting in Russia, and the state of economic and political freedom under Putin's rule.

Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or on the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher.

Russia Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption (heritage.org)

Russia World Press Freedom Index Ranking | REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Democracy Index (ourworldindata.org)

World Population Review, from World Bank data:  Median Income by Country 2024

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