Polish MPs have expressed doubts that Russian President Vladimir Putin ruled out an invasion of NATO members Poland and Latvia during an interview with right-wing US TV provocateur Tucker Carlson.

Polish parliament speaker Zymon Holownia said today that Putin’s appeasement remarks should not be believed, after the Kremlin leader told Carlson he would send Russian troops to Poland if Warsaw attacked Russia.

Holovnia called Carlson a “useful idiot” for Russian propaganda, according to TVN24 news channel. “He gave the microphone to a liar, a murderer and an international terrorist,” he added, referring to the interview that aired in the US on Thursday night.

Carlson held the interview with Putin in Moscow on Thursday. The 127-minute interview was published on Carlson’s website and on the X (formerly Twitter) platform.

Putin said a Russian invasion of Poland and Latvia was “absolutely out of the question” with one exception, namely an invasion of Russia.

“We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anyone else. Why should we do this? We simply have no interest,” Putin said.

However, the Russian leader had made similar statements before launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

With the war in Ukraine, Putin has become a mortal threat to Poland, Europe and freedom, Holovnia said. “We must stop this danger at all costs.”

The Polish army is preparing for various scenarios, said Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosińak-Kamis.

“Nothing will limit our vigilance, and such statements certainly will not, because they are unreliable,” he said, referring to Putin’s interview.

In Russia, the pro-government media today praised Putin after his interview.

Many articles, mainly in the Kremlin-aligned media, focus on the impact and potential impact that Putin’s interview had.

According to a report on the website of Russian state television, the interview has been viewed more than 60 million times.

The Kremlin-aligned Izvestia points out that the interview had 475,000 likes. The newspaper quoted a senior official in the Russian-held regions of Ukraine as saying that Western efforts to block the exchange of information had failed.

Another media outlet mostly praised the interview from comments shared on X, in an article titled “I’m close to applying for Russian citizenship,” published in the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid.

Political observers expected the Kremlin to use Putin’s first interview since the start of the war with a Western talk show host for propaganda purposes.

“Judging by the timing, the main purpose of the interview was to deny the Nadiezdin registration scandal,” wrote political scientist Abbas Galiamov.

Galiamov was referring to Boris Nadiezdin, who wanted to run in next month’s presidential election as an anti-war candidate. Nadiezdin gained an unexpectedly large number of supporters, but was dropped from the race a few hours before the interview was published.

Galiamov also criticized Carlson’s uncritical acceptance of Putin’s claims in the Russian president’s first in-depth conversation with an American journalist since the start of his war in Ukraine nearly two years ago.