John Oliver Wonders Why Putin Expected ‘Sharp Questions’ From Tucker Carlson: Anyone Who Told Him That ‘Should Be Fired’

Russian president Vladimir Putin apparently expected “sharp questions” when he agreed to be interviewed by Tucker Carlson, and was disappointed when he didn’t get any. But John Oliver is baffled that Putin expected that in the first place, joking on Sunday that anyone who told him to “should be fired.”

Oliver returned for the 11th season of “Last Week Tonight” this week and, as he often does, he used the opening minutes of his show to run down some of the biggest things that happened while he was on hiatus, including Ron DeSantis ending his presidential campaign, and the appearance of Chicago’s now-famous “rat hole.”

Of course, Oliver also touched on the death of Alexei Navalny, a longtime vocal critic of Putin, who died in prison last week “for reasons any idiot can figure out.” The late night host joked that it made Carlson’s interview “a bit awkward,” since it took place just days prior. But, Oliver did delight in the fact that even Putin himself was unimpressed by Carlson.

“I honestly thought he’d be aggressive, asking me so-called sharp questions,” Putin said in an interview posted to the Kremlin’s official website. “I wasn’t simply ready for it, I wanted it. Because it would give me a chance to respond equally sharply which, in my view, would give specificity to our entire conversation. But, he chose a different tactic.”

Putin added, “Frankly speaking, I didn’t get complete pleasure from this interview.” And at that, Oliver was gobsmacked.

“Wow! There’s embarrassing, and there’s getting roasted by Putin for being a lapdog embarrassing,” Oliver mocked.

Once he finished having a laugh at that, the HBO host questioned why Putin expected anything other than softball questions in the first place.

“Why on Earth did he think there’d be sharp questions?” Oliver marveled. “If whoever prepped Putin for that interview said anything other than ‘Hey, you’re about to talk to the dumbest Brooks brother, so feel free to take a nap,’ they should be fired!”

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” airs on Sunday nights on HBO.