Tucker Carlson is in Russia to meet with his boss, Vladimir Putin, who gave Carlson a poor performance review. While in Moscow, Carlson visited Moscow's opulent Kiyevskaya subway station, built during the Cold War.
As described by Britannica, "The most striking feature of the Metro is the grand and ornate styling of many of its stations, which are decorated to resemble the interiors of tsarist palaces. The tiled walls are inset with inspiring sculptures, mosaics, and paintings of workers, peasants, and soldiers enjoying the fruits of the Soviet system—a deliberate ploy to advance the cause of communism."
The station's luxurious design had the desired effect on Carlson, who seems to think that societal success or failure can be judged solely based on the cleanliness of a subway station. He was so impressed by Kiyevskaya station's grandeur that he made a shallow and unconvincing video that started by showing scenes of ugly and dirty New York subway stations replete with graffiti, rats, and unhoused people sleeping in them and then showed the murals and chandeliers of a sparkling clean Moscow subway with uplifting classical music playing in the background. He ignored the broader context of Russia's infrastructure and societal issues, and didn't provide a comparison between the Moscow Subway system and other subway systems worldwide. (If Carlson thinks the Kiyevskaya station looks grand and unsullied, he should go to North Korea and take a gander at Yonggwang station!)
As usual, Carlson preemptively dismissed potential counterarguments by saying that he won't speculate or entertain opposing views, which wipes out the credibility of his argument and demonstrates his trademark lack of willingness to engage in meaningful discourse, the very trait Putin dinged him for.
