What Tucker Carlson doesn't understand about democracy in Ukraine Fox News host Tucker Carlson has not minced words this week as Russian forces invaded Ukraine: "You can't say it enough, Ukraine is not a democracy. … In American terms, you would call Ukraine a tyranny." To some extent, whether Ukraine is a democracy is a matter of opinion, so we did not offer a Pinocchio rating. But Carlson — who has expressed admiration for Hungarian President Viktor Orbán and his crackdown on civil liberties — is stacking the deck against Ukraine. It is a fledgling democracy, with significant growing pains, largely the result of Russian pressure and interference in its affairs. It is certainly not "a tyranny." Ukraine has many aspects of a democracy. The president, who is head of state and commander in chief, is chosen by a popular election. The legislature has a mix of single-seat and proportional representation. The prime minister is chosen through a legislative majority and is head of government. The Supreme Court is appointed by the president upon nomination by the Supreme Council of Justice. Freedom House, a nonpartisan think tank that ranks democracies, has labeled Ukraine "a transitional or hybrid regime" in one recent report and "partly free" in a second report. Hungary, Carlson's fave, is also listed as a "transitional or hybrid regime" and does not rank much higher than Ukraine. Ukraine's overall Freedom House score, moreover, is higher than that of Mexico and Indonesia, two countries often labeled democracies. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Putin's speech on Ukraine, fact-checked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday made a lengthy, often-bitter televised speech as he ordered troops to attack Ukraine. His speech contained many dubious claims, both historical and factual. We put together a guide to some of the more noteworthy statements. "Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia or, to be more precise, by Bolshevik, Communist Russia." The reality is that Ukrainian culture and language have existed for centuries and a Ukrainian nationalist movement sprang up in the mid-1800s, angering the czars. While parts of what is now Ukraine was part of the Russian empire, the rest of the state was, at various times, under the control of Poland, Lithuania and Austria-Hungary. "According to reports, the U.S. Embassy provided $1 million a day to support the so-called protest camp on Independence Square in Kyiv." The United States was certainly publicly supportive of pro-Western demonstrators, but we can find no "reports" — except Russian news articles on Putin's speech — that confirm that the U.S. Embassy provided such astronomical sums to the protesters. "It has already been stated today that Ukraine intends to create its own nuclear weapons, and this is not just bragging." This is sheer fantasy. There is no evidence that Ukraine wants to develop nuclear weapons — or that it even has the capacity to do so, given the ruined state of the economy. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
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