The 'Putin Starting Way Back' meme stems from the high-profile February 2024 interview between Vladimir Putin and Tucker Carlson. When asked about the motivations behind the conflict in Ukraine, Putin famously launched into a thirty-minute lecture on the historical origins of Russia and Ukraine, beginning with the year 862. This exhaustive and unexpected history lesson quickly became a viral sensation, symbolizing anyone who provides an overly long, ancient, or complex backstory for a simple question. It is widely used to mock long-winded explainers, obsessive historians, or anyone who refuses to get straight to the point.