Why doesn't json_decode work after iconv?

Question

PHP

Hi friends. Please tell me why json_decode doesn't work after iconv?
The situation is this: there is a site in cp1251, there is a remote server that, via API (curl), gives JSON in utf-8. Naturally, the Cyrillic alphabet in it comes out as krakozyabry. For this I do:

$actions_converted = iconv("utf-8", "cp1251", curl_exec($ch));
$actions = json_decode($actions_converted);

NULL is written to $actions, but everything is written to $actions_converted as it should, i.e. conversion is successful.
I also tried like this:

$actions = json_decode(curl_exec($ch));
$actions_converted = iconv("utf-8", "cp1251", $actions);

The situation is similar, but now in $actions I get an object, i.e. everything is ok, but in $actions_converted - NULL.
Please, tell me what the plug is happening. Broke my whole head.
Many thanks and good karma to all who answered!

Answer 1

So it only works with utf-8
json_last_error() shows something?