Luzhkov called Shuster a foreigner

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was indignant at the fact that the Freedom of Speech program on the NTV channel was hosted by a "citizen of a foreign state" Savik Shuster (a native of the Lithuanian SSR, has Canadian citizenship. - Ed.). The mayor's anger stemmed from recent statements by a TV presenter who allegedly questioned the wisdom of hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The mayor of Moscow expressed his claims to Shuster at a meeting with the leaders and players of the CSKA basketball club, which took place on Thursday. Luzhkov criticized Schuster's program of May 21 on the topic "Olympic escalation".

The host of Svoboda Slova, who was asked by Kommersant whether he spoke out against the Olympics in Moscow, answered briefly: "Read the transcript of that program and you will understand everything." Correspondents of the newspaper did not find sharp statements that could cause such wrath of Luzhkov in the transcript. Shuster only doubted that the regions would support the holding of the Olympics in Moscow, and in response to the remark of Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov about the prestige of the Olympics all over the world, he said that the countries that are fighting for the Olympics at the same time as Russia, "no problems with the pension reform, that is, there are problems with the reform, but there are no problems with the pension."

Summing up the results of the program, the presenter said: "We are discussing priorities: should we do healthcare and pension reform today, or should we fight for the Olympics?" Apparently, it was the very fact of raising such a question that the mayor of the capital considered as criticism of the idea of ​​holding the games in Moscow, the newspaper notes.

In a conversation with Kommersant, Savik Shuster expressed bewilderment about Mr. Luzhkov's words about his citizenship.

This week, the newspaper learned, Mr. Schuster was having trouble renewing his work visa, which expires on June 5. However, Schuster said that "the situation is in the process of being resolved and the problem has been removed." As the host of "Freedom of Speech" said, on Friday his program, as usual, will be aired. It will discuss the topic "Youth Radical Organizations".