Savik Shuster said that he would work in Ukraine “without permission.” It was canceled by the employment service due to information about the criminal case in which Shuster appears. The TV presenter believes that the authorities are afraid of criticism

TV presenter Savik Shuster (Photo: Alexander Kosarev / InA "Ukrainian Photo")

TV presenter Savik Shuster promised to continue working in Ukraine, despite the fact that the employment center canceled his work permit. He said this in a conversation with Ukrainian journalists.

“We will work without a work permit,” quotes him as saying. Ukrainian News

Shuster believes that it was no coincidence that the decision was made on the eve of the holidays. “Before Easter, before the May holidays, people’s attention to television is not so close, and when everyone returns to the city <...> by the beginning of the plenary meeting [of the Verkhovna Rada], everyone will already forget about it. That is, the calculation was made like this, ” Interfax-Ukraine quotes him .

The journalist also noted that it would be difficult to expel him from Ukraine, since he still has a residence permit. “Because then I don’t know who will come here from investors, employers, if this is how you can just kick it out,” he added.

“The problem is not even that, the problem is that this government, it turns out, absolutely does not tolerate any criticism of it. People come to us and constantly express this criticism. They [the authorities] are constantly fighting with the mirror. Well, they will break our mirror. But then other mirrors will appear... The threat is over all of us - both over politicians who disagree, and over journalists who would like to reflect life as it is, and not as it was invented by them,” Shuster said.

the situation around him Earlier, the journalist described as pressure that has been going on for a long time.

On that Shuster’s work permit in Ukraine had been revoked Tuesday, April 26, his partner Pavel Elizarov announced . He explained that two weeks ago the journalist received the necessary documents, but in the end the government agencies reconsidered their decision. Later, the Kiev employment center explained that the decision was canceled due to the fact that Shuster provided false information . In particular, the authorities had questions regarding the criminal record certificate.

Center representative Dmitry Shulga said that in March Shuster submitted a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs about no criminal record. However, later the State Employment Service of Ukraine announced the existence of a criminal case in which the journalist appears. Elizarov later stated that, having learned about the criminal case, government agencies considered that Shuster had a criminal record.

The criminal case in which Shuster appears was initiated after an inspection of the Savik Shuster Studio company, which was carried out in the fall by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. In January 2016, Shuster himself announced on the air of his program that a criminal case had been opened against him. Government agencies found violations of non-payment of taxes in the amount of 13 million hryvnia (more than 34 million rubles).

Later, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine denied that a case had been opened against Shuster. The department stated that the case was opened based on the results of a tax audit.

Commenting on the progress of the investigation, Shuster said that the claims of the State Tax Service are now being disputed. “We think that this is all very wrong, this is a really invented case just out of nowhere, it’s all so fabricated... And I really don’t want this all to become a precedent. Then all this can be used against others. This is already being done against small and medium-sized businesses,” Shuster said.

Savik Shuster, who is a citizen of Canada and Italy, has been working in Ukraine for more than ten years. Before this, the TV presenter worked in Russia - at NTV and RBC. In 2009, together with his partners, he created Savik Shuster Studio LLC. The main project of the production is the weekly talk show “Shuster Live”, which is hosted by Shuster himself. The program airs on the 3s.tv channel.

Savik Shuster decided to continue working in Ukraine without permission