The powerful wife of Moscow's long-serving mayor is to take state-run TV channels to court over what she says are "lies" broadcast as part of a recent documentary.
On Friday, the NTV TV channel aired a documentary accusing Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and his wife Yelena Baturina of large-scale corruption. The 30-minute program said Baturina, the world's third richest woman, had used her husband's position to amass her wealth, reported by Forbes as $2.9 billion.
The Cap Affair, its title a reference to the mayor's famous black cap, also accused 74-year-old Luzhkov of relaxing on vacation while Moscow was choking in the acrid smog that hit the capital this summer.
Other TV channels also aired material attacking the mayor.
A statement by the Baturina-owned Inteko company said a suit would be filed over what it called "obvious lies".
Relations between Luzhkov, who has been in office since 1992, and President Dmitry Medvedev are believed to have worsened of late. The dispute is thought to have its roots in a September article by Luzhkov in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta government daily that hinted at criticism of the Medvedev-Putin tandem.
The Kommersant daily said on Monday, citing an NTV source, that the program had been ordered by the Kremlin a mere two days before it was aired.
However, there has also been media speculation that the issue may have caused a rift between Medvedev and his mentor and current prime minister, Vladimir Putin.
"The campaign to oust Luzhkov is taking place amid the start of the unofficial primaries ahead of the 2012 presidential elections. Everything looks like one leader [Medvedev] supports the mayor's resignation, while another [Putin] does not," Vedomosti daily quoted a political expert, Olga Kryshtanovskaya as saying.
Luzhkov, whose current term in office runs out next June, denied however that he was in conflict with the president.
"I do not believe I am a person in conflict with the [presidential] administration. I do not even believe it necessary to answer your question in more detail. There are no conflicts, there are different opinions," Luzhkov said at the Global Policy Forum in the city of Yaroslavl on Friday.
MOSCOW, September 13 (RIA Novosti)
