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Pro-Luzhkov channel pulls film in mayor's defense

© RIA Novosti . Alexey Kudenko / Go to the mediabankTV-Center pledged to air the program late on Monday, but eventually showed another program instead.
TV-Center pledged to air the program late on Monday, but eventually showed another program instead. - Sputnik International
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A Russian TV channel loyal to the mayor of Moscow did not air on Monday a promised documentary "exposing" the truth behind a recent anti-mayor media campaign.

A Russian TV channel loyal to the mayor of Moscow did not air on Monday a promised documentary "exposing" the truth behind a recent anti-mayor media campaign.

Andrei Karaulov, a host of the TV-Center channel's Moment of Truth program, said earlier this week that he had prepared a documentary, called "Russian Hell," in which he "thoroughly" analyzed a recent broadcast by the NTV channel that accused Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and his wife of large-scale corruption.

Karaulov described the NTV documentary as "the biggest lies I have ever come across to in my life." He pledged that his own documentary would show "shocking confessions by participants in the ordered programs aired by federal channels."

TV-Center, whose board of directors is chaired by Luzhkov's spokesman Sergei Tsoi, pledged to air the program late on Monday, but eventually showed another program instead.

A full-fledged media campaign has recently been launched against Luzhkov and his billionaire wife Yelena Baturina by several television stations, including the NTV channel, which recently aired a documentary called the Cap Affair.

The film, its title referring to the mayor's famous black cap, says among other things that Luzhkov's wife Yelena Baturina, the world's third richest woman, used her husband's position to amass her wealth, reported by Forbes as $2.9 billion.

The 30-minute documentary also accused 74-year-old Luzhkov of relaxing on vacation while Moscow was choking in the acrid smog that hit the capital this summer.

Luzhkov and his wife have denied the allegations and said they would sue NTV and other TV channels that aired defamatory documentaries.

The anti-mayor TV campaign sparked media allegations that Luzhkov, who has been in office since 1992, would be fired soon.

The Moscow mayor is allegedly at odds with President Dmitry Medvedev. Their conflict 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.

MOSCOW, September 21 (RIA Novosti)

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