Moscow mayor accuses media of undermining its 2012 bid

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has accused Russian media of undermining the city's chances of winning the bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

"Frankly, I'm bewildered at the position of some of our mass media who are critical of Moscow's chances," Luzhkov wrote in an article in the influential daily Izvestia yesterday.

"Understating our ability, cries of 'We haven't become a civilised country just yet and are not up to western standards'. I'm just fed up with all of that!" he said.

In its report earlier this month, the IOC evaluation commission said Moscow was capable of staging the Games if all the promised changes were undertaken but also criticised the city for a lack of detailed planning.

Some western critics, however, give the Russian capital only a slim chance in its battle against Paris, London, New York and Madrid because of infrastructure problems.

Luzhkov also blasted foreign media and public relations agencies for what he said was "an information war" against his city.

"I'm certain that their aim was to talk the leaders of the Russian state out of supporting Moscow and to discredit one of the main contenders in the upcoming Olympic vote," he said.

Luzhkov said Moscow had a great chance of winning the bid. "Out of the 37 venues needed to stage the Olympics, Moscow has 23 which are practically ready."

Warning

The Moscow mayor also sounded a warning to his rivals: "Some have already buried our chances, just like they were predicting that Russia would be a total failure at the Athens Olympics, our football would die and our ice hockey would collapse.

"But I want to remind those who will vote in Singapore that we have long stopped being the country of evergreen tomatoes," said Luzhkov in reference to a poor quality of food in the former communist state.

The vote takes place on July 6.

¤ Georgia will bid to stage the 2014 Winter Games, the country's Olympic chief said yesterday. Badri Patarkatsishvili, president of the Georgian Olympic Committee (GOC), told reporters the former Soviet republic planned to file an official bid with the IOC in the next few days. Georgia is the seventh country to express an interest in staging the 2014 Winter Games. South Korea's Pyeongchang, Austria's Salzburg, the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Sweden's Ostersund, the German city of Munich and China's Harbin have also put forward bids ahead of the July 28 deadline. Turin hosts the Winter Olympics next year while the 2010 Games will be staged in Vancouver.