Savik Shuster
Encyclopedia
Savik Shuster is a journalist and host of Ukrainian
TV shows as The Freedom By Savik Shuster and Shuster Live on Pershyi Natsionalnyi. From 2001 till 2004 he presented talkshows on the Russia
n NTV channel.
Shuster holds Canadian and Italian citizenships.
now the capital of Lithuania
) Shuster left the Soviet Union 1971, his parents (his father was a football coach) emigrated from their native Vilnius via Israel
to Canada. A distant uncle, who was vice president of the oil company Shell Canada
, intervened with Soviet Prime Minister
Alexei Kosygin on their behalf. In 1976 Shuster graduated from McGill University
in Montreal
, with a medical degree
. He then moved to Florence
in Italy to continue his studies. There, he began writing for a local newspaper after realizing that he "did not like sick people." In 1980 Shuster worked for three months with a French humanitarian organization that was working on the side of the anti-Soviet mujahedin in Afghanistan, there he met Newsweek magazines Asia editor and was offered a chance to write a few articles for them. Shortly after Shuster started to write for French newspaper Libération
and the Italian magazine Frigidaire
.
's Media-MOST in April 2001. Radio Liberty said that, by continuing with his (Football) program at NTV, Shuster had violated its professional code and policy over conflicts of interests. Weeks after the Gazprom
s takeover Shuster began anchoring NTV's "Hero of the Day" interview show and then "Svoboda Slova"; till 2004 he was the host of several talkshows on the NTV channel. Allegedly Shusters and his employer NTV's coverage of the Moscow hostage crisis infuriated (then) President Vladimir Putin
in 2002. In 2004 his show “Freedom of Speech” was awarded a "TEFI
" by the Russian Academy of Television. Shuster last Russian show was cancelled by NTV because "the audience was too old", according to Shuster this was not the real reason the station closed his talkshow: "the truth was the Kremlin
could no longer afford an open, live show". According to Shuster in the Soviet era “in Kiev it was a dream to get to Moscow, but now Putin’s politics
is killing a lot of creativity and Moscow is becoming less attractive for Ukrainians
.”
, in Kiev
a few months after Ukrainians “Orange Revolution
” (Nemtsov was an adviser to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko
at the time). "I decided to go and make some fun of him, “I planned to say to him, ‘Boris, you finally found a place in politics, but it is in the wrong country.’ But when I came into his office, I saw he was in a very good mood and I said, ‘Boris, maybe I, too, should go to Ukraine.’" A few months later, he lived in the Ukrainian capital, studied Ukrainian
and worked in Ukraine as a broadcaster. From May 2005 Savik hosted “Freedom of Speech” (talk-show) on ICTV
. Later that year he presented “Freedom by Savik Shuster” on Inter TV. In August 2008 the production-studio “Savik Shuster Studios” was created and in 2008 TV-channel "Ukraina"
made a three-year contract with this studio for broadcasting the social-political talk-show “Shuster Live”. In July 2009 Shuster broke ties with the production company which was renamed to Istil Studios. According to Shuster in 2008: "When our program is on the air it’ is watched on every third TV set in the country". "Ukraina" saw a sudden boost in popularity ratings after the start of Shuster's political talk show in September 2008.
In September 2009 Shuster claimed "unknown people" tried to sabotage the airing of his program "Shuster Live".
May 21, 2010 deputy head of the Administration of Ukraine Hanna Herman
stated the wish that Ukraine’s most popular political talks shows would be anchored only by Ukrainian journalists, “We are still victims to that imperial
complex that “everything coming from Moscow is good, everything Ukrainian is bad”“.
The number of viewers of his show have dropped from 1 million in 2006 to 600,000 people in 2011.
is not a burning issue, there were other problems".
Shuster said he would be interested in hosting debates between presidential contenders in Russia.
Although Yanukovych refused to participate in the Shuster Live show arranged specifically for the three main candidates in Ukraine's 5th presidential elections
on December 18, 2009, he maintained a clear lead in the opinion polls ahead of Yulia Tymoshenko
.
The Jamestown Foundation
considers Shuster "a Yulia Tymoshenko sympathizer". In an 2009 interview with the Financial Times
Shuster does not believe a revival of Russian democracy
will happen: “If there is a political transformation in Russia, it will not be towards democracy. They have lost the foundation for a democratic transformation. They have decided to build power by looking for supporters among the intolerant. I think a fascist dictatorship is more likely than Nemtsov
or Kasparov or Kasyanov
coming to power”.
(Italy
) during his career in Russia
and Ukraine
. Shuster also has a stepson Artem who lives in Italy.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
TV shows as The Freedom By Savik Shuster and Shuster Live on Pershyi Natsionalnyi. From 2001 till 2004 he presented talkshows on the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n NTV channel.
Shuster holds Canadian and Italian citizenships.
Biography
Born in Vilnius (then part of the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
now the capital of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
) Shuster left the Soviet Union 1971, his parents (his father was a football coach) emigrated from their native Vilnius via Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
to Canada. A distant uncle, who was vice president of the oil company Shell Canada
Shell Canada
Shell Canada Limited is the subsidiary of Dutch-based Royal Dutch Shell and one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies. Exploration and production of oil, natural gas and sulphur is a major part of its business, as well as the marketing of gasoline and related products through the company's...
, intervened with Soviet Prime Minister
Premier of the Soviet Union
The office of Premier of the Soviet Union was synonymous with head of government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . Twelve individuals have been premier...
Alexei Kosygin on their behalf. In 1976 Shuster graduated from McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, with a medical degree
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
. He then moved to Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in Italy to continue his studies. There, he began writing for a local newspaper after realizing that he "did not like sick people." In 1980 Shuster worked for three months with a French humanitarian organization that was working on the side of the anti-Soviet mujahedin in Afghanistan, there he met Newsweek magazines Asia editor and was offered a chance to write a few articles for them. Shortly after Shuster started to write for French newspaper Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
and the Italian magazine Frigidaire
Frigidaire
Frigidaire is a brand of consumer and commercial appliances. Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first self-contained refrigerator in 1916. In 1918, William C...
.
Career in Russia
From 1988 (when he didn't speak Russian often) to 2001 Shuster worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from 1996 to 2001 he was the head of there Moscow office. In 1998 he started to present a football show on NTV. Radio Liberty fired him over a perceived conflict of interest during Gazprom's takeover of NTV from Vladimir GusinskyVladimir Gusinsky
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky is a Russian media baron, is known as the founder of Media-Most holding that included Most Bank, the NTV channel, the newspaper Segodnya and magazines.-Life and career:Gusinsky was born in Moscow....
's Media-MOST in April 2001. Radio Liberty said that, by continuing with his (Football) program at NTV, Shuster had violated its professional code and policy over conflicts of interests. Weeks after the Gazprom
Gazprom
Open Joint Stock Company Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company. Its headquarters are in Cheryomushki District, South-Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow...
s takeover Shuster began anchoring NTV's "Hero of the Day" interview show and then "Svoboda Slova"; till 2004 he was the host of several talkshows on the NTV channel. Allegedly Shusters and his employer NTV's coverage of the Moscow hostage crisis infuriated (then) President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
in 2002. In 2004 his show “Freedom of Speech” was awarded a "TEFI
TEFI
TEFI is an annual award given in the Russian television industry, presented by the Russian Academy of Television. It has been awarded since 1994. TEFI is presented in various sectors , such as television shows, notable people in the television industry, journalists, channels...
" by the Russian Academy of Television. Shuster last Russian show was cancelled by NTV because "the audience was too old", according to Shuster this was not the real reason the station closed his talkshow: "the truth was the Kremlin
Government of Russia
The Government of the Russian Federation exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister , the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers...
could no longer afford an open, live show". According to Shuster in the Soviet era “in Kiev it was a dream to get to Moscow, but now Putin’s politics
Putinism
Putinism is the ideology, priorities, and policies of the system of government practiced by Russian politician Vladimir Putin...
is killing a lot of creativity and Moscow is becoming less attractive for Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
.”
Career in Ukraine
Since 2005 Shuster works in Ukraine. According to Shuster at first he had no plans to work in Ukraine but changed his mind shortly after a visit to a friend in 2005, Russian politician Boris NemtsovBoris Nemtsov
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.-Early life:...
, in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
a few months after Ukrainians “Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
” (Nemtsov was an adviser to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
at the time). "I decided to go and make some fun of him, “I planned to say to him, ‘Boris, you finally found a place in politics, but it is in the wrong country.’ But when I came into his office, I saw he was in a very good mood and I said, ‘Boris, maybe I, too, should go to Ukraine.’" A few months later, he lived in the Ukrainian capital, studied Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
and worked in Ukraine as a broadcaster. From May 2005 Savik hosted “Freedom of Speech” (talk-show) on ICTV
ICTV (Ukraine)
ICTV is a privately-held TV channel in Ukraine. Its coverage area allows it to be received by 56.6 % of the Ukrainian population, making the channel the fourth in the nation in terms of coverage , and third by the viewers' ratings.The channel is owned by...
. Later that year he presented “Freedom by Savik Shuster” on Inter TV. In August 2008 the production-studio “Savik Shuster Studios” was created and in 2008 TV-channel "Ukraina"
Ukraina (TV channel)
Telekanal Ukrayina is one of the most popular television channels in Ukraine. Its broadcast range covers 95% of the Ukrainian territory. The corporate mission of the channel is to maintain one general interest channel and few theme channels, such as the "Football TV channel", that was launched in...
made a three-year contract with this studio for broadcasting the social-political talk-show “Shuster Live”. In July 2009 Shuster broke ties with the production company which was renamed to Istil Studios. According to Shuster in 2008: "When our program is on the air it’ is watched on every third TV set in the country". "Ukraina" saw a sudden boost in popularity ratings after the start of Shuster's political talk show in September 2008.
In September 2009 Shuster claimed "unknown people" tried to sabotage the airing of his program "Shuster Live".
May 21, 2010 deputy head of the Administration of Ukraine Hanna Herman
Hanna Herman
Hanna Herman Hanna Herman Hanna Herman (born April 24, 1959; village of Kolodruby, Ukrainian state and political activist, and the spokeswoman for Viktor Yanukovych.-Biography:...
stated the wish that Ukraine’s most popular political talks shows would be anchored only by Ukrainian journalists, “We are still victims to that imperial
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
complex that “everything coming from Moscow is good, everything Ukrainian is bad”“.
The number of viewers of his show have dropped from 1 million in 2006 to 600,000 people in 2011.
Language of presenting
Shuster presents his (Ukrainian) programs in Russian, according to him he "was allowed to do it because he was not ethnic Russian and everyone understood the language. But at first, on Ukrainian TV, Russian speaking TV host was a phenomenon. Now the issue of the languageRussian language in Ukraine
Russian is a minority language in Ukraine It is the most common first language in Donbass and Crimea regions, the predominant language in large cities in the East and South of the country...
is not a burning issue, there were other problems".
Political views
Shuster considered himself to be a liberal. In an 2008 interview with Novaya GazetaNovaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta is a Russian newspaper well known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs....
Shuster said he would be interested in hosting debates between presidential contenders in Russia.
"However, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be invited as they need exactly those who play up, and that’s a kind of censorship. This allowed Putin to refuse participation in the debates at all. Here [in Ukraine] such a thing is just impossible. Those who refuse taking part in debates, they lose at once. When I had the live air on NTV, United Russia tried to boycott it realizing their public competitiveness is not high and actually they don’t have many arguments. Then, though, they began to visit it again, as they had to. And now, with the absence of the live air, they all became “masters”".
Although Yanukovych refused to participate in the Shuster Live show arranged specifically for the three main candidates in Ukraine's 5th presidential elections
Ukrainian presidential election, 2010
The Ukrainian presidential election of 2010 is Ukraine's fifth presidential election since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The first round was held on January 17, 2010...
on December 18, 2009, he maintained a clear lead in the opinion polls ahead of Yulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko , née Grigyan , born 27 November 1960, is a Ukrainian politician. She was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 24 January to 8 September 2005, and again from 18 December 2007 to 4 March 2010. She placed third in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful...
.
The Jamestown Foundation
The Jamestown Foundation
The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based institute for research and analysis, founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet dissidents. Today its stated mission is to "inform and educate" policy makers about events and trends, which it regards as being of current "strategic"...
considers Shuster "a Yulia Tymoshenko sympathizer". In an 2009 interview with the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
Shuster does not believe a revival of Russian democracy
Politics of Russia
The politics of Russia take place in a framework of a federal semi-presidential republic. According to the Constitution of Russia, the President of Russia is head of state, and of a multi-party system with executive power exercised by the government, headed by the Prime Minister, who is appointed...
will happen: “If there is a political transformation in Russia, it will not be towards democracy. They have lost the foundation for a democratic transformation. They have decided to build power by looking for supporters among the intolerant. I think a fascist dictatorship is more likely than Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.-Early life:...
or Kasparov or Kasyanov
Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov - was the Prime Minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004.He is the leader of the People's Democratic Union and an ex-member of the opposition coalition "The Other Russia".-Political career:...
coming to power”.
Family
Shuster is currently married to Olga Nevskaya (second wife). His first wife was Italian. She and his family continued to live in FlorenceFlorence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
(Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
) during his career in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. Shuster also has a stepson Artem who lives in Italy.