Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday dubbed a fight that broke out between media tycoon Alexander Lebedev and billionaire developer Sergei Polonsky during a TV show "hooliganism."
Lebedev, former KGB agent who owns a string of newspapers including The Independent and London Evening Standard, punched the fellow billionaire on a television panel show after a discussion on the financial crisis degenerated into petty name-calling.
The show got particularly heated after Polonsky accused Lebedev of spreading a rumor about a crack in the Moskva-City skyscraper his firm was building.
The brawl was discussed during a meeting of Putin's All-Russia People's Front. "We are a front, we do not scuffle with anybody, but they have no front, they beat each other. Hooliganism!" the prime minister said.
"Only imagine how they fight for money, they are ready to tear at each other's throats," the premier added.
