Four State Duma deputies are threatening to ban foreigners from state television if they utter discrediting remarks about the country. The proposal was made in a letter to Vladimir Pozner, ostensibly to punish the popular Channel One show host for his critical comments.
Pozner has held U.S. citizenship since he worked in New York between 1991 and 1997. He was born in France and also holds French citizenship.
The lawmakers' ire apparently stemmed from comments Pozner made in a Dec. 23 program in which he used a Russian pun to call the Duma a "silly woman" and argued that by voting for the controversial adoption ban its members were making a laughingstock of the country.
"Mr. Pozner, if you have so little respect for our country, you will have time to find work with your American or French colleagues," Interfax quoted the letter as saying.
The letter was signed by United Russia's Mikhail Starshinov, Liberal Democrat Andrei Lugovoi, Communist Oleg Denisenko and Igor Zotov, who was dismissed from A Just Russia earlier this year for his pro-Kremlin views.
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