"I decided to play along": Alexander Druz responded to bribery charges

Alexander Druz said that the deal with questions for money during the intellectual quiz "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Was offered to him by the chief editor of the program, Ilya Ber.

Commenting on the incident in a conversation with RBC, Druz noted that the voice on the recording posted by Beer in LiveJournal really belongs to him, but he told the story "exactly the opposite." The well-known expert also stressed that he was very surprised at the arrogance of the editor, but decided to play along with him - I wanted to understand how far his interlocutor was ready to go.

“And the person went further: he began to discuss the details of the deal, in which I diligently played along with him,” said the master of CPP.

On Tuesday, the editor-in-chief of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Ilya Ber published on the page in his Live Journal an official appeal to the Commission on Ethics and the Board of the IAC, in which he accused Alexander Druzy of trying to bribe. Behr laid out the recording and decoding of the conversation, proposing to the board of the International Association of Clubs “What? Where? When? ”Disqualify friends.

“I accuse Alexander Friends of immoral unethical behavior for a player in intellectual games and propose to the IAC Board to decide on his disqualification as a player in sports“ What? Where? When? ”, As well as the organizer of the tournaments and the functionary of the IAC,” wrote Ber on his page.

Did not answer the last question

According to Alexander Druze, his colleague in “What? Where? When? ”, As well as a partner on the set of“ Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ”Victor Sidnev was aware of the situation. As Druz assures, under Sidanev, Ber called and dictated the first four questions, after which he broke off.

"During the break, I told Viktor (Sidnev. - RT ) that Ber really provokes us to a dishonest game, and here he called back again," the expert stressed.

Druz also added that, together with Sidnev, they decided to bring the survey to the 15th question and not to win the game if the dictated answers turn out to be correct. However, the recent questions, according to Druze, did not coincide with those provided by Ber, so the players "just played and won."

• Still from the TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" With Alexander Druze and Viktor Sidnev
• © Channel One / YouTube

“To the last question, as we agreed with Sydnev, we did not give the correct answer, although when I asked the question, I realized that I knew the correct answer, because for this chess problem I did a question for one of the“ What? Where? When?". Looking back, I understand how stupid I did, trying to outplay Ber. I'm sorry that happened, ”Druz concluded.

According to Viktor Sidnev, on the day of filming, he and Alexander Druz met in a restaurant before the game, where Druz spoke about Beer's offer to turn in questions in exchange for a share of the winnings.

“I replied that we would not participate in this case and that Sasha (Druz. - RT ) would in no case call Beru about this,” said Sidnev to RBC, noting that Ber had called Druze more than once during dinner.

Sydnev clarified that he did not know a single question, and later it turned out that the difficult questions, dictated by Ber, did not coincide with those that were on the air. Nevertheless, according to the expert, the players were able to give the correct answers, and to the last question Sydnev answered "as he considered correct."

"Later, Sasha told me that he knew the correct answer, but he gave me the wrong answer, so as not to win 3 million rubles," Sydnev concluded.

"A lot of questions"

After the scandal caused by the accusations of Ilya Bera, Channel One promised to sort out the situation to which his leadership turned out to be “a lot of questions”. Representatives of the channel noted the need to verify the accuracy of the recording of the telephone conversation of Ber and Druze. The press service also stressed that it is not clear why Ilya Ber just now made a statement against Alexander Druze, despite the fact that the release of the program was filmed last fall.

The representatives of “What? Where? When?".

The scandal caused by the accusations of Bera, commented and broadcaster of the program "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Dmitry Dibrov. In an interview with the radio station "Moscow Spokesperson" the presenter doubted that Druz could have taken such a step.

“If someone asked any questions, Alexander Abramovich Druz could do it least of all. Many times he was on my gear. Several times I flew pretty sorry for low questions. But, as a rule, he rose high enough not to ask about such things, ”said Dibrov.