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Ilya Bryzgalov Doesn't Like Philadelphia, Ghettos, Wants To Talk To Stalin And Genghis Khan

By Spike Eskin

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – If you haven't gotten the sense that Ilya Bryzgalov isn't a huge fan of Philadelphia yet, it would seem as though you aren't paying attention. Still, if you needed to be smacked over the head with it, Bryzgalov has done just that.

When speaking to championat.com, a Russian Sports website, Bryzgalov gave his take on why he doesn't like Philadelphia and New York (the interview is done in Russian, and is translated using Google Translate).

"I have lived in Philadelphia and a half months before we bought the house," Bryzgalov said.  "I do not really like that sort of town. Me and New York do not like. A big, bustling city with a grim gateways. Philadelphia is the same. But Boston, Vancouver and Dallas - are quite different. These newer, cleaner - there I like. I do not like old age."

"I do not want to say that I do not like Philadelphia. The city has good points. And in New York, too," Byrzgalov added that he thinks cheesesteaks are "delicious."

The ghetto, however, Bryzgalov is not particularly fond of.

"There are enough of them. This is not a small part of the city," Bryzgalov said.  "Too many do not work, live on welfare and get food stamps for. They just do not want to work. Their principle is: "Why should I work when I can live, let them raise taxes on the rich, which are injected. I'll sit on the dole, the year I will get it here, then move to another state - start getting there. Why do I Brokeback ? There will come a new candidate who has promised us all. us such a lot of on the dole, we vote for him, and raise taxes on the rich. " It's not even my opinion, and many Americans, with whom I spoke on this topic. "

Bryzgalov was then asked who he'd like to talk to, if he could have a conversation with anyone.

"Many people are dead ... I'd like to talk to Genghis Khan, Stalin and Einstein," he said. "I can see the logic in [Stalin's] actions. Not without kinks, of course. But he came to power in a country that has just experienced a revolution. How many there were spies, enemies, traitors. Many people after the Civil War remained in the hands of the weapon. The country was devastated, I had to survive somehow. It was necessary to build the country, and to do that you have to keep it in the hands of iron. Then came the war. How many people came back after her graduation from the front again with a weapon. Around devastation, we must rebuild the country, to keep defenses. How many criminals have."

Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union for three decades, was responsible for the killing of millions of civilians during his reign as Soviet leader, and made a pact with Adolf Hitler prior to World War II. Genghis Khan was founder of the Mongol Empire. Albert Einstein, who discovered the theory of relativity, was generally harmless.

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