at the xiv international tchaikovsky competition, an uproar followed the second-round results of the piano competition. chronicles of the events appeared in the british newspapers "the guardian" and "the times". "the times" wrote that audience members and russian critics were upset at the elimination of eduard kunz and alexander lubyantsev. "the guardian", concluding that the tchaikovsky competition audience is “one of the most interactive, involved and opinionated groups of music lovers anywhere,” called lubyantsev, who was a top prizewinner at the competition's previous edition, a “favorite of the fervent, muscovite public” and described his being “mobbed like a pop star by groups of photographers, journalists and teenage girls” backstage after his last performance. according to the newspaper, it was his departure that "caused the most controversy." remarkable accounts of the public's unequivocal behavior towards lubyantsev and towards some jury members appeared in international and russian newspapers.