Moscow City Duma deputies were glad to extend a helping hand to Yuri Luzhkov, giving him a fifth term in power.
Photo: Alexander Miridonov
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Moscow Duma Keeps Luzhkov
Moscow’s city legislature on Wednesday gave incumbent Mayor Yuri Luzhkov a fifth term in office. Mr. Luzhkov will become Moscow’s longest-serving boss, second only to two governor-generals in the Czar time if he stays in power till the end of the term.
Yuri Luzhkov has been serving as Moscow’s mayor since 1992. His fourth term is ending in December, but he asked the Russian president in June to decide on his candidacy ahead of schedule. Vladimir Putin’s nomination came on June 22.
Georgy Poltavchenko, the president’s envoy to the Central Federal District, told the Moscow City Duma on Wednesday that Yuri Luzhkov is “an efficient and energetic boss” for Moscow. “I am convinced that he has not lost interest in work and has enormous untapped potential that he will be fulfilling in the next four-five years,” the official said.
The incumbent mayor promised to address the ever-worsening transportation issue as Moscow is in short of 300 km of roads as well as “drastically cut” on so-called “spot development”. Yuri Luzhkov also said close attention would be given to the city’s 2 million pensioners.
The leader of the United Russia’s faction in the Moscow Duma went on to say that “Moscow without Yuri Mikhailovich [Luzhkov] and his development plans for Moscow will probably have no future.” Sergey Mitrokhin from the opposition Yabloko party was the only to come with criticism and call on the mayor to ask the president to bring back the abolished elections for regional bosses in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
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