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RUSSIA-POLITICS-MOSCOW-LUZHKOV
Ex-Moscow mayor Luzhkov, populist heavyweight, dies at 83
MOSCOW, Dec 10, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, a
political heavyweight who transformed Russia’s capital but was dogged by
corruption claims, has died aged 83, the current mayor said Tuesday.
Sergei Sobyanin, who succeeded Luzhkov nine years ago, announced Luzhkov’s
death on Twitter, calling him a “life-loving person” who “did a lot for the
city and for Muscovites.”
Luzhkov, who burnished his populist credentials with a trademark flat cap
and a passion for bee-keeping, was unceremoniously fired in 2010 after
running the city for 18 years.
A major political figure during the 1990s, Luzhkov was a key ally of
Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin until 1999 and was one of the founders
of Russia’s ruling United Russia party.
His long stint as mayor saw the capital swell both in population and
economic clout, but he was also associated with corruption owing to the
success of his wife, a construction magnate.
Luzhkov shared his hobby energetically, launching ubiquitous honey
festivals in Moscow. He was loved by older Muscovites for increasing their
pensions but hated by preservationists for his allegedly garish taste and
destruction of historic buildings.
His dismissal in 2010 came after a series of hastily compiled
documentaries that discredited him on Russian television.
Luzhkov was one of the last of the type of popular politicians elected in
the pre-Vladimir Putin era and was replaced by Sobyanin, a Siberian
technocrat.
BSS/AFP/RY/1645 hrs