Putin's chief of staff named new mayor of Moscow

[October 21, 2010]  MOSCOW (AP) -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's chief of staff was named the new mayor of Moscow on Wednesday, cementing the powerful Russian leader's influence over the capital and its sizable chunk of the nation's wealth.

Sergei Sobyanin was approved by the city legislature in a near unanimous vote, seen as a mere formality because of his connection to Putin. He replaces Yuri Luzhkov, who was fired by President Dmitry Medvedev last month after 18 years in office after he criticized him in a newspaper article.

Luzhkov has made clear he believes the true reason behind his ouster was the Kremlin's desire to have a more pliant mayor before next year's parliamentary elections and the 2012 presidential vote, which Putin is widely expected to reclaim.

The tough-talking former KGB lieutenant colonel, is widely seen as continuing to call the country's shots and is more popular than his protege and presidential successor. While Medvedev has named some of Russia's regional governors, Sobyanin's appointment again demonstrates Putin's sway in filling the nation's top jobs.

Luzhkov, who opposed Putin's move to cancel direct election of governors, was the lone holdover from the turbulent 1990s when regional leaders held broad sway.

His removal clears the way for the redistribution of Moscow's wealth. He ruled over a building boom that gave his construction mogul wife a stranglehold on much of the city's money, giving the capital a modern facelift but destroying many of its precious landmarks.

Speaking to city legislators before Thursday's vote, Sobyanin criticized the former city government for inefficiency and corruption without naming Luzhkov, and promised to cut Moscow's notorious red tape, create better conditions for investors, improve Moscow's congested roads and give a boost to education and healthcare.

The 52-year-old was born and raised in oil-rich Western Siberia. He had risen through the ranks to become the governor of the Tyumen region before Putin named his Kremlin chief of staff in 2005.

When Putin anointed Medvedev as his preferred successor in the 2008 presidential vote, Sobyanin was chosen to run his campaign. Putin then placed Sobyanin in the key position of the Cabinet chief of staff, with the title of deputy prime minister.

Members of Putin's United Russia party, which has 32 of the city legislature's 35 seats, praised him and only two Communists voted against Sobyanin, who was appointed to the post by Medvedev.

Andrei Klychkov, the head of the Communist faction, blasted United Russia for ignoring the city's problems.

[Associated Press; By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV]

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