Yury Luzhkov

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Yury Mikhaylovich Luzhkov (Ю́рий Миха́йлович Лужко́в) (born September 21, 1936 in Moscow, Russia, USSR) is a Russian political figure. He has served as mayor of Moscow since 1992. Luzhkov is a chairman and one of founders of the ruling United Russia party.

Family and personal life

His father, Mikhail Andreyevich Luzhkov, was a woodworker who moved to Moscow from a small village in Tver Oblast in the 1930s. His mother Anna Petrovna was originally from Bashkiria.

Luzhkov married his first wife, Marina Bashilova, in 1958, and had two sons with her, Mikhail and Aleksandr. Bashilova died from liver cancer in 1989. He met his second wife, Yelena Baturina, 27 years his junior, in 1987. They married in 1991. Baturina is a Russian businesswoman and Russia's only female dollar billionaire. She is the joint 279th richest person in the world. They have two daughters, Aleona (born 1992) and Olga (born 1994), and maintain a home in London. Luzhkov frequently appears in public at different festivals and celebrations, and is an enthusiastic promoter of the city. His hobbies include tennis and bee-keeping. His support for physical fitness is well known, and a statue of the mayor in tennis garb was erected recently in a Moscow park.

Professional career

From 1953 to 1958, Luzhkov studied at the Gubkin Moscow Petrochemical & Gas Industry Institute. From 1958 until 1964, he worked as a scientific researcher in the Moscow Scientific Research Institute of Plastics. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1968. For the next 20 years he worked on automation initiatives in various sectors of the chemical industry (1964-1971: management automation department chief, State Chemistry Committee; 1971-1974: automated management systems department chief, Chemical Industry Ministry of the Soviet Union; 1974-1980: CEO, Experimental Design Office of Automation, Chemical Industry Ministry of the Soviet Union; 1980-1986: CEO, Scientific-Industrial Association "Petrochemautomation".)

Mayorial career

He was first appointed as a member of the Moscow city council (Mossovet) in 1977, and in 1987 transferred to the executive branch Moscow city (Mosgorispolkom). He held different positions, usually one level below the Mayor.

In 1991, Gavriil Popov was elected Mayor of Moscow in the first open free elections. However, inexperienced Popov was unsuccessful in solving the city's crisis and resigned in June 1992.

Luzhkov, who held the position of Chairman of the Moscow city government at the time (i.e. head executive branch of the City Council), was appointed Mayor by Boris Yeltsin on June 6, 1992. Luzhkov gained more popular support among Muscovites than Popov. His policies included providing free transportation to the elderly and a strong encouragement of business enterpreneurship. He was first elected as Mayor on June 16, 1996 (winning 95% of the vote), and re-elected on December 19, 1999 (69.9% of the votes) and again on December 7, 2003 (75% of the votes).

Construction and transport

Under Luzhkov, the city developed its transport system. Third Ring was built to ease the traffic problem. Most of the city highways were enhanced with estacades and road junctions. Moscow metro expanded over the city limits.

Many of the old Soviet landmarks, such as Russia hotel or Voentorg, were recontructed or deconstructed. Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was rebuilt, and Moscow Victory park opened to celebrate the 50th anniversary of victory in World War 2. Sculptor Zurab Tsereteli enjoyed Luzhkov's personal support in setting many of his works over the city. Moscow-Сity, the international trade center, is still under construction.

Apartment construction market developed rapidly, as many apartment buildings are raised every year. However, this sphere became controversional, as many critics claimed that Inteco, the company run by Elena Baturina, Luzhkov's second wife, became nearly monopolist in apartment construction.

Registration

In the Soviet Union every citizen was required permission to settle in certain urban areas, such as Moscow, as the government wanted to limit the inflow into the big cities. The post-Soviet Russian constitution granted every Russian citizen freedom of movement.

However, Moscow under Luzhkov invited several restrictions to this rule, keeping partially the old system. Each non-resident, who arrives the city, must undergo the process of registration in local police department in 90 days since their arrival. Avoiding registration would cost a person some 2500 roubles of penalty, and he or she would have trouble getting legal employment. Moscow police keeps frequently asking ID's of people walking by to check if they have a registration ticket.

Luzhkov's rationale for registration has been that Moscow's city infrastructure could not handle a rapidly growing population. Some of the most blatant limitations were removed by the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court after a long fight with Luzhkov's lawyers, making the registration process somewhat simpler.

In Russia's politics

In 1998, as Boris Yeltsin's political troubles grew partyly because of the August economic crisis, Luzhkov formed his own national political faction, Otechestvo (Fatherland), to serve as his base for the upcoming presidential election. Otechestvo had the support of many powerful regional politicians, and it gained further support when it merged with another party, Vsya Rossiya (All Russia) to form Otechestvo-Vsya Rossiya. Many observers of Russian politics believed that Luzhkov and his new ally, former prime minister Yevgeniy Primakov, would be likely to displace both Yeltsin and his inner circle in the parliamentary and presidential elections due to be held in late 1999 and mid-2000, respectively.

However, Luzhkov's fortunes turned when Boris Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin as Chairman of the Russian Government (predsedatel', or prime minister) in August 1999. While virtually an unknown when first appointed, observers of Russian politics argued that Putin rapidly gained popular support due to a hard-line law and order image and the backing of powerful state-owned and state-allied media and economic interests. The hard-fought autumn 1999 Duma campaign ended up with Otechestvo-Vsya Rossiya only at 3rd place. Compromising, Luzhkov and his party accepted integration with pro-Putin Unity party into single party United Russia, and supported Putin in the 2000 presidential elections, which he won easily. Though still a co-chairman of United Russia, in latest years Luzhkov became less active in federal politics.

External links

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Last updated on Sunday March 09, 2008 at 00:38:11 PST (GMT -0800)
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