LUZHKOV LASHES OUT AT PRESIDENT ON CNN
By Natalya Krainova
The St. Petersburg Times
MOSCOW — Former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov lashed out at President Dmitry Medvedev on CNN television, accusing the president of not fulfilling any of his promises and of negligence in connection with terrorist attacks and this summer’s drought.
Luzhkov was fired by Medvedev last week for "loss of confidence” after facing accusations of negligence for remaining on vacation while Moscow choked on toxic smog this summer. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin accused him on Wednesday of being a poor manager.
Luzhkov, dressed casually in a black polo shirt with stripes, told CNN that Medvedev had not taken charge as "calamities, terrorist acts and bad harvests” unfolded during his two-year presidency.
"When he fires or reshuffles officials, proposes projects on paper, those things are being taken quite skeptically,” Luzhkov said. "Any initiative is good, but it must lead to actual results, which has not been happening so far.”
A Kremlin spokeswoman declined to comment on Luzhkov’s interview Thursday. CNN said the Kremlin did not reply to its request for comment.
Meanwhile, Vedomosti reported Thursday that acting Mayor Vladimir Resin might stay at the city’s helm until 2013 to secure votes for United Russia in the 2011 State Duma elections and for the Kremlin-sponsored candidate in the 2012 presidential vote, as well as to redistribute the assets of Luzhkov’s billionaire wife, Yelena Baturina. The report cited a source close to the Kremlin.
Resin, after meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, seemingly confirmed that he would remain, hinting to his colleagues that he might stay until 2013, a source in United Russia’s Moscow branch told Vedomosti.
Resin could then become "chairman” of the city government in 2013, after city laws are amended to create the position, a source close to City Hall told Vedomosti.
Before his ouster by Medvedev on Sept. 28, Luzhkov signed off on a two-year privatization program for the city’s property that puts on sale City Hall-held stakes in companies that control two luxury hotels, a chain of drugstores and the plane maintenance service at Vnukovo Airport, Kommersant reported Thursday.
Also Thursday, the Public Chamber called on Resin or whoever succeeds him to ban "Genplan,” a much-criticized plan for Moscow’s development from 2010 through 2025.
But the Moscow City Court ruled that Genplan was legitimate Thursday, dismissing a lawsuit filed by liberal
opposition party Yabloko, which said the plan would worsen the city’s traffic problems, ruin green zones and destroy historic buildings, Interfax reported.
Public Chamber member and prominent art figure Marat Gelman said it was "important that Genplan’s work be suspended and a new Genplan drafted,” the report said.
Meanwhile, writer and opposition leader Eduard Limonov appealed on his blog to Resin to "remove the fence” from Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, which City Hall erected in late August for the construction of an underground parking garage, leaving a popular venue for opposition rallies inaccessible for the next two to three years.
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