Luzhkov, Yuri Mikhailovich

views updated

LUZHKOV, YURI MIKHAILOVICH

(b. 1936), Russian politician and mayor of Moscow.

Yuri Luzhkov became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1968 and remained a member until the party was outlawed in the wake of the failed coup of August 1991. He left a management career in the chemical industry to become a deputy to the Moscow City Council (Soviet) in 1977. In 1987, his political career took a great stride forward when Boris Yeltsin became First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party organization. In keeping with the Soviet practice of assigning party members to multiple responsibilities, Luzhkov was appointed deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and first deputy to the chair of the Moscow City Executive Committee.

Luzhkov was appointed chair of the City Executive Committee following Gavriil Popov's election as mayor of Moscow in 1990. The following year he was elected Popov's vice mayor. During the August 1991 coup, he helped organize the defense

of the White House, the parliament building of the Russian Federation from which Boris Yeltsin organized the resistance to the efforts of conservatives within the CPSU to undo the Gorbachev reforms.

Following the collapse of the coup and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union, a struggle emerged between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the legislature over the course of reform. Luzhkov, owing to his strong support for Yeltsin in the conflict, was made mayor by presidential decree when Popov was forced to resign. The decree was met with opposition within the Moscow City Council, which tried unsuccessfully on two occasions to unseat Luzhkov.

As his predecessor had done, Luzhkov threw his support behind Yeltsin in the confrontation with the Russian parliament. At the height of the conflict following Yeltsin's September 1993 decree dissolving the legislature, which resulted in an armed standoff, the mayor cut off utilities and services to the parliament and deployed the city's police to forcibly disband meetings and demonstrations organized in support of the legislature.

Luzhkov remained mayor of Moscow, but his regime has not been without controversy. He has come under particular criticism for the manner in which privatization of municipal property has been carried out. On several occasions the press has charged the mayor with corruption, favoritism, and using his position for personal gain. Despite this, the city's relatively good economic situation in comparison with the rest of the country has made Luzhkov enormously popular with Muscovites. He was reelected with 88 percent of the vote in 1996.

However, the mayor's efforts to rid the city of those without residency permits has undermined his popularity with the rest of the country. When Luzhkov announced his candidacy to the 2000 presidential elections and formed the bloc Fatherland-All Russia, supporters of Vladimir Putin were able to organize a negative ad campaign, which quickly marginalized the mayor's bloc. Following Putin's electoral victory, Luzhkov moved to defend his political position by declaring his loyalty to the new president.

See also: august 1991 putsch; fatherland-all russia; moscow; yeltsin, boris nikolayevich