torsdag 30 september 2010

Luzhkov 'kickad' och Morgonträff hos mig

Just på morgonen i tisdags 28/9, innan vi skulle få lyssna till förträffliga Lena Koulikova (Understanding Russia kurser mm) på morgonträffen hos mig, som skulle berätta om Ryssar och Ryssland så kom nyheten om att Moskva's borgmästare Yuri Luzhkov har blivit tvungen att lämna sin post pga av 'disagreements' med President Medvedev. I och för sig hade ju Luzhkov just blivit skickad på 'semester' till Österrike så det var väl inte helt oväntat (se tidigare inlägg på den här bloggen).

Lena gav oss intressanta infallsvinklar på hur många ryssar känner inför detta. Hon menade att många tycker (med rätta) att Luzhkov har gjort väldigt mycket bra för Moskva och att de påstådda anklagelserna om korruption ändå är något som mer eller mindre alla i Ryssland är skyldiga till. Lena menade att i gammal vanlig anda så har Ryssland valt att på ett 'tsaristiskt' sätt göra sig av men en person som uttryckte motsatta åsikter till ledningen. Hon påminde oss också dock om att Luzhkov också var 'Putin's man' och att nu skapar Medvedev faktiskt en möjlighet att sätta sin egen prägel på Moskva inför valet 2012. Denna intressanta saga fortsätter och vi bevakar med spänning....

Läs här nedan vad världspressen säger: Artikel från Financial Times, London:

Moscow’s mayor dares Medvedev to fire him 

By Charles CloverPublished: September 27 2010 22:40 | Last updated: September 27 2010 22:40

Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov challenged President Dmitry Medvedev to fire him, saying he would not resign despite mounting pressure from the Kremlin.
“I will not go voluntarily,” he said at a press conference on Monday, his first day back on the job after a week on holiday in Austria.
For more than two weeks Mr Luzhkov, one of Russia’s few remaining powerful independent political figures, has been the target of public attacks by state channels, which have accused him of corruption and mismanagement.
Officials close to both Mr Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin have been briefing journalists that Mr Luzhkov should resign, but neither man has said as much publicly.
Tensions between Mr Luzhkov and the Kremlin have been gathering for some time, but the public mudslinging campaign began after Mr Luzhkov criticised the president in print on September 6 for putting a key highway development on hold. On September 10, Mr Medvedev said “give my regards to the mayor of Moscow” in a televised interview a few hours before the first in a barrage of anti-Luzhkov spots aired on a state-run channel.
Legally Mr Medvedev can fire Mr Luzhkov at any time, but that risks alienating the latter’s significant power base and destabilising Russia’s capital a year before parliamentary elections in 2011. “Of course the president could do this, but it would create tension and schisms in the establishment, and there are real risks. That is why they would prefer if he re-signed,” said Alexei Makarkin, an analyst at the Center for Political Technology.
The matter is especially delicate due to the historic competition between Moscow and St Petersburg, two Russian cities that have jockeyed with each other for pre-eminence ever since the latter was built 300 years ago by Peter the Great. Both Mr Medvedev and Mr Putin are from St Petersburg.
“It would be a big blow to the Moscow elites if the St Petersburgers were seen to be putting their own man in Moscow,” said Alexander Frolov, a commentator for Sovietskaya Rossia, the daily opposition newspaper.
At stake is possibly the most powerful job in Russia outside the Kremlin – Moscow’s budget is $32bn a year, and the mayor controls 100,000 police in the capital city.
Mr Luzhkov’s wife is reportedly Russia’s richest woman, with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $2.9bn. Much of her wealth comes from Moscow real estate. But this has become a liability for Mr Luzhkov as he has had to fend off accusations that she benefited from favouritism, which both deny.
The portly and garrulous Mr Luzhkov is one of Russia’s great political survivors. He has stayed at the helm since 1992, through three presidents, and celebrated his 74th birthday last week.
Russia’s press reported over the weekend that the mayor’s resignation would take place in a matter of days and speculated on possible successors.
But by holding on this long, said Mr Makarkin, the mayor has bought himself some breathing room. “Its time for a period of negotiations to start, and a compromise, because the quick resignation didn’t happen. The negotiations may take some time,” he said.
But it is clear that he has been damaged by the media assault – 54 per cent of those polled last week by the Levada Centre, a public opinion research agency, said they distrusted the mayor, up from 32 per cent.
“Even if he stayed, it would be more like a long goodbye,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, head of the Foundation for Effective Politics, a think-tank that works with the Kremlin.

För övrigt blev Morgonträffen hemma hos mig blev mycket lyckad. Vi hade 14 besökare varav två nya medlemmar, Unni Skogen från Oslo och Lina Brorson Haglund från Halmstad.Vi har faktiskt 93 medlemmar nu!
Pumpasoppa och Brownies och så fick vi titta på Irinas fina schalar från Indien samt lyssna till duktiga Alexandra från Konservatoriet underhålla oss med pianomusik. Dessutom sålde jag nya 'Matryoshak-halsband' som en ryska gör åt mig där all vinst går till välgörenhet. De sex jag hade till försäljning var sålda på 5 minuter, så det kommer fler vid nästa träff. Tack alla som kom! (glömde bara fota..)

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