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New Moscow mayor promises to tackle corruption

by (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. Click For Restrictions. http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thursday, 21 October 2010 11:18 GMT

* Longtime Putin chief of staff confirmed as Moscow mayor

* No surprise in ruling party-dominated city legislature

* Sobyanin vows to tackle corruption, excessive bureaucracy

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Moscow needs more open government
to combat corruption and bureaucracy, new mayor Sergei Sobyanin
said on Thursday as the longtime lieutenant of Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin was formally approved by the city council.

The council, dominated by Putin&${esc.hash}39;s ruling United Russia
party, confirmed Sobyanin by a 32-2 vote to replace Yuri
Luzhkov, who had held office for 18 years but was sacked by
President Dmitry Medvedev last month after an escalating feud.

Sobyanin takes over a city of 10.5 million that is a
showcase of Russia&${esc.hash}39;s progress and its problems two decades after
the Soviet Union&${esc.hash}39;s collapse -- a gleaming reflection of the
oil-fuelled boom that has fed both economic growth and
corruption.

In remarks to the council ahead of a vote whose outcome was
never in doubt, Sobyanin vowed to tackle the corruption,
excessive bureaucracy and mismanagement he said had undermined
Moscow&${esc.hash}39;s post-Soviet revival.

"The city has changed for the better and taken its rightful
place as a leading global megapolis," Sobyanin said. "But in
recent years it is clear that many opportunities have been
missed. The pace of development has gradually slowed.

"I am deeply convinced that corruption and bureaucracy
threaten to devalue many if not all of Moscow&${esc.hash}39;s competitive
advantages," Sobyanin, who was to be sworn in later on Thursday,
said in a hearing televised from the small chamber.

"It is obvious that the city needs a more open and effective
system of management."

PUTIN LIEUTENANT

Sobyanin, 52, became Kremlin chief of staff in 2005, when
Putin was president, and stayed with Putin when he became prime
minister after steering Medvedev into the presidency in 2008.

Analysts say the choice strengthens the Kremlin&${esc.hash}39;s control
over Moscow, which accounts for a quarter of Russia&${esc.hash}39;s ${esc.dollar}1.2
trillion economy, and plays into the hands of Putin, who has
hinted he may return to the presidency in a 2012 election.

It also sets up Sobyanin as a potential Putin-backed
candidate for the presidency in the future, vastly raising the
profile of a figure who is seen as secretive and said little in
public before he was picked to be mayor.

With United Russia eager for an overwhelming victory in
national parliamentary elections in late 2011, Sobyanin will be
under pressure to produce tangible progress in solving Moscow&${esc.hash}39;s
most glaring problems, such as its monumental traffic jams.

Confirmed after a cold, hard rain slowed traffic and made
the morning commute even worse for Muscovites than usual, he
vowed steps to ease "the most visible imbalance in the city&${esc.hash}39;s
development --the crisis in the transport system".

He said he would maintain or raise the relatively high
pensions and other benefits Muscovites enjoy, but promised to
review city spending and wrestle with a Byzantine system of
bureaucratic hurdles he said had discouraged development under
Luzhkov.

Luzhkov&${esc.hash}39;s dismissal prompted a hail of criticism from former
allies of the longtime mayor.

But the head of the three-member Communist Party faction in
the city council, Andrei Klychkov, said United Russia -- of
which Luzhkov was a leading member until his ouster -- was to
blame for the city&${esc.hash}39;s problems.

"It is precisely the course on which United Russia is
leading the country that has turned Moscow from a city in which
the whole nation took pride ... into a barely liveable place,"
he said, announcing the Communists would vote against Sobyanin.

United Russia holds the other 32 seats in the 35-member city
legislature.

(Additional reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by Mark
Trevelyan)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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