By Steve Gutterman
MOSCOW, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Moscow&${esc.hash}39;s new mayor Sergei
Sobyanin, a longtime lieutenant of Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin, took office on Thursday and vowed to curb the corruption
and excessive bureaucracy he said was stifling development.
The city council, dominated by Putin&${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 showcases
Russia&${esc.hash}39;s progress and its problems two decades after the Soviet
Union&${esc.hash}39;s demise -- a gleaming reflection of the oil-fuelled boom
that has fed both economic growth and graft.
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," said Sobyanin, who was sworn in later at a ceremony
attended by Medvedev and Russian religious leaders.
"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 ${esc.dollar}1.2
trillion economy, and plays into the hands of Putin, who has
hinted he may return to the presidency in a 2012 election.
It also sets up Sobyanin as a potential Putin-backed
candidate for the presidency in the future, vastly raising the
profile of a figure who is seen as secretive and said little in
public before he was picked to be mayor.
"I hope ... I will remain a part of your big team," Sobyanin
told Putin at a cabinet meeting.
Putin praised Sobyanin for his "energy and results" and said
he had awarded him a medal for his work as government chief of
staff and deputy prime minister. He said he was sure that
"Muscovites will not regret their choice."
Sobyanin was not chosen by voters, but picked by Medvedev
out of four candidates proposed by United Russia. During his
2000-2008 presidency, Putin backed legislation abolishing the
direct elections of regional governors and the Moscow mayor.
Luzhkov lashed out bitterly at the Kremlin over that change
on Thursday, saying Russians should not accept the
"dictator-type powers granted to the president" to dismiss
governors, the Interfax news agency reported.
Luzhkov made the remarks in a lecture he delivered to
university students in Moscow as Sobyanin was being approved.
With United Russia eager for an overwhelming victory in
national parliamentary elections in late 2011, Sobyanin will be
under pressure to produce tangible progress in solving Moscow&${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&${esc.hash}39;s
development --the crisis in the transport system".
He said he would maintain or raise the relatively high
pensions and benefits Muscovites enjoy, but promised to review
spending and wrestle with a Byzantine system of bureaucratic
hurdles he said had discouraged development under Luzhkov.
But the head of the three-member Communist Party faction in
the city council, Andrei Klychkov, said United Russia -- of
which Luzhkov was a leading member until his ouster -- was to
blame for the city&${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, and dominated politics nationwide.
Medvedev named a senior United Russia official, Vyacheslav
Volodin, to replace Sobyanin as deputy prime minister and chief
of staff of Putin&${esc.hash}39;s government, approving the candidate proposed
by the government.
(Additional reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by Jon
Boyle)
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