Moscow mayor steps up Kremlin row with refusal to resign

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov links allegations against him to 'shadowy figures' inside Russia's presidential administration.

 

Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, said only 'an idiot' would care more about

bees than sick patients. Photograph: Reuters

 

The war between the Kremlin and Moscow's embattled mayor escalated today after Yuri Luzhkov dismissed TV allegations against him as "dirt" and said he had no intention of resigning.

In the most significant feud within Russia's ruling elite since 2007, Luzhkov rejected accusations of corruption from Russia's federal TV channels.

A documentary screened last Friday accused him of fleeing Moscow during August's forest fires, and spending more money on bees than on the smog-affected citizens of the Russian capital.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/moscow-mayor-kremlin-feud-russia