Word: luzhkov
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...This is a special event that is connected with the return of not only our history and not only our memory, but with the return of all that which was always so valuable for our people: the return of our spirituality," said Moscow's longtime mayor, Yury Luzhkov...
...Dmitry Medvedev, the head of the presidential administration, warned that Russia could disappear if the political élite did not "consolidate" around President Vladimir Putin. "The disintegration of the [Soviet Union] would seem like a kindergarten in comparison," he told the magazine Expert. A day later, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov mused in the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets about 2008, when Putin is required to step down. "I can't see anyone other than Putin" running the country, Luzhkov said. After uprisings in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, some fear for Russia's own future. "The [Kremlin] used to talk about modernization, integrating...
Sound crazy? Of course it does. Yet two months ago a European public official made a request that was virtually identical in its absurdity and moral bankruptcy. On September 13, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov called for restoring the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, which is currently lying in a park next to other Communist-era sculptures, to its former place in the city’s Lubyanka Square. This immediately set off a wave of protests from outraged citizens, the Russian Orthodox Church, various human rights organizations and members of Russia’s parliament. Dzerzhinsky, you see, was to Soviet...
Despite the reality of Dzerzhinsky’s butchery and his odious place in Russian history, Luzhkov claims that restoring his statue would actually send a positive message. “Some people associate [Dzerzhinsky’s] name with the KGB, but others link it with efforts to combat the problems of homeless children and poverty,” he has asserted. By Luzhkov’s rationale, and extending the earlier analogy, one might contend that Goering’s benefaction to young painters is a more important part of his legacy than his establishment of the Gestapo...
According to a poll conducted in early October by the All-Russian Public Opinion Center, some 41 percent of Moscow’s residents support Luzhkov’s plan, while 50 percent are against it. Many have complained that on two previous occasions during his mayoralty, Luzhkov rejected the initiative of bringing back Dzerzhinsky’s statue. Rumors have swirled that he is now endorsing the scheme to curry favor with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, an ex-KGB colonel...