Trouble in Moscow representative organs if they had not managed to adopt local electoral laws.
Inconventently for the leaders of the city duma, they had in fact already adopted such a law. As a result, they were drawn into a two-year court case against protesting citizens who viewed the duma's decision as an infringement of their
The duma used every possible means to prolong the case, but in the summer of 1997 it ended with a judgment recognising the illegality of extending the duma's term. By that point, the time for the next elections was in any case drawing near.
Meanwhile the policies which Mayor Luzhkov had been pursuing for five years were bearing fruit. Through a curious blend of state capitalism and Soviet-style command methods, the mayor had succeeded in maintaining a high level of economic activity in the capital despite the deep depression in Russia as a whole.
Of course, there is a direct link between the "success" in Moscow and the economic catastrophe in the provinces -the same link that connects the relative prosperity of any capitalist "centre" with the immiseration of the "periphery".
About 80% of all financial flows in Russia pass through the capital. Moscow is also home to the government ministries, the head offices of major banks and other large national companies and the Russian headquarters of transnational firms. In such circumstances, it would be hard not to record successes.
Huge sums from the financial exploitation of the provinces have been spent in Moscow on the construction of ostentatious buildings, as well as on sumptuous celebrations and various handouts to underprivileged Muscovites.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure has become increasingly ramshackle, housing and municipal services have been waiting years for urgently needed investments, and the city's debt has risen.
But jobs have been created, the standard of living has been far higher than the Russian average, and the popularity of the mayor has risen.
Russia Personality cult
The mass media have created a veritable Luzhkov personality cult. Several newspapers publish his picture and "wise
'in each issue. His portrait is more and more often to be seen in municipal offices and on the streets, and Moscow television every day devotes a whole program of local news to his achieve-
The mayor wields power in the capital with an iron hand, urging on those who do his bidding and punishing those who incur his displeasure. He sends the police to force a private cafe to plant trees by its entrance, and threatens to take buildings away from their owners unless the structures are repainted in a colour to his liking.
Russian provincial governors, meanwhile, appeal to him for help. Luzhkov takes every chance to compare himself to Yury Dolgoruky, the Prince of Vladimir who established the Kremlin. (Dolgoruky acquired his surname, which means "long-
, because he was constantly stretching out his arms to take other people's estates and wives).
The cult of the infallible city chief has also had an unexpected side effect. While Luzhkov has managed to claim the credit for everything good that happens in Moscow, his allies and partners get to answer for evervthing bad. The city duma has been especially unpopular. The 1997 elections are thus presenting the mayor with
The leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is clearly trying to avoid conflict with the powerful mayor. It has particular cause to do this because the vicemayor is Valery Shantsev, formerly the leader of the Communist group in the Moscow Soviet, and who today does not hide his links with the Communists.
However, a challenge to the existing order has been issued by the former chairperson of the Moscow Soviet, Nikolai Gonchar.
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After the disbanding of the soviet, Gonchar was elected by a huge majority to represent the capital in the Council of the Federation (the Russian "senate"). When direct elections to the council were abolished in 1995, Gonchar was elected to the
Now he has declared his readiness to renounce his duma mandate in order to wage a fight for the post of chairperson of the city legislature.
Originally, Gonchar tried to put together a broad centre-left coalition on the basis of general democratic slogans. But by autumn, it was clear that most of Gonchar's more right-wing allies lacked the resolve to come out in open opposition
The "Our City" movement which Gonchar had founded lost most of its sponsors. But this radicalised it. As the campaign has unfolded, its main core has come to consist of members of the Komsomol (Communist Youth League) and of former Moscow activists of the Party of Labour, which collapsed in 1994.
The unwillingness of Moscow television to provide coverage to representatives of the opposition is inducing Gonchar and his supporters to take to "grassroots campaigning" , and this is acting as a further spur to radicalisation. *
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