Sergey Sobyanin is to replace his controversial predecessor, Yury Luzhkov, who ruled Moscow for 18 years. Dmitry Medvedev fired Yury Luzhkov on September 28 with the explanation being “over a loss of confidence.” Meanwhile, the ex-mayor of Moscow has taken a job as dean of the International University in Moscow with the salary of just one ruble a month.
The new mayor’s primary challenge is to start controlling the enormous city spending, most of which is currently going to waste, says Vladislav Inozemtsev of the Center for Post-Industrial Studies. Because of the lack of control over the massive construction and infrastructure works in the city, Inozemtsev points out, the Moscow government is currently giving away some 2.5 times more money than it is actually investing.
“The Moscow city budget…is really huge. The city spends more than $10 billion each year on infrastructure works and construction, and it seems to me… that this money is spent inefficiently. It’s not only because of corruption. It’s because of the lack of control on every step of these construction works,” he said.
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