![]() ![]() They formed the political party Fatherland-All Russia in 1999 and challenged Vladimir Putin’s authority with a run in the Duma. He lent his support to Boris Yeltsin in the 1996 presidential elections, but when Yeltsin began losing his grip on power, Luzhkov switched to the camp of former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov - which is to say that he essentially sided with himself. In 1995, he was part of the Our Home - Russia project of the ruling authorities. ![]() ![]() He helped defend the White House in 1991. Luzhkov always supported those in power - but only when he felt that they already had or would gradually gain a firm grip on power. In the capital, he outmaneuvered his eternal opponent, Anatoly Chubais, and rejected the federal model of privatization. Moscow became his personal state, burdened with federal authority. Luzhkov described his wife, Russia’s richest woman Elena Baturina, as a “talented entrepreneur.” That phrase became famous, as everyone knew she received billions in state construction contracts in the capital.Īs mayor, Luzhkov was a standard Soviet engineer with all the nuance of a concrete construction block: a “homo sovieticus” in a new setting who became the symbol of Russia’s new “crony capitalism” and a pioneer and champion of state capitalism. Another feature of Luzhkov was that he always sued those who offended him, and always won - thanks to the Moscow justice system that he kept in his back pocket. ![]()
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