10/17/2010
No date set for Moscow mayor vote - City Duma speaker
October 17, 2010 (KATAKAMI) --- No date has yet been set for a vote in Moscow city parliament on the nomination by President Dmitry Medvedev of Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin as Moscow mayor, the City Duma speaker said on Sunday.
Media reports earlier said the vote, which is widely expected to be little more than a rubber-stamping, would take place on Thursday.
“No final decision has been taken yet on the issue,” Vladimir Platonov told RIA Novosti.
He also said that a City Duma committee would choose the date at a meeting on Monday. However, he added that “Thursday is a convenient date for an extraordinary session.”
Medvedev proposed Sobyanin on Friday as the Russian capital's new mayor.
Medvedev sacked long-serving mayor Yury Luzhkov on September 28, citing a "loss of trust." State media had previously accused him and his businesswoman wife of massive corruption.
Analysts say there is little doubt that the Moscow Duma will approve 52-year-old Sobyanin, who was head of the presidential administration under first Vladimir Putin and then Medvedev from 2005-2008 and ran Medvedev's presidential election campaign in 2008.
Direct elections for Moscow mayor and governors across Russia were scrapped in 2004.
MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti)
