Russian president Dmitry Medvedev today stressed he will decide who will be the next mayor of Moscow after signing a decree to fire long-time Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Mr Medvedev said he would consider the proposed candidates “and I will determine who will lead Moscow”.
Mr Luzhkov, a pillar of the ruling party, had ruled Russia's capital since 1992 but angered Mr Medvedev by suggesting the country needed a stronger and more decisive leader - a remark seen as favouring prime minister Vladimir Putin.
Famous for his flat working man's caps, his billionaire second wife and his blunt manner, Mr Luzhkov used city coffers to keep pensions and public services high, maintaining public support despite corruption allegations he always denied.
The clash, a rare public battle among Russia's secretive elite, was widely seen as a test of the resolve of Mr Medvedev, junior partner to Mr Putin in Russia's ruling tandem, ahead of a 2012 presidential election.
Mr Medvedev, on a state visit to China, issued a decree stripping Mr Luzhkov of his post "because he has lost the trust of the president of the Russian Federation", Kremlin spokeswoman Natalia Timakova said.
While Russia's constitution allows the president to sack the Moscow mayor and regional governors at will and appoint a successor without elections, senior officials almost always resign before they are fired.
Mr Luzhkov's office found out about the decree on state television, his deputy told a meeting of the Moscow government.