Mayor's reign ends over the elements

Moscow's mayor, Mr Yuri Luzhkov, will be asking some serious questions this morning. The main one will be: "Why did it rain when I ordered dry weather?"

One of the main items on the budget for the weekend celebrations of Moscow's 850th anniversary was £100,000 per day to the Weather Modification Unit to bombard the clouds with iodised silver and make them shed their moisture before reaching the city.

It has always worked in the past and right up to the last minute yesterday the space-walking cosmonauts from the Mir station could have looked down on a cloudless Moscow. But just as the closing ceremony reached its climax shortly before 10 p.m. at the Olympic Stadium the rain began, taking everyone by surprise.

To make matters worse the second star attraction, the icon of the Virgin of Vladimir, appeared not in the sky at the finale as promised, but on a screen in the early part of the programme.

Lack of funds, particularly the inability to replace its ageing computer, has been blamed for Mir's recent troubles. But there was no absence of money down on earth as Moscow lavishly celebrated with an extravaganza which cost so much that no one at the organising office was prepared to venture an estimate when asked by The Irish Times.

On Saturday night, as the cosmonauts prepared for their walk, up to a million people gathered at the Sparrow Hills (formerly the Lenin Hills) to watch a concert and laser show organised by Jean-Michel Jarre. When it ended, the vast crowds discovered that the metro was closed and they had to walk home.

Many crushed into trolley buses heading for central Moscow as others clambered on the buses' roofs. More than a hundred were treated for injuries in Moscow hospitals.

Earlier, Moscow's mayor, Mr Yuri Luzhkov, who denies he wants to stand for president, was carried in procession through the streets of the capital, standing in a giant wine glass.

From the early hours of yesterday morning, Muscovites flocked into the streets with the main artery, Tverskaya (formerly Gorky) Street, turned into a pedestrian zone. The sun beamed down from cloudless skies just as the mayor had promised.

The main highlight before the elaborate closing ceremony was a performance in Red Square by Luciano Pavarotti before an invited audience which included the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr John Stafford.

Those of us who had to watch the performance on Russia's RTR TV station were treated to interruptions in Pavarotti's repertoire to make way for advertisements for Huggies nappies, El Gusto coffee and Rama margarine.

Back up in space, the cosmonauts, having restored power to the space station, slept soundly, though they will have to make further space walks before Mir functions to its full capacity once more.

On earth, on the giant stage placed opposite the Kremlin's Spasskiye Gate, Pavarotti, after an initially cool reception, got his audience warmed up. But the only shot on TV of Mayor Luzhkov showed him talking to his wife as the tenor sang.

By the time Pavarotti reached his first encore, La donna e mobile, the audience was cheering. Unfortunately one cannot report on the other two encores as they were cut from the TV coverage to make way for an advertisement for Gazprom, Russia's giant gas supplier.

While Pavarotti was treated like a tsar, other than by RTR, not all the performers who took part in the celebrations were made 100 per cent welcome.

American magician, David Copperfield, for example, was attacked by a leading cleric of the Orthodox church. Father Tikhon, head of Moscow's Stretensky Monastery, warned believers in an interview with the ITAR-TASS news agency: "Your participation and even your presence as spectators during such occult performances have spiritual and physical consequences that can lead to madness and suicide."

Out at Luzhniki, where the Olympic (former Lenin) Stadium is situated, a form of sanity prevailed. Part of the arena was transformed into a swan-filled lake. Glitz and glitter alternated with sublime Russian church music. Rock performances were followed by tableaux showing Slavic warriors defending the city against the Mongol hordes.

Noble Muscovites of the past were depicted in medieval dress walking their Borzoi hounds against a background of ancient Moscow, to be followed immediately by an avant garde fashion show from the present day.

Then came the climax. Rock star Valery Leontiev gave a last wiggle of his silver navel ring. Singer and alleged capo mafioso, Iosif Kobzon, sang the Hymn of Moscow. Mayor Luzhkov strode to centre stage and gave a rousing speech.

Then we waited for the Virgin to appear in the skies as promised. Instead pop star Ali Pugacheva appeared in white with her grandson and sang us into a massive fireworks display, leaving another question to be answered.