LIFE is smelling sweet for the mayor of Moscow these days. "Mayor", a new cologne honouring the dignitary, made its debut in Moscow stores last week.
"Mer", as it's called in Russian, is redolent of musk and wood, citrus and floral - all the scents, apparently, that bring to mind Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, a stocky, outgoing populist.
"Whether you like Luzhkov or not, no one can deny that Moscow has a real boss now, Ms Nadezhda Petrukhina, the head of product development for the Novaya Zarya perfume factory, told the English language Moscow Times.
"Maybe after Russian women give their husbands this fragrance, it will inspire them to be more like Luzhkov, to get off the couch, take charge and make the lives of Russian women easier," she added.
Mr Luzhkov, a popular, take charge mayor with a flair for the flamboyant (he sprained an ankle last year while practising for a trapeze act) is considered a future presidential contender. No doubt he would be the only one with a fragrance named after him.
Ms Petrukhina said the mayor not only supported the company's plans for the cologne, but took an active role in designing the packaging. This is a muted red box to symbolise the Kremlin, with fluted vertical lines to represent the White House, Russia's government building.
The cologne is intended to honour not only Mr Luzhkov but Moscow's upcoming 850th anniversary, an event the mayor is using as a prod for a whole range of civic improvements.
The Novaya Zarya factory which filled an initial batch of 20,000 bottles of eau de Yuri described the cologne as "fresh and masculine", created for a "modern man, who combines composure and energy, stability with dynamism, confidence with sensitivity". It is also relatively cheap. A 3.4 ounce bottle of "Mayor" retails for about £4.40.
. More than five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians are still gloomy about the future, with two thirds of them believing their country is going in the wrong direction, according to an opinion poll published yesterday. The poll also found that the Communist Party leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, would win most support if a presidential election were held immediately.