Moscow Mayor Pokes Kremlin. (Cue Hornets.)

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
NYT

MOSCOW — Of all the high priests of Russian officialdom, few have become more deeply entrenched in power than Moscow’s mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov.

He has ruled this city often like a fief for nearly two decades, transforming it from a Soviet wreck into a shimmering metropolis. Barrel-chested and bald, with a proletarian’s peaked cap, he has seemingly been above reproach for years, despite numerous allegations of corruption even as his wife, a real estate developer, has become Russia’s richest woman.

But a slight jab at President, Dmitri A. Medvedev could now bring the mayor’s once inviolable authority to ruin. In a recent article, Mr. Luzhkov appeared to criticize the president for indecisiveness, while seeming to call for his predecessor, Vladimir V. Putin, now prime minister, to return to the presidency.

The article touched off the biggest political quarrel Russia has seen in nearly a decade, raising new speculation about the relationship between Russia’s two leaders. It has also prompted an all-out attack by the Kremlin-controlled news media against the mayor, which many analysts here say could presage the end of his 18-year reign.

(More here.)