The Mayor of Moscow is the politician whose
rise the Kremlin has been most intent to stop. His firm
rule over the capital since 1992 has helped to
produce a boom in construction. He himself left
the construction industry to enter politics, and is
still at home barking orders on a building site in
his trademark flat leather cap.
The 63-year-old was comfortably re-elected as Mayor on 19 December, the same day as the parliamentary election, gaining more than 70% of the vote. His party, Fatherland-All Russia, fared worse than expected in the parliamentary election - a fact he blamed on negative media coverage inspired by the Kremlin.
Mr Luzhkov's second wife, Elena
Baturina, 26 years his junior, is a successful
businesswoman. She has been the subject of a
corruption investigation, and ran unsuccessfully for parliament as an
Mr Luzhkov denies any interest
in running for the presidency, but many journalists doubt his sincerity.