Just what I have read on RT alone tells me that Moscow needs a new Major and the sooner it removes this old and tired oligarch the better it will be for Russia and Moscow.

I agree with PR101, who seems to get at the crux of the matter in every comment he makes. The Moscow mayor is a parasite who does not belong in the leadership of the country. I have nothing more to add to what PR101 has said in one sentence. More than anything else, Russia needs internal purification. I have never understood why this agent has ruled the capital of the country while making his wife a billionaire. He spreads nothing but cancer. The Medvedev-Putin duo need to mount an inexorable campaign against this unwelcome foreign body. Just throw the rascal out. Russia will breathe more freely.

While you're both right, do you not know that he's got a lot of power over the duopoly? They don't act on the guy because they can't. He's got connections and information beyond reason. In fact, you could say he's kept Putin from complete megalomania, so he's done the country/world a favour. They would have moved on him long ago if they were able to. They also abandoned direct mayoral elections - no doubt knowing how unpopular he is and that he would actually be voted out if Muscovites had the chance.That would have meant loss of face for all concerned, and that's the last thing a Russian man wants. He is a cancer, and represents everything that's wrong with this country. There's a rumour he's got the big C himself. What goes around...

How much money is the mayor supposed to make from this new highway? At least, how much will be reported?

Off-hand, I can't think of another country in the world where a city mayor can cause a rift between a president and a premier.Where rule of law applies and governance is by entities that are separate and distinct constitutionally as well as practically, no city mayor has that kind of power. But in countries where personalities are all-important and constitutional stipulations serve more as window-dressing, the opposite might apply. In which case the root cause of the matter is to be solved neither by making peace with nor by eliminating ("liquidating", I think, was the traditionally favoured term in Russia, was it not?) inconvenient personalities, but by allowing the rule of law, based on the country's constitutional requirements, to run its course.

Marzipan6 I am sure you know that Moscow is not just any other city! There is only one Moscow, one Red Sqauare in the World. Moscow is powerful. Moscow speeks [Govorit Moskva]! Now, Do you think that the Mayor of New York, Mr. Bloomberg has no influence over how things are run in Washington or over in Wall Street? At any case, we agree that his mayor is toxic and divisive and that he must go but you see only bad things when it comes to Russia and Russians.