Former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, who held the post for 18 years, died at 83 on Tuesday, Eurasia Diary reports citing TASS.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed the report, offering condolences to Luzhkov’s relatives and friends. "Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov has died. I’m sincerely sorry that this energetic and cheerful person, who headed Moscow in a challenging post-Soviet period and did a lot for the city and Muscovites, has passed away. I extend my condolences to the relatives and friends," Sobyanin wrote on his Twitter account.
Yury Luzhkov served as the mayor of Moscow in 1992-2010. Luzhkov was born in Moscow on September 21, 1936. In 1958, he graduated from the Gubkin Moscow Petrochemical & Gas Industry Institute. On June 6, 1992, Luzhkov, who held the position of Chairman of the Moscow city government, was appointed mayor by a decree of President Boris Yeltsin.