Luzhkov's no-show after court summons
Fallen mayor Yury Luzhkov has been summoned to court for bribery and electoral fraud but rather than face the legal system he helped to create, Luzhkov has failed to show.
The ex-mayor, along with local United Russia bosses, has been called to answer charges of fiddling election results in the 2009 Moscow Duma poll.
Opposition leader Nikolai Levichev, of A Just Russia, filed a suit with Moscow City Court calling for Luzhkov's indictment over bribery and abuse of his official position during the campaign last autumn.
"We have counted numerous instances of bribery, which have prevented the real will of voters in these elections being expressed, and we would like to see Luzhkov in court for these violations. We hope that now he is an ordinary citizen...he will be answerable before the law," Levichev told gzt.ru.
Ordinary or not, Luzhkov chose not to appear in court yesterday and is now set to be handed a summons for the next hearing on Oct. 25, Kommersant reported.
Turning tides
"He used to be no ordinary citizen and you would try to hand him a court summons," Levichev said but at this point, gzt.ru reported, democracy would grind to a halt. The ex mayor should remember that he is no longer anyone important and should behave humbly, Levichev warns. "There are sanctions for those who behave disrespectfully towards the court."
This is the first time that Luzhkov will have appeared in the dock.
"I am absolutely sure that a precedent is close this time...Luzhkov will soon appear personally in court, not his lawyers or the legal department of the mayor's office, but him personally," said Dmitry Orlov, director of the Agency for Political and Economic Reform. "This time the judge has set herself up to be very tough."
Prominent Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov says it is time for Luzhkov to experience all the charm of the judicial system he created in Moscow. "I think that both he and his wife will appear in the courts."
But Yabloko leader Sergey Mitrokhin has his doubts, and thinks that Luzhkov is unlikely to appear in court any time soon. "It simply can't be, not unless they bring him in handcuffs."
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