MOSCOW, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov is refusing to resign early from his job, the Moscow Times reported Monday.
Luzhkov, who has the status of a regional governor turned down the opportunity to leave his office ahead of schedule and seek President Vladimir Putin's endorsement to his job, thereby shunning a chance to show his loyalty to the Kremlin, the Moscow Times said.
A new law that scraps popular gubernatorial elections from Jan. 1, 2005 in favor of a system where the president nominates candidates to regional legislatures for their confirmation also allows popularly elected incumbents to step down early and seek Putin's nomination in order to "raise the issue of confidence" in them, the newspaper said.
However, Luzhkov said he would not step down to seek Putin's confirmation because he has "obligations before Muscovites," according to an interview published in the Moscow newspaper Izvestia on Friday according to the Moscow Times report.
"I don't think the president needs such a procedure in Moscow," Luzhkov said. He said he was not interested in a new term after his current term ends in 2007.
