Moscow Mayor, then acting mayor, then mayor-elect Sergei Sobyanin is now again just the Mayor of Moscow. Truthfully, he was all the time but Sergei Sobyanin was officially inaugurated into his old/new post on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. in Moscow’s Great Patriotic War Museum. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Election Commission Chairman Valentin Gorbunov officiated the ceremony.
President Putin (c) and Mayor Sobyanin (r).
Sobyanin had called for a snap election in June, a move that left opposition candidate almost no preparation time to mount campaign. Many observers said that the sudden election was to prove that Alexei Navalny who had announced his intention to run in a future election had no real political clout or backing.
The election was a surprise however as Sobyanin managed to gather just over 51 percent of the vote in Sunday’s ballot, almost throwing the election into a runoff between the two highest candidates.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill attended the ceremony.
A most city court threw out candidate Navalny’s demand for a recount and so the inauguration proceeded Thursday inside the Hall of Glory at the Great Patriotic War Museum on Poklonnaya Gora,
