Influential Moscow mayor backs Primakov for President

“Yes, he (Primakov) quite suits me,” Luzhkov said, in reply to questions on who he would support.

“Primakov is a man who can give our country peace, who possesses serious constructive goals and will not put up with lawlessness, something Russia is increasingly plunging into.”

Luzhkov, himself a Presidential hopeful, has so far not announced his candidature.

He admitted that he was in regular touch with the former prime minister at a personal and political level after President Boris Yeltsin sacked him.

“Any political system would like to have Yevgeny Primakov as an ally,” Luzkhov added.

Luzhkov has been trying to cobble together a Centrist coalition to wrest the maximum number of seats in the State Duma, the Lower House, at the cost of the Leftist bloc.

In an interview, Luzkhkov who has recently been target of the Yeltsin’s “family faction” — seen as a fallout of his presidential ambitions — launched a stinging attack on the Kremlin, demanding to “replace the top echelon of power” in Russia.

He also described the recently-launched investigation by the Federal Security Service (FSB) into the alleged financial corruption of a company headed by his wife, as a “political plot” motivated by the “family faction,” in collusion with his foe and business tycoon Boris Berezovsky.

He accused Yeltsin and his administration, of “political goal of staying in power as long as possible.”

“Those in power today are in quandary,” Luzkkov said, referring to Yeltsin.

“On the one hand, they want to be remembered as a democratic system, but on the other, they seek to influence national developments that are not in their favour.”