Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov dismissed

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired Moscow's powerful mayor Yuri Luzhkov, ending his 18-year rule, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the Russian news agency RiaNovosti. Yuri Luzhkov, 74, was removed because he had lost "the trust of the president of the Russian Federation,” a presidential decree said. In recent weeks Yuri Luzhkov - who has been in office since 1992 - had faced harsh criticism from the Kremlin. Anger rose when the mayor remained on vacation in Austria in August even if Moscow suffered through weeks of smog from nearby forest and peat-bog fires. The final blow apparently came when Luzhkov criticized Mededev's decision to suspend building a highway through a forest outside Moscow. Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalya Timakova was quoted as saying the Kremlin gave Luzhkov the chance to step down voluntarily. Russia's Constitution allows the President to fire the Moscow mayor and regional governors, and appoint successors without elections.