Moscow mayor leaves Russia amid doubts about fate

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov left the country on Sunday for what his spokesman said was a holiday in Austria, amid growing speculation that he could be dismissed from one of Russia's most powerful jobs.

Luzhkov, who has run the city of 10.5 million people since 1992, has faced unusually vocal criticism in the media in recent weeks, as well as street protests and a dressing down from President Dmitry Medvedev, fuelling talk he could be ousted.

Speculation over his fate caused the prices of Eurobonds issued by Bank of Moscow to fall to their lowest levels in almost two months on Wednesday. The bank, a top-10 Russian lender, is controlled by Luzhkov's city government.

Luzhkov's spokesman Sergei Tsoi told state-run RIA news agency the mayor planned to spend a week abroad on a break, where he would celebrate his 74th birthday on September 21.

RIA quoted an unidentified Kremlin source as saying Luzhkov had asked the Kremlin for the time off.

"He (Luzhkov) is going through a difficult period in his life and, understandably, needs time to think," said the source.

A close ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Luzhkov and his billionaire property mogul wife Yelena Baturina are viewed as having fallen out of favor. On Saturday Russia's state-linked NTV channel showed its second documentary in as many weeks alleging corruption by Luzhkov and his wife.

On Saturday Luzhkov hit back at critics: "It's a smear campaign, a smear campaign which is unfortunately organized on the orders from above, you can figure out for yourselves who gave the order," he told Reuters TV in Moscow.

A meeting between Luzhkov and Putin that media widely reported would be held this weekend was apparently scrapped, casting further doubt on the mayor's grip on power.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no such event was planned: "This theme (events surrounding Luzhkov) is not an issue on the Prime Minister's agenda," he said on Sunday.

For Medvedev, sacking the heavyweight Luzhkov would be one of the bolder moves of a presidency which both critics and fans say has brought more talk than action.

Reports have circulated for some time that Putin and Medvedev wanted to move Luzhkov but were holding back because of the difficulty in choosing a successor.

Far-right politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who heads the LDPR party, told Ekho Moskvy radio that Luzhkov would not return to Russia, describing his Austrian trip as a "form of escape."

Luzhkov's spokesman Tsoi dismissed this as "nonsense," telling RIA he was continuing his work from Austria.

(Additional reporting by Gleb Bryanski and Alexander Reshetnikov)