Getting your player ready...
MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff was nominated Friday as Moscow’s next mayor, a move seen as bringing the capital’s sizable political and business interests under the direct control of the Kremlin.
The Moscow city legislature has to approve the nomination of Sergei Sobyanin, which is widely seen as a formality. It also locks Putin’s grip on power ahead of presidential elections in 2012. President Dmitry Medvedev put forward Sobyanin’s name.
