TODAY: Luzkhov ousted by Presidential decree; Mayor had apparently refused to resign. British Foreign Secretary highlights Magnitsky case; Iran threatens to sue over undelivered missiles; HIV reportedly more widespread than government acknowledges; Russian Louvre exhibition threatened by censorship.

After 18 years in power, Reuters reports that Moscow Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov has been dismissed by President Medvedev; a statement issued by the Kremlin said that the President had ‘lost trust’ in the mayor.  The presidential decree nominated a Luzhkov ally, First Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin, as the capital’s acting mayor.  Medvedev apparently has no plans to meet with the ousted politician who was described in one of today’s reports as ‘iconic’.  The news of Luzhkov’s dismissal followed his defiant statement ‘I am not going to resign of my own accord’; apparently a sign, some commentators believe, that the mayor had not managed to bargain for a new extra-governmental position he deemed worthy.  Luzhkov did not attend a meeting by City Hall which was chaired by his acting successor.  Medvedev and Putin have employed methods which are ‘direct imitation of Luzhkov’s management style that he introduced in 1992′, but with less success, says Alexei Pankin in a Moscow op-ed.  A commentator quoted by the FT stresses the historical conflict between the ruling elites of St Petersburg and Moscow as an ongoing factor in the power struggle: ‘It would be a big blow to the Moscow elites if the St Petersburgers were seen to be putting their own man in Moscow’.