What’s the deal with Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov’s sudden thirst for demolition, eviction, and intimidation?  The neighbourhood of Rechnik, on the outskirts of Moscow, home to a number of houses varying in size and value, was subjected to a midnight demolition raid last month on Luzhkov’s orders, supposedly issued on grounds that the buildings had been constructed illegally.  And Dmitry Medvedev has now been brought in to oversee the question of whether or not residents’ rights were violated in the process.  Critics have accused Luzhkov of wanting to free up space for new buildings projects, and the artist colony of Sokol is now also said to be under threat.  You’d think that such a bizarre and arbitrary plot could only have been orchestrated by the Kremlin.

Apparently not.  The Economist reports that Luzhkov and the Kremlin hold long-standing issues of contention, and that the Rechnik debacle just gives the ruling powers even more ammunition against the Moscow mayor.