Gavriil Popov (politician)

Gavriil Kharitonovich Popov (Гаврии&#769;л Харито&#769;нович Попо&#769;в; born 31 October 1936) is a Russian politician and economist. He served as the mayor of Moscow from 1991 until he resigned in 1992.

Biography
Born to a Greek family in Moscow, Popov graduated Moscow Lomonosov University in political economy. He joined the Soviet Communist Party in 1959 and served as a secretary of the Komsomol committee of his university. Popov remained at the faculty of economics as a graduate student, then docent, and in 1978 became dean of the faculty. Yegor Gaidar, who would become Prime Minister of Russia, was one of his students.

During Perestroika Popov became heavily involved in politics. On June 12, 1991, he became the first democratically elected mayor of Moscow. In 1990, he left the CPSU, following Boris Yeltsin's lead at the 28th Congress. He resigned in 1992 and was replaced by the vice-mayor, Yury Luzhkov. In January 2010, he and Luzhkov published an article highly critical of Yegor Gaidar.

After 1992, Popov returned to academia. He is now president of the International University in Moscow.