Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Moscow's former mayor has launched a stinging rebuke of the Russian president, just weeks after being unceremoniously dismissed from office by the Kremlin.
Speaking in an exclusive CNN interview, Yuri Luzhkov accused President Dmitry Medvedev of overseeing "calamities, terrorist acts, and bad harvests," during his period in power.
"When he fires or reshuffles officials, proposes projects on paper, those things are being taken quite skeptically," Luzhkov said. "Any initiative is good, but it must lead to actual results, which has not been happening so far".
CNN asked the Kremlin to react to Luzhkov's comments, but did not receive a response.
It's no secret the mayor and the president have been at odds, most recently over the Kremlin's decision to suspend work on a controversial road through a forest near Moscow.
Shortly before being dismissed last month, the 76-year-old mayor -- a veteran of Russian politics -- wrote a newspaper article slamming the decision, widely seen as undermining the president's authority.
In his interview with CNN, Luzhkov said Wednesday that he believed he was fired to enable the Kremlin to tighten its grip on power.
CNN
