Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- In a no-surprise vote, the Moscow City legislature approved a handpicked Kremlin loyalist for the post of the new Moscow Mayor on Thursday.
The election was largely a formality as the 35-seat legislature is overwhelmingly dominated by the ruling United Russia party, and the candidate was earlier endorsed by both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
In a secret ballot, 32 Moscow city legislators voted for Sergei Sobyanin with just two voting against. One lawmaker was absent.
The Siberian-born Sobyanin, 52, who had for the past two and a half years worked as chief of staff for Putin, Russia's powerful prime minister, replaced a defiant and deeply-entrenched Yeltsin-era political veteran Yuri Luzhkov, who had ruled the Russian capital as his fiefdom for more than 18 years but who lately became increasingly at odds with the federal government.
CNN
