Tree times Yury Luzhkov can became a Russian President
Scenario 1. A Heir of Yeltsin.
To 1996, position of the first president of Russia was VERY BAD. His electoral rating was around 3%. In January, Yeltsin suffered a heart attack - 5 in life. It was clear, that he can’t rule the country more. Luzhkov, a popular mayor of Moscow, and old Yeltsin’s comrade, has been chosen as his successor in the upcoming elections. Whith the help of the Oligarch Media, Luzhkov defeated a Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, and took office as the second President of Russia.
Scenario 2. Opposition Leader turns Premier turns President.
1999 was not 1996. The miracle that allowed Yeltsin to be re-elected to a second term in 1996 did not happen in 1999.The Unity party, formed for the new prime minister and obvious successor, Vladimir Putin, lost the elections to the State Duma, taking second place.
The election was a triumph for the Fatherland-All Russia party, led by veteran Soviet diplomat Yevgeny Primakov and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.They were left-wing populists who, while not calling for a return to socialism, were extremely critical to the privatization and “liberal reforms” of the 1990s.And now this tandem was speeding towards victory.
Even Yeltsin's resignation on New Year's Eve and Putin's appointment as acting president changed nothing.In the presidential elections in March 2000, Putin lost to Primakov. Luzhkov was appointed prime minister.
By the end of Primakov’s first term in 2004, it became clear that the real N1 in the Kremlin was Prime Minister Luzhkov. But ordinary citizens did not care much about this. The market economy is finally working as it should. Oil prices have increased. Russia was hit by a consumer boom (which began back in 1999 - Yeltsin’s last year, but who remembered that!).Therefore, when in the presidential elections in 2008 Luzhkov won 73% of the votes, a significant part of which was falsified, no one paid attention to this.
Scenario 3. On the White Revolution wave.
Sudden death of the Russian Prime Minister and “National Leader” Vladimir Putin lead to a problems. In 2008 it was planned, that Putin will resigns as president only for 4 years - to circumvent the constitutional limitation on serving more than two CONSECUTIVE presidential terms. Putin would return in 2012, but now...
President Medvedev was not nearly as popular as Putin was. At first Kremlin tried to solve the problem traditionally - with falsifications. But ballot stuffing in the State Duma elections in December 2011 led to the largest protests in Moscow in the 21st century. Putin might have turned the situation in his favor. But Medvedev... decided to compromise with the protesters.
In the winter of 2012, the protest had its own presidential candidate. Suddenly, he became Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, whom Medvedev dismissed in 2010 with the mocking wording “due to loss of trust.” Since then, the former mayor has lived in London, and with the outbreak of protests he agreed to become a candidate in the elections from the united opposition.
Luzhkov was, to put it mildly, not a liberal. He was also a former member of United Russia. But he was popular enough to become a compromise alternative to Medvedev. In February 2012, the A Just Russia party nominated Luzhkov as its presidential candidate. The election campaign was very tough. But the results of the second round were clear. For the first time in Russian history, President changed in elections.
[well, Luzhkov himself died in 2019, last OTL events mentioned was 12 years ago... I HOPE THIS WON'T BE CATEGORIZED AS 'CURRENT POLITICS']