Gavriil Popov, the first post-Soviet mayor of Moscow, is returning to City Hall to advise Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on social issues, Interfax reported Monday.
A spokeswoman for the incumbent mayor did not specify his responsibilities, saying only “his experience would be welcome because he has … created the structure of city management.”
She added that Popov volunteered for the job and would work for free.
Popov, 74, served as mayor from June 1991 to June 1992, when he resigned, and Deputy Mayor Yury Luzhkov took over. Luzkhov served until September 2010, when he was abruptly fired by President Dmitry Medvedev and replaced with Sobyanin, then-chief of staff for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
For more than a decade, Popov has been president of Moscow's International University, which hired Luzhkov to head its urban management department shortly after his ouster.
